Ford offers $80 million to fight global authoritarianism
The Ford Foundation will commit $80 million over the next five years to work that strengthens nonprofits fighting against authoritarian regimes.
Such groups are struggling in the face of governments that are restricting the right to protest, hobbling nonprofit organizations with an avalanche of bureaucratic requirements meant to stymie their effectiveness, and threatening the safety of people who work for such groups, Helena Hofbauer Balmori, director of Ford’s international civic engagement and government work and director of the new grant-making effort, announced Tuesday.
“There is a rise in authoritarian tendencies or authoritarian governments,” she said. “The conditions under which social movements and civil-society organizations operate are becoming harder.”
The Ford commitment, called Weaving Resilience, will not provide grants to individual nonprofits. Instead, it will support virtual “hubs” in 12 countries: Brazil, Colombia, Costa Rica, Indonesia, Kenya, Lebanon, Mexico, Nigeria, Peru, South Africa, Tanzania, and Uganda, where civil-society groups can receive help to make their organizations stronger.
The hubs will provide consulting for groups in their regions that need a guide to navigate labyrinthine regulatory and tax systems, draw up plans and publicize their work, and protect against physical and online threats to workers and their families.
The idea behind the grants is that supporting single nonprofits has no lasting impact and does little to help a broad array of organizations. Through Weaving Resilience, Ford wants to strengthen the civil-society “ecosystem” and foster the development of hundreds of vital organizations.
“There is never a shortfall of interventions on the side of foundations doing institutional strengthening efforts but that all of...