Ford Foundation Is CU Angel

NEW YORK - (12/01/04) -- From the funding of asset buildingprograms to financial literacy and a secondary market forlow-income mortgages, the Ford Foundation has become the creditunion movement's most generous outside source of funding. The50-year-old foundation, one of the largest in the world with anendowment topping $5 billion, will provide $2 million in creditunion-related grants this year, including $550,000 to help fund theNational Federation of CDCUs' mentoring program; $445,000 to fundthe Federation's asset building project; $400,000 to assist theNorth Carolina Minority Support Center for 12 CDCUs; $90,000 todevelop international remittance programs; $210,000 for a WoodstockInstitute study on CDCUs; and $150,000 for the New York CityFinancial Network Action Consortium of CDCUs. The Foundation hasbeen helping fund credit union projects for more than a decade andis one of the biggest donors to community development credit unionsthrough annual assistance to the Federation. A 1998 grant of $5million to assist Self Help CU create a secondary mortgage marketfor low-income borrowers still stands as the largest grant everawarded credit unions.