Ford Foundation Folds 19 Programs Into Seven. Here Is Where Your Work Lands, and What Happens If It Doesn't.
November 1, 2026 · 8 min read
Granted Research Team · Editorial policy
In September, the Ford Foundation said it would split its program staff into three units in January 2027. One would design the new strategy, one would keep current grants running, and one would plan exits for grantees that don't fit what comes next. We covered that structure in Ford Foundation Just Created a Department Whose Job Is Ending Grants. The open question then was what the new strategy would actually contain.
On October 22, 2026, the foundation answered most of it. President Heather Gerken released How We Meet This Moment, Ford's first strategic refresh in more than a decade and its biggest change in direction since Darren Walker reorganized the foundation around inequality in 2014–2015. The mission now centers on "protecting and strengthening democratic values, fundamental freedoms and inclusive economies" worldwide. Grantmaking will be organized into seven funding areas.
For the roughly 2,300 organizations Ford funds, and the many more that hope to join them, the most important number in the announcement is not the endowment. It is the change from 19 program areas to seven.
The seven areas
Ford's official names for the seven funding areas, as published:
- Protecting Democratic Governance and the Rule of Law
- Building Just and Inclusive Economies
- Defending Information as a Public Good
- Securing Safety, Justice, and Fairness
- Accelerating Gender Equality
- Fostering Global Cooperation
- Advancing Racial Justice
The announcement included several further commitments:
- A dedicated racial justice fund with its own staff, "integrated across the foundation's entire grantmaking portfolio." No dollar figure has been released.
- Expanded gender equality work covering "the full range of reproductive health care."
- Information work intended to influence how digital tools are built, deployed, and overseen. That is a governance-of-technology mandate, not just support for journalism.
- A new office of innovation under Noorain Khan, Ford's first chief innovation officer, meant to support the broader sector.
The Chronicle of Philanthropy reported that disability rights, climate, the arts, and immigration will be absorbed into the new categories instead of keeping stand-alone programs. Those four fields should read this announcement most closely.
The money: about $700 million in 2027, plus a caveat
A Ford spokesperson told the Associated Press the foundation expects to move about $700 million in grants in 2027, and that the figure "could increase based on new needs and endowment growth." Ford's endowment is now about $18 billion, up from about $13 billion in 2019.
Read that number against Ford's recent run rate. The NonProfit Times, citing Ford's FY2025 filings, reported average annual grantmaking and other gifts of about $973 million across roughly 2,000 grantees. Those figures measure different things. The NPT number includes "other gifts" and possibly multiyear commitments booked up front, and the $700 million is a spokesperson's estimate, not a budget. So it would be wrong to report a $273 million cut. Still, nothing in the announcement suggests a 2027 grants budget dramatically above recent levels. A transition year is the wrong time to assume your renewal is safe because the endowment grew.
Ford also spent heavily before the reorganization. Gerken used presidential discretionary funds to double the immigration budget this year, and Ford committed $80 million in 2026 to nonprofits working to protect election results. That fits the pattern of elevated democracy spending across major foundations. Open Society Foundations pledged $300 million for democracy defense in May.
What changes in how Ford grants
Three changes will affect grantees more than the program names.
Bigger, longer, more flexible grants. Ford says it will increase both the number and size of multiyear grants and expand general operating support. Gerken told the Chronicle that program officers currently carry more grants than their peers at other foundations: "Freeing up more time for our program officers to engage in strategy work is going to be really important going forward."
The implication is plain. Fewer, larger grants means a smaller portfolio. If each officer manages fewer relationships, some small project grants, the five-figure kind that kept many grassroots groups in the Ford network, will not continue in their current form.
BUILD is over. Ford has ended Building Institutions and Networks (BUILD), its flagship program of five-year, flexible institutional support. Executive vice president for programs Nick Turner said BUILD's principles are being folded into all grantmaking. Current BUILD grantees should treat that as a statement of philosophy, not a renewal path. The program's application track, cohort structure, and dedicated budget line are gone.
Some areas will be sunset, and Ford hasn't said which. Turner told the AP it is "too early to say" which fields will be wound down, and pledged that Ford would exit "with care." According to the Chronicle, grantees outside the new vision will see their support wound down over roughly 14 months, while strategies are finalized through three-month "sprints." The first sprint covers the rule of law.
