The Ford Foundation was, for much of its history, the largest foundation in the United States, though it has been passed in recent years. As of December 2014, it possessed assets of $12.5 billion.⁴

The Ford Foundation was created to preserve family control of Ford Motor. The car company’s shares were divided into two classes: non-voting Class A stock, which amounted to 95 percent of all stock, and voting Class B stock, which accounted for the remaining five percent. The Class A stock would be willed to the Ford Foundation, while the Class B stock would be retained by the Ford family to ensure family control of Ford Motor Company. The foundation stayed small until after Henry Ford’s death in 1947, after which, by the term of Ford’s will, the foundation was endowed with hundreds of millions in Ford stock. ⁴

Henry Ford, according to historian William Greenleaf, donated $37.6 million to charity during his lifetime, with his favorite causes being Greenfield Village and the Henry Ford Museum in Dearborn, Michigan and the Henry Ford Hospital (now the Henry Ford Health System) in Detroit.⁵ But in 1948, while Henry Ford’s will was still in probate, his grandson Henry Ford II signed a document stating that the Ford family would exercise no more influence on the foundation than any other board member would. In 1952 Henry Ford II told the Cox Committee, a House committee investigating foundations, that this decision was made because “this trust was so large that our family should not have control of it.”⁶

Henry Ford II regretted this decision for the rest of his life. He was chairman of the board of the Ford Foundation from 1948-1956, and a trustee until 1977, when he resigned over the foundation’s anti-capitalist drift. “In effect, the foundation is a creature of capitalism,” Ford wrote in his resignation letter, “a statement that, I’m sure, would be shocking to many professional staff people in the field of philanthropy . . . I’m just suggesting to the trustees and the staff that the system that makes the foundation possible is very much worth preserving.”⁷

The Ford Foundation, freed from any restrictions on how its vast wealth should be spent, has gone through several phases in its spending. In 1956, after sales of Ford Motor stock added $550 million to its endowment, the foundation awarded $198 million to private hospitals, $90 million to private medical schools, and $260 million to private liberal arts colleges to raise faculty salaries. “The purpose of the huge giveaway was unabashedly political,” note historians Leonard Silk and Mark Silk. “The hospital grants were deliberately arranged so that there would be some Ford money flowing into every Congressional district.”⁸

Activism and the Bundy Era

The Gray Areas Program (1959-1965)

Seeking to reduce poverty in what Ford Foundation program officer and future Johnson administration official Paul Ylvisaker called the “gray area” between central business district and suburb, the Ford Foundation funded inner city poverty-fighting programs from 1960 onwards. A review of Gray Areas programs by Peter Marria and Martin Rein commissioned by Ford and published in 1973 found that most were modestly successful, although Ford’s programs in Philadelphia never got off the ground and the ones in New York directly subsidized militancy against landlords and other businesses.⁹  The program’s lasting result, however, was in inspiring the Johnson administration’s War On Poverty, with Ford Foundation program officers frequently consulting with Johnson administration planners on programs that could be devised.¹⁰  In Maximum Feasible Misunderstanding, the late U.S. Senator Daniel Patrick Moynihan (D-N.Y.) credits the Gray Areas program with being the intellectual inspiration for the Job Corps, Head Start, and Volunteers in Service to America (now part of AmeriCorps).¹¹

Population Control

Ford frequently collaborated with the Rockefeller Foundation, both in funding population-control programs and in lobbying for more money on population control after these programs were taken over by national and international agencies from 1965 onwards. The best estimates are that Ford spent $150 million on birth control programs between 1958-1983, with funding peaking at $25 million in 1969.¹²

Legal Education

Ford money created the “public interest” law movement, with tens of millions going to organizations supporting minorities (such as the Mexican American Legal Defense and Education Fund or MALDEF) as well as environmental legal groups such as the Environmental Defense Fund and Earthjustice. Cato Institute fellow Walter Olson refers to Ford as “the Johnny Appleseed of litigation liberalism” and notes that funding activist lawyers has been a key theme of Ford’s grantmaking for decades.¹³

