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For years, disability rights and inclusion have often been thought of in philanthropy. Our own institution, the Ford Foundation, is no exception. Ford’s grantmaking often repeated, and sometimes exacerbated, the problem.
Then, in 2016, disability activists called us. Why, they ask, do the foundation’s efforts to address inequality not include or recognize people with disabilities? They challenged the foundation to reexamine its work and how it excluded the experiences of people with disabilities. Because of their feedback, Ford leaders sought to solve the problem and consciously integrate disability into everything we do.
Led by the foundation’s president, Darren Walker, we began a campaign to promote disability inclusion throughout our grantmaking and within our staff and internal culture. Those efforts include partnering with disability consulting firm Impel Consultancy to review the foundation’s disability inclusion work. We share the findings here in the hope that they will help guide similar efforts by our philanthropic colleagues 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 movement but of countless other campaigns for social equality. Today, their work is shaping the global struggle for human rights and dignity.
Recognizing that we still have a long way to go, Impel’s analysis documents the steps Ford has taken so far to advance disability rights and address the challenges along the way. We hope this inspires others to follow suit.
Normalize discussions about disability. Ford began its disability inclusion work by encouraging conversations about the topic. Many of us avoid connecting disability to our own lives. We may avoid the subject entirely, see it as an issue better suited for charity, or think of it as an individual medical problem that should be handled outside the workplace.
To address these perceptions, the foundation launched training sessions to help staff gain an understanding of why the 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 both a consequence and a cause of disability. Black Americans, for example, are about a third more likely to have a disability than white people.
These sessions, which continue today, take a closer look at social norms, including how ableism, or discrimination favoring the able-bodied, manifests itself in the workplace and how it can be challenged individually -one and together. For example, the sessions explore how disability language, including words like “stupid” and “lame,” are used as casual insults. To move from the abstract to people’s real lives, the foundation also hosts a storytelling session with individuals with disabilities called “Disability Dish.” Nonprofit leaders like Dior Vargas, founder of the People of Color Mental Health Project, shared their life stories and struggles.
These learning opportunities help staff engage without shame, while recognizing the exclusion and discrimination that is so often embedded in everyday life. In addition to broader educational resources, staff can attend in-person grantmaking and disability training.
We accept, however, that more work is needed before these messages can be fully broken down. Indeed, consultants have recently discovered that a view of disability as a medical problem more suited to charity remains entrenched. In response, Ford is implementing customized training tailored to the needs of regional offices and ensuring that disability discussions are included in all communications, including internal town-hall meetings and the foundation’s public website .
Use senior leadership. Without buy-in from the top, diversity, equity, and inclusion efforts risk becoming more superficial than structural. Ford leadership has made disability inclusion a top priority by placing the Disability Inclusion Initiative within the president’s office, giving it visibility and credibility.
Impel consultants found that over time, support from senior leaders expanded throughout the foundation to reach every level of the institution. For example, the program’s leadership team created a dashboard that both assesses disability grantmaking progress and provides real-time data so managers can stay accountable.
Senior leadership is also critical for driving additional investment. In 2019, for example, 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 disability fund in the United States. It has secured pledges from nearly 70 donors to dismantle a massive intellectual disability within philanthropy.
Back up disability commitments. Without visible and sustained financial support, progress on disability inclusion can slow or stop altogether, abandoned in a landscape of competing priorities.
Senior leaders at Ford set specific targets for disability grantmaking and provided matching funds to encourage larger investments. The result: Ford tripled disability-related funding from 2018 to 2021 to $150 million. This grantmaking is spread across our programs and regional offices so that disability is integrated into all of 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 co-author of this op-ed, 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, has developed guidance on disability due diligence and best practices for disability grant making, as well as other tools, resources , and training materials.
Build an inclusive culture. To begin this work, Ford’s human-resources team commissioned an audit of the organization’s disability employment. It led the foundation to change its hiring strategies and develop a new accommodation 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 were still reluctant to self-identify as disabled out of concern that their colleagues would view them negatively.
Creating a culture where 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 sponsors events and publishes internal blogs on issues such as “What does it mean to self-disclose a disability ?” and why people often hesitate to do so.
Additionally, Ford is linking a new approach to diversity, equity, and inclusion to disability inclusion efforts in recognition of the multiple identities held by staff and the ways those identities shape those workplace experience.
Center people with disabilities. Disability work must, of course, include the leadership and participation of people with disabilities as staff, grantees, and thought partners.
In addition to hiring more staff with disabilities and disability expertise, Ford has established several disability expert advisory groups and developed guidance for other grantmakers interested in creating such groups. In starting this work, the foundation also reached out to more than 50 leaders, donors, and activists from the disability community who held us accountable and provided feedback along the way.
We urge our colleagues and partners across philanthropy to join us in addressing disability rights as a defining challenge of our time. Dismantling ableism promotes equality for people of every marginalized identity. Moving forward, we challenge ourselves, and everyone in the charity, to continue fighting for the rights of all people with disabilities everywhere and in every place we work.
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