The timeline
| When | What |
|---|---|
| October 22, 2026 | Seven funding areas published |
| Late 2026 | Strategy sprints begin (rule of law first) |
| January 2027 | Program staff move into three units: strategy design, transitional grantmaking, responsible sunsetting |
| Throughout 2027 | Area strategies roll out in stages |
| ~14 months from January | Wind-down of support for work outside the new areas |
| 2028 | New strategy fully operating |
Gerken has said repeatedly that pausing grantmaking during the transition would be a serious mistake. The "transitional grantmaking" unit exists to keep money moving. Its job, though, is maintaining existing relationships, not building new ones. New applicants should expect few doors in 2027 until each area's strategy is published.
Mapping your work onto the seven areas
The useful exercise for any current or prospective grantee is to place your organization in one of the seven areas, ideally two, before Ford's own staff does it for you.
Clear fits. Voting rights and election administration, courts and legal defense, anti-corruption work, worker power and economic mobility, public-interest media and tech accountability, policing and criminal legal reform, reproductive health, and international human rights each map onto one area.
Absorbed fields. If you work in disability rights, climate, arts and culture, or immigration, there is no area with your name on it. Your case has to be made through one of the seven:
- Immigration most naturally sits under Democratic Governance and the Rule of Law (due process, legal representation) or Safety, Justice, and Fairness (detention, enforcement). Gerken doubling the immigration budget this year suggests the field has an advocate at the top. Programs still need a home inside the structure.
- Climate work that survives will likely be framed as Just and Inclusive Economies (energy transition, just transition for workers) or Global Cooperation (multilateral climate finance).
- Arts and culture faces the hardest translation. Consultant Kris Putnam-Walkerly warned the Chronicle that arts and immigration "could get lost" in consolidation. Arts groups with a civic-participation, free-expression, or information-ecosystem angle should lead with it. Groups whose case rests purely on artistic excellence should start diversifying now.
- Disability rights can fit under several areas: rights and rule of law, inclusive economies, gender and racial justice through intersectional framing. Disability Rights Fund's Connie Laurin-Bowie summarized the uncertainty: "The first elements are in place at Ford. What comes next is a real open question."
International grantees. Ford keeps 10 overseas offices. "Fostering Global Cooperation" is the newest-sounding area and the least defined. Regional grantees should ask their program officer directly whether their work will be counted under Global Cooperation or under the thematic areas as they apply in their region. The answer determines who decides your renewal.
What to do in the next 90 days
1. Ask your program officer one question: which unit will hold my grant in January? Ford says assignments will be based on staff skill sets, not grantees' future prospects. Even so, a grant held by the transitional grantmaking unit and a grant held by the sunsetting unit lead to very different 2028s. You are entitled to ask.
2. Rewrite your theory of change in Ford's language. The organizing idea is "preconditions for thriving democracies." Gerken argues that every other value Ford supports depends on the rule of law and functioning elections. A housing group, a museum, or a climate organization that can show how its work keeps democratic institutions functioning is speaking the new strategy's language. One that can't will have a harder time.
3. If you are in BUILD, plan a funding bridge. Model your budget assuming the BUILD-equivalent dollars arrive at the end of your current term as a tie-off grant, not a renewal. Use Ford's commitment to "responsible exits" to negotiate the length and size of that final grant. That negotiation goes better 12 months out than three.
4. Diversify toward funders moving the same direction. Ford's shift will move other funders. "As Ford goes, so go so many others in the foundational world," Center for American Progress president Patrick Gaspard told the Chronicle. Democracy and rule-of-law funding is growing at MacArthur, OSF, and pooled funds. Rebuilding a pipeline usually takes 12–18 months, so start now.
5. If you are a prospective grantee, watch the sprint outputs. Each of the seven area strategies will be published during 2027. The rule-of-law strategy comes first. Ford has no open application, so the realistic way in is to be known to the area's new leadership when its strategy goes live. Look for convenings, field scans, and requests for input during the sprints.
The bigger picture
Ford's refresh comes at a hostile moment for large progressive foundations. The administration has withheld funds from nonprofits and threatened investigations. In 2021, as a Senate candidate, JD Vance called Ford and peer foundations "cancers on American society." In that climate, Ford's decision to say plainly that it stands by LGBTQ causes, racial justice, and reproductive health, and to anchor the strategy in the 1950 Gaither Report, is a choice to stay visible rather than retreat. An American Enterprise Institute scholar quoted by the Chronicle called the Gaither framing a "master stroke" for answering conservative criticism of Ford's direction.
For grantees, the takeaway is simpler. Ford is narrowing to seven areas, giving fewer and larger grants on longer terms, and has scheduled the endings. The organizations that come through it well will be the ones that find out which unit holds their grant in January, describe their work in the seven-area language, and line up replacement funding before the sunsetting unit is assigned to them.
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