For over half a century, the Ford Foundation has operated behind the scenes to flip American law schools into operatives of 1960s-style “social change.” Other large organizations like Carnegie, Open Society, and MacArthur have followed the Ford Foundation’s path, and the result can be seen in landmark Supreme Court decisions, the abundance of politicized “legal clinics” across college universities, and the courts’ growing willingness to defer to “international law.”¹⁶ encouraged the Ocean Hill-Brownsville school district in New York City and two other districts to implement “community control,” where parents in the district were given more power over local schools. Unfortunately, the mostly African-American parents in Ocean Hill-Brownsville wanted the power to fire members of the United Federation of Teachers, who were mostly white. Every time the parents’ council tried to “fire” teachers, the teachers struck, the third time for five weeks. Ultimately, in November 1968, Mayor John Lindsay (R, later D) abolished the parental councils. But the result was that UFT president Albert Shanker, who became president of the American Federation of Teachers, was an implacable foe of school choice for the next 30 years.¹⁷

After the Patman Committee

The “community control” debacle and other political excesses led to an investigation of Ford and other foundations by an investigative committee of the House of Representatives in February 1969 led by Rep. Wright Patman (D-Texas). The Senate (but not the House) passed a bill calling for an elimination of most of the ability of foundations to fund political activity as well as a 40-year term limit on foundations. Washington Post reporters Laurence Stern and Richard Harwood noted that under the Senate’s proposal, “perhaps 70 percent of Ford’s present activities in the field of  ‘national affairs’ and ‘social development’ would be outlawed, leaving the foundation little to do with its wealth but hand it out to symphony orchestras, Community Chests, and Ivy League colleges.”¹⁸

The Tax Reform Act of 1969 ultimately imposed a payout requirement on foundations and some restrictions on foundation support of political activity. Responding to the changes, the Ford Foundation shifted from funding large-scale welfare reform programs to smaller ones. It was a leading advocate of “individual development accounts,” which encourage low-income households to save by matching funds saved by families below a given income threshold. Ford intended to use this program as a pilot scheme for a universal, government-funded child allowance.²⁰

Ford also supported the World Conference Against Racism, providing grants for several organizations to attend this conference. The conference, held in Durban, South Africa in August and September 2001, is best known for a debate over a clause that equated Zionism with racism.²⁴

Activities since 2000’s

In December 2024, the Washington Examiner released a story about an October 2024 report from government agency Government Accountability Office (GAO) which alleged that between 2013 and 2021 the People’s Republic of China (PRC) spent roughly $679 billion in up to 165 countries due to a “global infrastructure initiative” that would allow it to “leverage debt against developing countries to extract political concessions and given the Chinese Communist Party a massive global telecommunications foothold.” ²⁵ A separate story by the Washington Examiner also alleged that the Ford Foundation, between 2020 and 2023, has spent over $10 million in grants towards PRC and Chinese Communist Party (CCP)-affiliated entities in the development of said global initiative. A spokesperson for the Ford Foundation claimed such grants paid were meant to help the Ford Foundation “ensure that China’s impacts in the world are equitable…[and] help advance this aim by supporting research and knowledge sharing that promote equitable and sustainable investment and development finance practices.” ²⁵ One donation of $150,000 grant in 2020 was to the Beijing Normal University for its “Belt and Road School, ” a local initiative that the GAO’s 2024 report alleged was meant to increase “the foreign presence of Chinese state firms, create new markets for PRC goods, and secure access to strategic commodities for the PRC’s economic development. The BRI is considered by some observers to pose a significant challenge to U.S. economic, political and security interests around the world.” ²⁵

Between 2022 and 2024, the Ford Foundation gave $650,000 to As You Sow, a left-of-center advocacy organization that engages in shareholder action to pressure companies to adopt various left-of-center positions under the banner of environmental, social, and governance (ESG) practices. ²⁶

According to a May 2025 Wall Street Journal article, the Ford Foundation was one of several nonprofit organizations informally partnering to discuss efforts in preventing their tax-exempt statuses from allegedly being revoked by the Second Trump Administration. Being convened by the MacArthur Foundation, the “coalition” also consists of the Gates Foundation as well as the Charles Koch Foundation and the Council on Foundations. ²⁷

