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.
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. Hofbauer Balori hopes other foundations will join in. Weaving Resilience’s Mexico hub, which will offer services to organizations in Central America and Mexico, has attracted $11.6 million in support including the Ford commitment and planned grants from seven other foundations including the Foundation for a Just Society and the Kellogg, Open Society, and Packard foundations.
“The trajectory has been discernibly negative,” says Christopher Walker, vice president of studies and analysis at the National Endowment for Democracy. Each hub will design its own strategy. Two organizations, Compartamos con Colombia, connects nonprofits to a network of lawyers, consultants, and bankers, and Dejusticia, a legal and civil-rights group, will manage the effort in the Colombia region. During its first year, the hub will offer its services to Colombian nonprofits and then expand to Peru and Venezuela. Over the next several years, the two organizations together hope to provide services to about 200 groups in the region.
The government has given nonprofits “space,” but Newman Pont worries social-justice and democracy organizations will lose some of their independence because they don’t want to be seen contradicting the new government.
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Ford offers $80 million to fight global authoritarianismThe Ford Foundation will commit $80 million over the next five years to work that strengthens nonprofits fighting against authoritarian regimes.
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Ford offers $80 million to fight global authoritarianismThe 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.
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