For years, disability rights and inclusion were too often an afterthought in philanthropy. Our own institution, the Ford Foundation, was no exception. Ford’s grant making frequently repeated, and at times exacerbated, the problem.
Then, in 2016, disabled activists called us out. Why, they asked, did the foundation’s efforts to address inequality not include or acknowledge people with disabilities? They challenged the foundation to re-examine its work and how it excluded the experiences of disabled people. Informed by their feedback, Ford leaders sought to remedy the problem and intentionally integrate disability into everything we do.
Led by the foundation’s president, Darren Walker, we embarked on a campaign to advance disability inclusion throughout our grant making and within our staff and internal culture. Those efforts included partnering with the disability consulting firm Impel Consultancy to evaluate the foundation’s disability inclusion work. We are sharing the findings here in hopes that they will help guide similar efforts by our peers in philanthropy and inform our collective commitment to disability rights and inclusion.
All grant makers who care about social justice must recognize that without disability rights there is no justice. For decades, disability activists have been at the center not only of the disability-rights movement but of countless other campaigns for social equality. Today their work shapes the global struggle for human rights and dignity.
Recognizing that we still have much to do, Impel’s evaluation documents the steps Ford has taken so far to elevate disability rights and confront the challenges along the way. We hope it inspires others to follow.
Normalize discussions about disability. Ford began its disability inclusion work by encouraging conversations about the subject. Many of us steer away from connecting disability to our own lives. We may avoid the topic completely, view it as an issue more suitable for charity, or think of it as an individual medical problem that should be handled outside the workplace.
To confront these views, the foundation launched training sessions to help staff develop an understanding of why a disability identity is disproportionately applied to women, people of color, and other marginalized groups. To drive home the point that disability is more than any individual medical diagnosis, we shared data showing that discrimination is a consequence and cause of disability. Black Americans, for example, are almost a third more likely to have a disability than white people.
These sessions, which continue today, take a close look at social norms, including how ableism, or discrimination that favors the able-bodied, presents itself in the workplace and how it can be challenged individually and collectively. For instance, the sessions explore how disability language, including words like “idiot” and “cripple,” are used as casual insults. To move from the abstract to people’s real lives, the foundation also hosts a storytelling session with individual disabled people called “Disability Dish.’' Nonprofit leaders such as Dior Vargas, founder of the People of Color Mental Health Project, have shared their life stories and struggles.
These opportunities for learning help staff engage without feeling shame, while acknowledging the exclusion and discrimination that’s too often embedded in everyday life. In addition to broader education resources, staff can attend in-person training on grant making and disability.
We acknowledge, however, that more work is needed before these messages fully break through. In fact, the consultants recently found that a view of disability as a medical problem better suited to charity persists at the foundation. In response, Ford is implementing customized training tailored to the needs of regional offices and making sure disability discussions are integrated into all communications, including internal town-hall meetings and the foundation’s public website.
Leverage senior leadership. Without buy-in from the top, diversity, equity, and inclusion efforts risk becoming more superficial than structural. Ford’s leadership made disability inclusion a top priority by placing the Disability Inclusion Initiative within the presidents’ office, giving it visibility and credibility.
The consultants at Impel found that over time, support from senior leaders expanded throughout the foundation to reach every level of the institution. For example, the program leadership team created a dashboard that both assesses progress on disability grant making and provides real-time data so managers can stay accountable.
Senior leadership is also critically important for driving further investment. In 2019, for instance, Ford and the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation launched the Presidents’ Council on Disability Inclusion in Philanthropy. The council facilitated the creation of a $5 million disability justice fund at Borealis Philanthropy, the first collaborative fund on disability in the United States. It garnered pledges from almost 70 donors to dismantle a widespread ableism mind-set within philanthropy.
Back up disability commitments. Without tangible and ongoing financial support, progress on disability inclusion may slow down or stop completely, abandoned in a landscape of competing priorities.
Senior leaders at Ford set specific targets for disability grant making and provided matching funds to encourage larger investments. The result: Ford tripled its disability-related funding from 2018 to 2021 to $150 million. This grant making is spread throughout our programs and regional offices so that disability is integrated into all the foundation’s work.
To guide our overall approach to disability inclusion, Ford worked with disability leaders with first-hand experience and expertise, such as this op-ed’s co-author, Catherine Hyde Townsend, and Judy Heumann, a lifelong disability-rights advocate who served as a senior fellow at Ford. Catherine, in her role as senior adviser for disability inclusion, developed a disability due-diligence guide and best practices for disability grant making, as well as other tools, resources, and training materials.
Build an inclusive culture. At the start of this work, Ford’s human-resources team commissioned a disability employment audit of the organization. This led the foundation to revamp its hiring approaches and develop a new accommodations policy, including full-time remote work for immunocompromised employees and those with household members particularly vulnerable to Covid-19. Despite these efforts, Impel found that some staff are still reluctant to self-identify as having a disability out of concern that their colleagues will view them negatively.
Creating a culture in which staff with disabilities feel comfortable sharing their disability identity is a process — not a checklist. To continue that process, the foundation’s disability employment resource group is sponsoring events and publishing internal blogs on issues such as “What does self-disclosing a disability mean?” and why people often hesitate to do so.
Additionally, Ford is linking a new diversity, equity, and inclusion strategy with its disability inclusion efforts in recognition of the multitude of identities staff hold and the ways those identities shape workplace experiences.
Center people with disabilities. Disability work must, of course, include the leadership and participation of disabled people as staff, grantees, and thought partners.
In addition to hiring more staff with disabilities and disability expertise, Ford established several advisory groups of experts with disabilities and developed a guide for other grant makers interested in creating such groups. At the start of this work, the foundation also engaged more than 50 leaders, donors, and activists from the disability-rights community who have held us accountable and provided feedback along the way.
We urge our peers and partners across philanthropy to join us in holding up disability rights as a defining challenge of our time. Dismantling ableism advances equality for people of every marginalized identity. Moving forward, we challenge ourselves, and all those in philanthropy, to continue fighting for the rights of all disabled people everywhere and in every place we work.
The Ford Foundation is a financial supporter of the Chronicle of Philanthropy.