As of September 2025, the Ford Foundation was listed as one of several organizations, including the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation and the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation, to fund a new media-based initiative started by the Public Media Co. intended to provide $100 million towards roughly 1,600 funding local radio station and media groups following the National Public Radio (NPR) and the Public Broadcasting Service (PBS) losing federal funding earlier in the year. ²⁸

On October 28, 2025, Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-IA) sent letters to the Ford Foundation, the Rockefeller Brothers Fund and the Gates Foundation requesting to know how they were complying with national tax laws amid allegations that all three had previously provided funding to organizations and other entities with reported connections to the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) and affiliates. Each letter argued that “to maintain tax exempt status, an organization’s activities must be charitable in nature and may not directly support or promote the interests of a foreign government…I am writing today to ask you whether these reports are true or not and, if true, how your organization’s conduct comports with 501(c)(3) requirements.” ³¹

“Our money was made in Detroit,” Walker told Quicken Loans billionaire Dan Gilbert in a 2016 interview at the Detroit Institute of Arts. “We owe this city. It wasn’t a hard decision.”³¹

Hudson Institute fellow William Schambra warned in a 2014 Chronicle of Philanthropy opinion piece that the deal could set a dangerous precedent. “Some of America’s leading foundations are now deeply engaged in Detroit politics, ‘giving’ and ‘taking’ like any municipal power broker,” Schambra wrote, “meeting requests they never before would have considered, and making demands they never would have dared. Although they deny they are setting precedents, they clearly are. They may live to regret them.”³⁴

As part of this refocus, the Ford Foundation announced in 2016 that it would lead a six-year effort to raise $100 million for the Movement for Black Lives, an organization designed to receive grants for groups involved in the Black Lives Matter movement. Allies of the Ford Foundation in this effort are the foundations associated with liberal billionaire George Soros, the NoVo Foundation, and the Hill-Snowden Foundation.³⁶

Funding Protests

The foundation has funded organizations closely associated with violent activists, such as the Southern Vision Alliance, which has ties to Charlotte Uprising, a group that led protests at the 2020 Republican National Convention where police officers were assaulted. ⁴¹ Additionally, the foundation has donated to the Southern Coalition for Social Justice, a legal group that defends violent activists. ^{46 47}

Darren Walker was the previous president of the Ford Foundation, serving in the role starting in 2013 through 2025. In July 2025, it was announced that Gerken would become the 11th president of the Foundation in November of that year. ⁴⁶ Prior to Ford, Walker was vice president of the Rockefeller Foundation, was the COO of Harlam-based development group Abyssinian Development Corporation, and previously worked in international law and finance at both Cleary Gottlieb Steen & Hamilton and UBS. As of 2025 he is on the board of Ralph Lauren, PepsiCo, the Obama Foundation, and Bloomberg Inc. He is also listed as a member of the Council on Foreign Relations (CFR). ^{48 50}

In April 2025, Richard R. Verma was appointed to the board of trustees. Verma previously served as the ambassador and United States deputy secretary of state for management and resources, and was formerly a Ford Foundation trustee from 2022 to 2023. Verma is also expected to be appointed as chief administrative officer of the company Mastercard in May 2025 (where he previously worked as general counsel and head of global public policy). Prior to this, he was the U.S. ambassador to India from 2014-2017, was the assistant secretary of State for Legislative Affairs at the US Department of State and worked as a national security advisor to former late US Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV). ⁵¹

Other Leadership Positions

On January 14, 2026, Nicholas Turner was announced to being appointed the executive vice president for programs of the Ford Foundation, while taking up the role officially in May 2026. Turner is president and director of the Vera Institute of Justice (VIJ), serving in the role since 2013. Prior to Vera, Turner was a managing director at The Rockefeller Foundation as well as an attorney and associate for the Paul, Weiss, Rifkind, Wharton & Garrison law firm in New York City. In addition, he worked as a judicial clerk for the late Honorable Jack B. Weinstein, the United States District Judge for Brooklyn as well as a staffer for the Washington D.C-based community advocacy group Sasha Bruce Youthwork. ⁵²

