Responding to financial crisis, Ford Foundation leads group of foundations increasing support to nonprofits in need

“The week after the U.S. economy shut down in March, Darren Walker, the president of the Ford Foundation, fielded a stream of phone calls from the heads of dozens of organizations that Ford supports,” write James B. Stewart and Nicholas Kulish in Wednesday’s (6/10) New York Times. “ ‘There was a sense of desperation and panic,’ … Mr. Walker said. ‘There’s never been such an existential challenge to the future of the nonprofit sector.’ In 2019, the Ford Foundation handed out $520 million in grants. Mr. Walker quickly realized that was not going to be anywhere near enough in this crisis-engulfed year…. The Ford Foundation … will borrow $1 billion so that it can substantially increase the amount of money it distributes. To raise the money, the foundation … is preparing to issue a combination of 30- and 50-year bonds…. Four other leading charitable foundations … will join with Ford and increase their giving by at least $725 million…. The four other foundations are … the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation; the W.K. Kellogg Foundation; the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation; and the Doris Duke Charitable Foundation.”