LAFF Society

NEWSLETTER

The Ford Foundation in South Africa: Part 2

 

Nelson Mandela and Franklin Thomas, president
of the Ford Foundation. Ford Foundation photo.
 
The newsletter published three articles in its Summer 2014 issue (see at bottom) that provided detailed background on the early work of the Ford Foundation in South Africa, and how its commitment to that country’s quest for “dignity, justice and equality” evolved. In this issue, two writers explore the development of that commitment through the crucial decade of the 1980s, when the Foundation played a pivotal role in creating the conditions that led to South Africa’s independence. 
 
David Bonbright, in an article written for the newsletter, examines the conditions that “propelled our grantees” forward and considers the lessons learned. Then, in an article reprinted from Alliance Magazine and published originally in its Summer 2003 edition, he reviews the influential impact of the strategies pursued by a former president of the Foundation, Franklin Thomas, and of William Carmichael, a veteran of the Foundation’s international development programs, whom he describes as the “drivers” behind the Foundation’s “effectiveness in promoting social justice in South Africa”. 
 
The third article, by the late John Gerhart, also is a reprint of an article from Alliance Magazine, published in its March 2004 issue. In it he discusses the role of non-governmental organizations in meeting the needs of South Africans and draws lessons from that country’s experience to provide a blueprint for the development of a “healthy philanthropic sector”. 
 
The Ford Foundation in South Africa: Part 2

The “Drivers” Behind Ford’s Critical Work in the 1980s by David Bonbright

Lessons from South Africa For Enhancing Philanthropy by John Gerhart

 

Links to Part 1:

 

 

 

 

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