The Triumph of Philanthropy

A new guide to a $700 billion industry

Inside the Ford Foundation Building in midtown Manhattan, 2015. Photo: Gigi Altarejos

By Scott Sherman

First published April 2, 2018 at laphamsquarterly.org.

I n 2006 I chronicled an ugly clash between the Ford Foundation and leading pro-Israel organizations, which had accused Ford of funding Palestinian NGOs guilty of anti-Semitic behavior. It was a ferocious attack on a leading foundation, and it succeeded. Ford’s critics, with assistance from the Wall Street Journal and the New York Sun, forced it to rewrite its standard grant-agreement letter. This prompted a furious reply from the ACLU, the Drug Policy Alliance, and provosts at leading universities, all of whom argued that the new language was vague and potentially injurious to all of Ford’s grantees. But the ACLU and their allies possessed little leverage, while Ford had a pistol to its head. The problematic language remains in the letter to this day.

It was my first article about a major foundation, and the learning curve was steep. I knew little about the rules and habits of the nonprofit world, and I had few road maps to guide me. As I proceeded with my reporting, the questions kept piling up: Why was it so difficult to locate books and articles about the Ford Foundation? Why was Ford’s annual “payout” — the money it gives to grantees — so small, just 5 percent of its endowment…