THE BUILDING PHILANTHROPY PROJECT

Beginning in 2003, the Ford Foundation made several significant investments in the Foundation for the Mid South (FMS), enabling the FMS board and staff to reflect critically on how the organization needed to transform if its leadership wanted to effectively pursue its commitment to promote racial, social, and economic equity in the Mid South (AR, LA, and MS).

THE GOALS OF THE PROJECT

The foundation was challenged to work toward two goals. First, undertake and launch an effort that will increase the foundation's understanding of equity and inclusion and its role to build effective philanthropy in order to promote social change in the Mid South. Second, develop and initiate an internal change process that will engage the entire FMS board and staff to emphasize equity both inside and outside the foundation's four walls.

While the FMS's transformation is still ongoing, FMS's efforts have drawn on the diverse resources in the region and have already affected the organization's goals, activities, governance, and even the scope of the foundation's work. Ultimately, the Foundation for the Mid South seeks to acheive real social change that will build the region's leadership, strengthen communities and organizations, build public engagement especially among the marginalized and disenfranchised, and build the sustainability of FMS in order to become a leader in the region to call for and facilitate this change.