For a decade, the Ford Foundation’s Building Institutions and Networks, or BUILD, was one of the biggest initiatives offering nonprofits flexible funding that could be put toward general operations. Last month, the foundation shared that it would be discontinuing BUILD — but embedding flexible support across the majority of its grantmaking. That change has some development professionals apprehensive.
“I hope it does turn out for the best, but I also know the way that this sector typically trends,” said Monique Curry-Mims, founder and principal of social impact consultancy Civic Capital. “I would love to have this conversation in a couple of years.”
The brainchild of former Ford Foundation President Darren Black, BUILD launched in 2015 as a means of offering social justice organizations, especially those led by or benefiting minority groups, the funds they need to strengthen their organizations over a five-year period. That could mean funding staff training, salaries, and overheads — the costs most organizations have but few donors are willing to fund, preferring project-specific items.