05/12/97 FEWER GIVEAWAYS, MORE SELF-RELIANCE

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FEWER GIVEAWAYS, MORE SELF-RELIANCE
Empowering people is the Ford Foundation's goal
In its 1960s heyday, the Ford Foundation was famous for pioneering liberal ideas for improving society, then turning them over to government to put into effect. The charity's initiatives helped spawn the War on Poverty, public television, and Head Start, the acclaimed pre-kindergarten program for disadvantaged youth.
But as President Clinton is fond of saying, the era of big government is over. So the Ford Foundation--whose $8.4 billion in assets and over $400 million in annual spending make it the nation's biggest grant-making philanthropy and, arguably, one of the nation's most powerful institutions--is reinventing itself in ways even conservatives might love. Instead of cooking up ways for the state to do more, it's searching for strategies that don't always depend on tax dollars. Increasingly, that means getting down to the grass roots--exploiting the energy and knowledge of people whom the Ford Foundation once saw simply as beneficiaries.
The new approach is the work of Susan V. Berresford, 54, a 27-year Ford Foundation veteran who was elevated from executive vice-president to president in 1996. Berresford gave the clearest signal of her intentions on Apr. 24, announcing $50 million over two years to fund ''promising approaches to long-term problems.'' While some of the money will go to such traditional Ford causes as multicultural studies--a bte noir of the right--Berresford is directing $20 million to institutions that lend and invest in poor communities around the world (table).
STARTING A BUSINESS. The initiative indicates that ''there's a more pragmatic orientation at Ford,'' says Leslie Lenkowsky, president of the conservative Hudson Institute in Indianapolis. ''They're testing ways in which individuals, particularly in low-income communities, could work with the resources available to them rather than turn toward government.'' The foundation will give $2.5 million, for example, to help start up ShoreTrust, a Portland (Ore.) banking company with for-profit and not-for-profit components that will help citizens develop environmentally responsible businesses in fishing and timber.
Such microenterprise, as it's known, is popular with everyone from Hillary Clinton to Jack Kemp. But conservatives were particularly struck by an $800,000 Ford grant to test so-called individual development accounts for the working poor and welfare recipients. The foundation will match participants' contributions to the accounts, which are restricted to such uses as buying a house, paying for college, or starting a business.
The theory is that income maintenance alone will never vault people out of poverty, says Michael Sherraden, director of Washington University's Center for Social Development, who came up with the strategy. Zolinda Davis-Kirk of Chicago, who is working her way off welfare and hopes to buy a house, is saving $30 a month. In a program that preceded Ford's, she receives matching deposits from the Women's Self-Employment Project with Joyce Foundation support. ''It's not a huge amount, but I'm learning to handle my money,'' she says.
Berresford still unapologetically supports such causes as social justice and civil rights litigation--the sort of things that prompted Henry Ford II to quit the board in a huff in 1976 (the foundation is independent of Ford Motor Co. and doesn't own any of its stock). But she doesn't want Ford called liberal, either: ''I reject all of these categories,'' she says.
Above all, Berresford is a pragmatist. To better reflect globalization, she aims to boost the share of grants made outside the U.S. to nearly 50%, from 40%, and to hire more Asian, African, and Latin American staff. And she wants to make Ford more cost-effective. She likes to quote her predecessor, Franklin A. Thomas, who said that foundations are the research and development arm of society. Except that today, says Berresford, ''you can't come up with a good idea that's very expensive--that's not a good idea.'' That's a simple observation, but quite a leap for her giant foundation.
By Peter Coy in New York

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