Like I lot of people , I have more or less forgotten about the Ford Foundation...It used to get a lot of press and I remember it was involved in Public Television and the development of such shows as "Sesame Street," but I have no clear idea what it does, these days.
Now dwarfed by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, apparently it is no longer connected to the Ford family and has been roundly criticized both on the left and on the right for a lot of its actions.
The Wikipedia article I consulted was sort of muddled I thought. This is from a later part of it:
In 2005, Michigan Attorney General Mike Cox began a probe of the foundation. Though the Ford Foundation is headquartered in New York City, it is chartered in Michigan, giving the state some jurisdiction, although many foundations are chartered in states different from where they are headquartered. Cox focused on its governance, potential conflicts of interest among board members, and what he viewed as its poor record of giving to charities in Michigan considering its origins. Between 1998 and 2002, the Ford Foundation gave Michigan charities about $2.5 million per year, far less than many other charities its size. The foundation countered that an extensive review and report by the Gaither Study Committee in 1949 had recommended that the foundation broaden its scope beyond Michigan to national and international grant-making. The report was fully endorsed by Ford's board, and the trustees subsequently voted to move the foundation to New York in 1953.[16] Cox hoped that his probe would prod the foundation into giving more to Michigan charities, and indeed it was met with some success.[17][18]
In 2010, the foundation granted $16.4 million (USD) to foundations throughout the world that advocate legalization of abortion or provide abortion services, including Planned Parenthood Federation of America, and International Planned Parenthood Foundation. In 2010, Cecile Richards, president of Planned Parenthood Federation of America was elected to Ford Foundation's board of trustees. [19]
The foundation’s partnership with the New Israel Fund, which began in 2003, was frequently criticised regarding its choice of mostly liberal grantees and causes. This criticism came to light after the 2001 Durban Conference, where some NGOs funded by the foundation backed resolutions equating Israeli policies as apartheid, and later, against those groups which support the delegitimization of Israel. In response, the foundation adopted stricter criteria for funding.[20]
Incidentally, this building got an award for architecture and supposedly for its horticultural Atrium that is open to the public....I saw no sign of that at all and the building is just sort of tucked away on a block not far from the United Nations. It seems sort of eerily quiet in the middle of the day.
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