1. Ford Foundation, Return of Private Foundation (Form 990-PF), 2014 https://ffcontentgrantsviz.blob.core.windows.net/media/2844/2014-990-pf-final.pdf
2. Heather Mac Donald, “The Billions of Dollars That Made Things Worse,” City Journal, Autumn 1996, https://www.city-journal.org/html/billions-dollars-made-things-worse-12179.html.
3. “Challenging inequality,” http://www.fordfoundation.org/work/challenginginequality.
4. William Greenleaf, From These Beginnings:  The Early Philanthropy of Henry and Edsel Ford, 1911-1936 (Detroit:  Wayne State University Press, 1964), 185.
5. William Greenleaf, From These Beginnings:  The Early Philanthropy of Henry and Edsel Ford, 1911-1936, 7.
6. Martin Morse Wooster, The Great Philanthropists and the Problem of ‘Donor Intent,’ third edition (Washington, D.C.:  Capital Research Center, 2007), 34.
7. Wooster, The Great Philanthropists and the Problem of ‘Donor Intent.’ 44.
8. Leonard Silk and Mark Silk, The American Establishment (New York:  Basic Books, 1980), 145.
9. Peter Marria and Martin Rein,  Dilemmas of Social Reform:  Poverty and Community Action in the United States, revised edition (Chicago: Aldine, 1973) 
10. Michael L. Gillette, Launching the War on Poverty:  An Oral History (New York:  Twayne/Prentice Hall, 1996), 19
11. Daniel Patrick Moynihan, Maximum Feasible Misunderstanding:  Community Action in the War on Poverty (New York:  Abbeville/Free Press, 1969), 56-57. For an analysis of the program, see Martin Morse Wooster, Great Philanthropic Mistakes, second edition (Washington:  Hudson Institute, 2010), 96-113.
12. Roy Hertz, “A Quest for Better Contraception:  The Ford Foundation’s Contribution to Reproductive Science and Contraceptive Development, 1959-1983,” Contraception, February 1984. See also Martin Morse Wooster, Great Philanthropic Mistakes, second edition (Washington:  Hudson Institute, 2010), 68-95.
13. Walter Olson, “The Ford Foundation:  Shaping America’s Laws by Remaking Her Law Schools,” Foundation Watch, July 2013 http://www.capitalresearch.org/article/the-ford-foundation-shaping-americas-laws-by-re-making-her-law-schools/, excerpted from Walter Olson, Schools for Misrule:  Legal Academia and an Overlawyered America (New York:  Encounter, 2011).
14. “A Legacy of Social Justice.” Ford Foundation. Accessed April 06, 2018. https://www.fordfoundation.org/about-us/a-legacy-of-social-justice/.
15. Valdez, A. López. “Developing the Role of Law in Social Change: Past Endeavors and Future Opportunities in Latin America and the Caribbean.” University of Miami Inter-Law Review, February 1, 1975, 7. Accessed April 6, 2018. https://repository.law.miami.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=2133&context=umialr.
16. An additional $942,260 was given to Queens College’s Institute for Contemporary Studies to analyze the project.
17. Martin Morse Wooster, Great Philanthropic Mistakes, second edition (Washington:  Hudson Institute, 2010), 144-162. See also Vincent J. Cannato, The Ungovernable City:  John Lindsay and His Struggle to Save New York (New York:  Basic Books, 2001).
18. Laurence Stern and Richard Harwood, “Ford Foundation:  Its Works Spark a Backlash,” Washington Post, November 2, 1969.
19. Martin Morse Wooster, “The Ford Foundation:  It Keeps a  Low Profile, But Funds Gvernment Entitlements, Racial Preferences, Legal Activists,” Foundation Watch, October 2003, http://www.capitalresearch/org/article/the-ford-foundation-it-keeps-a-low-profile-but-funds-government-entitlements-racial-preferences-legal-activists/
20. Kimberly Kindy, “William H. Pryor, Jr.:  Singular In Political Experience and Polarizing Power,” Washington Post, January 31, 2017.
