Motor City Bound: Ford Foundation Board Headed to Detroit for Summer Meeting
After seven decades, Ford Foundation trustees to gather in company’s hometown.
It’s been almost 70 years since the Ford Foundation moved its headquarters from the Motor City to the Big Apple. This summer, its trustees are “coming home” to the city where the company’s founders made their fortunes, at least for one board meeting.
Foundation CEO Darren Walker, speaking at the Mackinac Policy Conference, said the foundation will hold its summer meeting in Detroit.
“The Ford trustees haven’t been back since 1948, so I am very proud and excited that we are having our Ford trustees meeting in Detroit next month,” he says.
The Ford Foundation funds projects in all 50 states and more than 50 countries, focusing on social justice and human welfare efforts. It’s contributing $125 million to the “grand bargain,” the arrangement bringing corporate and philanthropic money into Detroit’s pension funds. Ford’s commitment is the largest of the 12 foundations involved.
Edsel Ford established the Ford Foundation with a $25,000 contribution in 1936. The foundation now has about $12 billion in assets.
