Development Co‑operation Profiles: Ford Foundation
Table of contents
Ford Foundation is an independent organisation headquartered in New York, United States. It has 10 regional offices across Africa, Asia, Latin America, and the Middle East.
This foundation works to address inequality and build a future grounded in justice. For more than 85 years, it has supported activities on social change worldwide, guided by its mission to strengthen democratic values, reduce poverty and injustice, promote international co-operation, and advance human achievement.
This profile presents verified data on development assistance allocations. See the Development Co-operation Profiles.
Ford Foundation provided USD 333.6 million for development in 2024 through its cross-border funding. Compared to 2023, this amount represents an increase of 8.4% in real terms. Grants represented 100% of Ford Foundation’s gross disbursements.
Ford Foundation provided almost all of its development finance bilaterally in 2024. Gross bilateral development finance was 98.9% of total disbursements. From this amount, 0.7% was channelled through multilateral organisations (earmarked contributions).
In 2024, the Ford Foundation channelled its bilateral development finance mostly through non-governmental organisations (USD 271.9 million), universities, research institutes or think tanks (USD 43.3 million) and public-private partnerships and private sector (USD 14.7 million).
In 2024, Ford Foundation provided USD 5.8 million to the multilateral system. Of this, USD 3.6 million was core multilateral ODA (1.1% of total ODA), while USD 2.2 million was non-core contributions earmarked for a specific country, region, theme or purpose. 49% of total development finance was channelled through United Nations (UN) organisations and UN funds and programmes.
The UN system received USD 2.9 million from the Ford Foundation in 2024. The most significant UN recipients were UN Women (USD 1.8 million), the UN Economic and Social Commission for Western Asia (ESCWA) (USD 400 thousand) and the UN Secretariat (USD 400 thousand).
In 2024, civil society organisations (CSOs) received USD 271.9 million of the Ford Foundation’s gross bilateral finance, of which 48% was directed to developing country-based CSOs. Overall, 63.2% of total bilateral development finance was allocated to CSOs as core support, while 18.3% was earmarked to specific projects or programmes. From 2023 to 2024, the combined core and earmarked contributions for CSOs decreased as a share of bilateral philanthropic development finance, from 85% to 81.5%.
Learn more about the DAC Recommendation on Enabling Civil Society in Development Co-operation and Humanitarian Aid.
In 2024, Ford Foundation’s development finance was primarily focused on Latin America and the Caribbean and Africa. USD 80.3 million was allocated to Latin America and the Caribbean and USD 74.4 million to Africa, accounting respectively for 24.1% and 22.3% of gross bilateral development finance. A sum of USD 124.8 million (37.4%) was unallocated by region, mainly including multi-regional programmes, core support and research grants.
In 2024, 38.1% of gross development finance went to the top 10 recipients, most notably Brazil receiving its largest share (6.9%).
Least developed countries (LDCs) received USD 13.4 million (4%) of Ford Foundation’s gross disbursements in 2024. Ford Foundation allocated the highest share (31.6%) of its bilateral development finance to upper middle-income countries in 2024, followed by lower middle-income countries (16.1%), noting that USD 162.6 million (49.3%) was unallocated by income group.
Ford Foundation allocated USD 8.9 million of its development finance to land-locked developing countries in 2024, and USD 2.5 million to small island developing states (SIDS) in 2024. The main SIDS recipients are Haiti, Cuba and Jamaica.
Support to contexts with high and extreme fragility reached USD 42.4 million in 2024, representing 12.7% of Ford Foundation’s bilateral development finance. Of this, contexts with extremely fragility received a sum of USD 1.2 million.
Learn more about the OECD States of Fragility platform.
In 2024, the largest allocations (79.2% of bilateral contributions) by Ford Foundation went to social infrastructure and services, with a strong focus on support to government and civil society (USD 213.9 million). The second largest allocation was multi-sector (USD 36.5 million), focusing on general environment protection (USD 21.3 million). This was followed by economic infrastructure and services (USD 16.5 million).
In the period 2023-2024, Ford Foundation committed 23.7% of screened bilateral allocable development finance to gender equality and women’s empowerment, compared to 27.8% in 2021-2022 and a private philanthropic average of 33.2% in 2023-2024. This is equal to USD 68.7 million of screened bilateral allocable contributions in support of gender equality on average per year. In addition:
The share of screened bilateral allocable contributions committed to gender equality and women’s empowerment as a principal objective was 19.3% in 2023-2024, compared with the private philanthropic average of 11.9%.
Ford Foundation screens all bilateral allocable contributions activities against the DAC gender equality policy marker (100% in 2023-2024).
Ford Foundation committed USD 20.9 million of contributions to end violence against women and girls and USD 18.9 million to support women’s rights organisations and movements, and government institutions on average per year in 2023-2024.
Learn more about the DAC Recommendation on Gender Equality and the Empowerment of All Women and Girls in Development Co-operation and Humanitarian Assistance and the DAC Recommendation on Ending Sexual Exploitation in Development Co-operation.
In 2023-2024, Ford Foundation committed 8.7% of its total bilateral allocable contributions (USD 25.2 million) in support of the environment, down from 15% in 2021-2022. The private philanthropic average was 12.4%. In addition:
7.8% of total bilateral allocable contributions (USD 22.7 million) focused on climate change overall (the private philanthropic average was 12.9%), down from 10% in 2021-2022. Ford Foundation had a greater focus on adaptation (5.3%) than on mitigation (2.9%) in 2023-2024.
2.9% of screened bilateral allocable contributions (USD 8.3 million) focused on biodiversity overall (the private philanthropic average was 4.3%), down from 10.3% in 2021-2022.
Learn more about the DAC Declaration on Aligning Development Co-operation with the Goals of the Paris Agreement on Climate Change.
In 2024, Ford Foundation committed the largest shares of its contributions to SDG 16 (peace, justice and strong institutions), SDG 10 (reduced inequalities) and SDG 5 (gender equality) of the United Nations 2030 Agenda.
Access the full list of providers at this link: Development Co-operation Profiles.
Official website: https://www.fordfoundation.org.
The methodological notes provide further details on the definitions and statistical methodologies applied, including core and earmarked contributions to multilateral organisations, channels of delivery, bilateral unspecified/unallocated/allocable development finance, the gender equality policy marker, and the environment markers.
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