The Changing Role of the Ford Foundation in International Development, 1951–2001

Abstract

While US private philanthropic foundations are small in comparison with other international donors, the Ford Foundation was an important international actor and the biggest player within international philanthropy for almost 50 years. US-funded think tanks and research centers articulated various iterations of a development paradigm, but these paradigms shifted over the same 50 years. What are the driving forces behind these shifts? Why, for instance, were US foundations working directly with government officials in the 1950s while in the 1990s working mostly through non-governmental organizations? This article seeks first to trace the major shifts in the way the Ford Foundation engaged in international development and second aims to explain how and why these shifts took place. In order to conduct this research, I relied on archival research, such as annual reports, minutes from congressional hearings, and internal unpublished reports, and interviews with former high-level employees at Ford Foundation. In addition, I coded and analyzed a database of more than 40,000 grants from the Ford Foundation from 1951 to 2001. The article analyzes the Ford Foundation through four mechanisms of change: internal leadership, external regulation, displacement by competitors, and domestic pressures. These four factors are set against the backdrop of wider shifts in international politics.