Philanthropy News Digest
April 28, 2016
A $420 million Ford Foundation
program that funded the
advanced education of social justice leaders from marginalized groups led to
significant positive change in communities and organizations around the world,
a report from the Institute of International Education finds.
The report, Social Justice and Sustainable Change: The Impact of Higher
Education (36 pages, PDF), evaluated the impact of the foundation's International Fellowships Program,
which, with the goal of giving emerging leaders the tools to succeed in their
studies and improve conditions in their communities upon returning
home, supported graduate-level education for more than forty-three hundred
emerging social justice leaders from twenty-two countries between 2001 and
2013. Based on responses from nearly two thousand IFP alumni, the report found
that 87 percent indicated the program enhanced their leadership skills, while
79 percent now hold senior leadership roles, many as founders of grassroots
organizations and leaders in national governments and international NGOs.
More than nine hundred alumni have created programs and organizations that have
reached an estimated 9.5 million adults and children in their countries and
860,000 others globally. Of these initiatives, 97 percent address social issues
or provide community services and 48 percent were created by women.