21. Martin Morse Wooster, “The Ford Foundation’s International Agenda:  Supports Palestinian, Feminist, and Population Control Groups,” Foundation Watch, October 2004 http://www.capitalresearch.org/the-ford-foundations-international-agenda-supports-palestinian-feminist-and-population-control-groups/
22. George F. Will, “Israel Should Expel Arafat and His Thugocracy.” Baltimore Sun, December 5, 2001. http://www.articles.bltlimoresun.com/2001-12-05/news/0112050031_1_arafat-palestinian-authority-israel-a-lot-of-ideas
23. Ian Wilhelm, “Ford Foundation Offers Buyouts to One-Third of Employees,” Chronicle of Philanthropy, June 10, 2009, http://www.philanthropy.com/article/ford-foundation-offers-buyouts/162571
24. Caroline Preston, “Ford Foundation Head Leaves Behind Legacy of New Grant Programs But Few Bold Strokes,” Chronicle of Philanthropy, March 14, 2013.
25. Schmad, Robert. “Ford Foundation paid CCP allies millions to aid China’s global influence operations.” Washington Examiner, December 3, 2024. https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/news/investigations/3247400/ford-foundation-paid-ccp-allies-millions-aid-china-global-influence-operations/
26. Stilson, Robert. “ESG Shareholder Activism in Proxy Preview 2025.” Capital Research Center, April 15, 2025. https://capitalresearch.org/article/esg-shareholder-activism-in-proxy-preview-2025/.
27. Chung, Juliet and Emily Glazer. “America’s Richest Foundations Team Up Against Feared Trump Assault.” Wall Street Journal, May 9, 2025. https://www.wsj.com/politics/policy/nonprofit-foundations-prepare-trump-fight-884f6016
28. Husock, Howard. “The Left’s Plan to Keep Control of Public Broadcasting.” Wall Street Journal Opinion, September 23, 2025. https://www.wsj.com/opinion/the-lefts-plan-to-keep-control-of-public-broadcasting-20060166?st=L6J9tF&reflink=desktopwebshare_permalink
29. “Grassley Probes Gates Foundation and Others for 501(c)(3) Compliance.” Senator Chuck Grassley, October 28, 2025. https://www.grassley.senate.gov/news/news-releases/grassley-probes-gates-foundation-and-others-for-501c3-compliance
30. Larissa MacFarquhar, “What Money Can Buy,” New Yorker, January 4, 2016 http://www.newyorker.com/magazine/what-money-can-buy-larissa-macfarquhar/
31. Mary Kramer, “Interviewer Gilbert Helps Complete Circle of Ford’s Detroit Connection,” Crain’s Detroit Business, July 4, 2016.
32. William Schambra, “Foundations Offering to Bail Out Detroit May Regret Their Decision,” Chronicle of Philanthropy, January 24, 2014 https://philanthropy.com/article-foundations-offering-to-bail/153763  
33. Fred Lucas, “Seizing the Supreme Court,” Foundation Watch, July 2016 http://www.capitalresearch.org/article/seizing-the-supreme-court/
34. David Gelles, “Major Foundations, Eager for Big Change, Aim High,” New York Times, November 8, 2015.
35. Valerie Richardson, “Black Lives Matter Cashes $100 Million Foundation Check,” Washington Times, August 16, 2016 http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2016/aug/16/black-lives-mtter-cashes-100-million-liberal-foun
36. Andy Kessler, “The Capitalist as the Ultimate Philanthropist,” Wall Street Journal, June 25, 2015.
37. Ford Foundation. “Grants Database: Southern Vision Alliance.” Accessed September 30, 2020. https://www.fordfoundation.org/work/our-grants/grants-database/grants-all?originatingoffices=%26RegionIds%3D9&page=0&minyear=2006&maxyear=2020&search=%26SearchText%3DSouthern%20Vision%20Alliance.
38. Southern Vision Alliance, May 2017-May 2018 Annual Report, accessed September 30, 2020, https://southernvision.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/09/svannualreport2018.pdf.
