President of the Ford Foundation Discusses Trends in Philanthropy

President of the Ford Foundation Luis A. Ubiñas said the foundation is fighting for fairness during a seminar hosted by the Hauser Center for Nonprofit Organizations on Nov. 12 at the Harvard Kennedy School.

“The Ford Foundation derives its meaning from its patriotic sense that what makes this country sustainable and unique is that domestically and internationally we present this idea of fairness,” he said.

The seminar was a public conversation led by Christopher Stone, Hauser Center faculty director and Guggenheim Professor of the Practice of Criminal Justice, in which Ubiñas discussed current trends in U.S. philanthropy, ambitions for the Ford Foundation and the nonprofit sector.

For example, he refocused the foundation’s areas of work from 208 initiatives to about 30, which allows the foundation to spend six to eight times more resources on the programs. He is also experimenting with a new strategy of “strategic resource allocation” in which resources across those areas are distributed according to strategic interventions, in contrast to the more traditional, even distribution of funds across all programs.

Ubiñas acknowledged that although he hopes the strategic changes and restructuring will have significant upsides, there are some potential downsides in increased rigidity.

“We lose the serendipity, that magical moment when something unplanned, unexpected happens,” he said.

Steven Lawry, Hauser Center senior research fellow, asked Ubiñas how to ensure that the ground-breaking ideas still play a leading role in shaping what Ford does. Ubiñas said he does not “accept that notion that you have to be disorganized to identify cutting edge ideas” and cited the model of venture capital in the business sector:

“They manage to identify the scrappiest, most isolated individual they can find, and they find them somehow and magically fund them.”

Prior to joining the Ford Foundation, Ubiñas was a director at McKinsey & Company where he led McKinsey’s Media Practice on the West Coast of the United States, advising Fortune 100 media, telecommunications and technology companies on major strategic and operating challenges.

Ubiñas also has a distinguished record of leadership in the nonprofit sector, advising senior management and serving on the boards of Leadership Education and Development (LEAD), a national organization providing educational opportunities to low-income African-American and Latino high school students, the Bay Area United Way and the Steppingstone Foundation.