Victoria Dunning
Director, Building Institutions and Networks (BUILD)
Victoria Dunning is the director of the 12-year, $2 billion BUILD initiative, which supports organizations and networks through multi-year, flexible funding and institutional strengthening. Victoria oversees this model of strategic, trust-based grantmaking practice to enhance grantee partners’ organizational resilience toward mission impact. Victoria manages a team of eight people and collaborates with program teams in the United States and in the foundation’s 10 regional offices around the world. To date, the BUILD program has supported more than 500 organizations and networks in 44 countries.
Victoria joined the inaugural BUILD team as program officer in 2017 and has developed partnerships for technical assistance and peer learning in financial resilience, leadership, narrative and storytelling, and well-being, among other areas. She partners with program teams on BUILD grantmaking principles and practice and with grantee partners on institutional strengthening. She also co-leads BUILD’s learning and evaluation efforts.
Prior to joining Ford, Victoria was executive vice president of the Global Fund for Children, providing grants and capacity-building support to grassroots organizations around the world. Earlier in her career, she held positions at the UN Foundation, the Pacific Institute for Women’s Health, and USAID Tanzania. Victoria has served on several nonprofit boards and currently serves on the executive committee of the board of Edible Schoolyard NYC. She holds a bachelor’s degree from Mount Holyoke College and master’s degree in public health from Columbia University.
