We believe in resilience in strategy featuring Nancy Northup
Transcript
[A white woman with shoulder-length blonde hair sits for an interview.]
NANCY NORTHRUP: I would encourage funders to think that, in the end of the day, social change is a long arc. It doesn’t happen overnight. Sometimes we get big wins close in, which is the exciting thing about doing legal work, but the overall work goes on for years. People need room to reflect, to learn, and to strengthen. And you need a strong organization to do that.
One of the things that we have really liked about the BUILD grant is the fact that we did an organizational mapping, which was a day-and-a-half exercise with about 30 of our staff members—different levels, different departments, and from different offices around the world—to take a look at, how do we structure our partnerships. How do we make sure that we are setting objectives, measuring objectives, learning from how we are doing our capacity building.
Even though we always tried to find those pockets of money to do the organizational work, to actually have the commitment of Ford to say, “We want you to be doing this. We know it’s important,” has been really energizing, because it communicates throughout the organization why this is so important to do. It wasn’t management saying to staff, “This is what we’ve identified as the top three priorities.” It was really hearing from throughout the organization, what do they see as the needs. That is going to be really important going forward, to have this partnership with the staff to make the changes that will strengthen our work.
[on-screen text: We believe in strategy.
We believe in building resilience.
We believe in reimagining philanthropy.
fordfoundation.org/build]
[on-screen graphic: Ford Foundation logo: a globe made up of a series of small, varied circles.]
Accessibility Statement
- All videos produced by the Ford Foundation since 2020 include captions and downloadable transcripts. For videos where visuals require additional understanding, we offer audio-described versions.
- We are continuing to make videos produced prior to 2020 accessible.
- Videos from third-party sources (those not produced by the Ford Foundation) may not have captions, accessible transcripts, or audio descriptions.
- To improve accessibility beyond our site, we’ve created a free video accessibility WordPress plug-in.
Social justice organizations thrive with longer, larger, and more flexible grants.
In 2015, the Ford Foundation launched its Building Institutions and Networks (BUILD) initiative, now a $2 billion dollar commitment aimed at reimagining philanthropy and centered on trusting grantees.
The Center for Reproductive Rights, which works to ensure that reproductive healthcare is protected in law as a fundamental right by governments around the world, was one of BUILD’s first grantees. Nancy Northup, president and CEO, shares how BUILD allowed the Center to engage their staff to shape a global organizational strategy created from the bottom up.
“People need room to learn, to reflect, to strengthen, and you need a strong organization to do that.”
We’re reimagining philanthropy—BUILD provides 5-year general operating support grants and dedicated funding for institutional strengthening to grantee partners to build more durable, resilient, and impactful organizations and networks to combat inequality.
Other videos in this series
We believe in resilience in People featuring Heather McGhee
Heather McGhee, trustee emeritus and former president of Demos, shares how BUILD allowed Demos to create a diversity, equity, and inclusion program, as well as build staff leadership skills.
We believe in resilience in financing featuring Marcia Smith
Marcia Smith, president and co-founder of Firelight, shares how the Ford Foundation’s BUILD initiative allowed the production company to create a strategic plan for their long-term financing.
We believe in resilience in systems featuring Purity Kagwiria
Akili Dada, a leadership incubator for girls and young women across East Africa, was one of BUILD’s first grantees. Purity Kagwiria, former Executive Director, shares how BUILD allowed Akili Dada to create a security policy for field work, strengthening its impact.
We believe in Building Resilience in Social Justice Organizations
The Ford Foundation’s BUILD grantees share their views on how receiving longer, larger, more flexible grants has strengthened their organization and their work, and made them reimagine philanthropy.
Building institutions and networks to fight inequality
Organizations that are working to reduce inequality need support for their long-term goals, while they focus on day-to-day operations and immediate challenges. The Ford Foundation’s BUILD program is specially designed to do this, by providing flexible funding and fostering connections to other organizations working with ideas that are changing the world.