One of the world’s most renowned private foundations has announced plans to raise $1 billion through debts in order to offer grants. The Ford Foundation President, Darren Walker, has been in constant talks with nonprofits around the country who are worried about their future, due to the devastating effect of the coronavirus pandemic on their finances.
As a result, he has turned to Wall Street to raise $1 billion in order to help nonprofit organizations.
The 84-year-old organization, which is reputed to have the largest private endowment globally, is set to sell $1 billion of taxable bonds this month and use the proceeds to provide grants to nonprofits struggling to recover from the impact of lockdowns due to coronavirus pandemic, which has negatively affected their fundraising activities.
According to Walker, “We will have a tsunami of sorts that hits this community in the coming months. Through this bond offering, we will be able to provide grants to the organizations we support that will help strengthen their balance sheets and make up for the loss that they know they will have to absorb.”
Activities of charity organizations have slowed down during this pandemic, as donors fear an impending economic recession.
Ford Foundation, which has offices around the globe including Nigeria, expects that the planned bond offering will significantly augment their capacity to give money, according to Walker.
READ MORE:Neoalla Foundation/Foodclique’s COVID-19 Emergency Foodbox Initiative hits 300,000 meals milestone
Foundations occasionally benefit from the bond markets to fund construction or renovation projects. According to Bloomberg, nonprofit charities and organizations sold about $1.6 billion in debt through corporate bond sales in 2019.
The ford foundation and four other charity organizations had pledged to substantially increase their spending in charities partly through debt financing.
The West African office of the foundation which is in Lagos, Nigeria, hopes to benefit from these funds, in order to boost their programmes which include poverty reduction and injustice, strengthening of democratic values, promotion of international cooperation, and advancement of human achievements.