39. Ablon, Matthew. “Charlotte police: officers assaulted, multiple protesters arrested in uptown demonstration.” FOX Carolina, August 21, 2020. https://www.foxcarolina.com/news/charlotte-police-officers-assaulted-multiple-protesters-arrested-in-uptown-demonstration/article_1426f3a6-e428-11ea-96e8-d3c817244df5.html.
40. Newby, Jake. “Pensacola protests: Dream Defenders block traffic on Pensacola Bay Bridge, confront mayor.” Pensacola News Journal, June 6, 2020. https://www.pnj.com/story/news/2020/06/06/pensacola-dream-defenders-block-traffic-three-mile-bridge-protest/3164123001/.
41. “Dream Defenders Protest Miami Worldcenter.” WLRN, July 10, 2015. https://www.wlrn.org/news/2015-07-10/dream-defenders-protest-miami-worldcenter#stream/0.
42. Rachmuth, Sloan. “Foundation With Biden Campaign Ties Funding Leftist Agitators On U.S. Streets.” The Federalist, August 31, 2020. https://thefederalist.com/2020/08/31/foundation-with-biden-campaign-ties-funding-leftist-agitators-on-u-s-streets/.
43. Rojc, Philip. “Backing Up Biden: Grantmakers Get Behind a New Federal Anti-Violence Collaborative.” Inside Philanthropy. Inside Philanthropy, July 6, 2021. https://www.insidephilanthropy.com/home/2021/7/1/backing-up-biden-grantmakers-get-behind-a-new-federal-anti-violence-collaborative?utm_source=Funding%2BNews%2B%26%2BTips&utm_campaign=f22df871f4-newsletterdaily&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_c776dbf0df-f22df871f4-95098585.
44. Matthews, Dylan, and Byrd Pinkerton. “”The Time of Vasectomy”: How American Foundations Fueled a Terrible Atrocity in India.” Vox. June 05, 2019. Accessed June 12, 2019. https://www.vox.com/future-perfect/2019/6/5/18629801/emergency-in-india-1975-indira-gandhi-sterilization-ford-foundation.
45. Mann, Charles C. “The Book That Incited a Worldwide Fear of Overpopulation.” Smithsonian.com. January 01, 2018. Accessed June 12, 2019. https://www.smithsonianmag.com/innovation/book-incited-worldwide-fear-overpopulation-180967499/.
46. “Ford Foundation Announces Heather Gerken as New President.” Ford Foundation, July 1, 2025. https://www.fordfoundation.org/news-and-stories/news-and-press/news/ford-foundation-announces-heather-gerken-as-new-president/
47. Liptak, Adam. “Ford Foundation’s New Leader Vows to Protect Elections and the Rule of Law.” New York Times, November 3, 2025. https://www.nytimes.com/2025/11/03/us/politics/ford-foundation-heather-gerken-trump.html?smid=url-share
48. “Darren Walker.” Ford Foundation, Accessed April 28, 2025. https://www.fordfoundation.org/about/people/darren-walker/
49. Gamboa, Glenn. “Ford Foundation’s Outgoing President Joins the Board of Obama Foundation.” AP News, July 21, 2025. https://apnews.com/article/barack-obama-foundation-darren-walker-915848428f603b2d1377e41db0bed0ba?utm_source=cio.
50. “Francisco G. Cigarroa, MD.” Ford Foundation, Accessed April 28, 2025. https://www.fordfoundation.org/about/people/francisco-g-cigarroa/
51. “Ford Foundation Appoints Richard R. Verma to Board of Trustees.” Ford Foundation, April 21, 2025. https://www.fordfoundation.org/news-and-stories/news-and-press/news/ford-foundation-appoints-richard-r-verma-to-board-of-trustees/?utm_source=LinkedIn&utm_medium=organic_social&utm_campaign=News&utm_content=RichardRVerma
52. “Ford Foundation Appoints Nicholas Turner Executive Vice President.” Ford Foundation, January 14, 2026. https://www.fordfoundation.org/news-and-stories/news-and-press/news/ford-foundation-appoints-nicholas-turner-executive-vice-president/?utm_source=piano&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=42648&pnespid=sbljDChVP61HwfXRoCSrE4CCuhuqDJwsNPm32Oxmv0ZmzETja8dBiQ71dtIAN96iOUomwOOP.Q