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NEWSLETTER
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Celebrating LAFF's First 25 Years
Nearly 200 people—members of The LAFF Society, some family members, friends of LAFF and Ford Foundation staff—gathered in New York City on May 17 to celebrate an organization that Darren Walker, the Ford Foundation’s president, marveled at how, from a small beginning 25 years ago, has come to “inspire such loyalty, compassion and commitment.”
“This remarkable thing called LAFF,” he said in opening remarks at the day-long fête, “has become for many of us a signature of what makes the Ford Foundation such an extraordinary institution.”
In starting a day that included panel discussions on the Foundation’s history, its current work and issues confronting it in a changing world, he encapsulated what was to come by noting “The stories that you will share, the communities that you will continue to build and extend, and your understanding today how the heritage, the legacy that you all have created continues to live on.”
It was a day that brought into focus a growing sense of continuity between the work of LAFF’s members and the Foundation’s work today.
“We thank you,” Darren Walker said, “we honor you, for all the things you did to advance the cause of justice in the world. We will continue to honor you by continuing to build on the great work that you did.”
Shepard Forman, LAFF’s president, observed that “Today initiates a new phase in the relationship between the Foundation and LAFF, based on respect and reciprocity, and based largely on” the Foundation’s “deep commitment to history and the understanding that it brings to the current work of the Foundation.”
The history of LAFF and its gradual growth toward that “respect and reciprocity” was described by Richard Magat, a co-founder of LAFF, as an effort to “fill the gap of memory”. His remarks are in a separate story LAFF, the Early Years.
During the morning, representatives of the Rockefeller Archives Center, where the Ford’s growing archival collection is housed, gave an overview of the efforts to preserve the Foundation’s history, and foundation staff members discussed new strategies and thematic areas of work.
Lunch included a question-and-answer session with Darren Walker, Shepard Forman and Timothy Geithner, former Secretary of the Treasury in the Barack Obama administration and a son of Peter Geithner, a former president of LAFF.
There were three simultaneous panel discussions in the afternoon, each considering a different aspect of the difficulties facing philanthropy in a changing and challenging world, followed by a description of the changes planned in a two-year renovation of the headquarters building that will begin later this year.
And then there was time set aside just to spend with old friends, a mingling and reunion that began early and never stopped, as the accompanying pictures attest.
These pictures are just a sampling of what were taken during the day. All the pictures are available at this link: 8 Salamander Productions, photos by Simon Luethi.
Also see LAFF, the Early Years, adapted from remarks Dick Magat made at the anniversary celebration.
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