Ford Foundation’s Alumni Group Spreads Around the World
November 26, 2007 | Read Time: 1 minute
Susan V. Berresford, president of the Ford Foundation who is leaving in January, hopes to join the Life After the Ford Foundation Society, an alumni group founded in 1991 for former foundation employees, reports The New York Times.
The LAFF Society, as it is known, has 375 to 400 people on its mailing list and branches in New York, Boston, and Washington, as well as New Delhi, Bangkok, and Manila.
The group, created by Richard Magat, a former head of publications, and Edward J. Meade Jr., chief officer for Ford’s urban-poverty program, holds reunions and other gatherings and publishes a newsletter.
“I don’t know what prompted us,” said Mr. Magat. “We had both retired from the foundation, and one or both of us jointly said, ‘Gee, so many people have passed through this place and gone on to different things. It would be interesting to trade experiences and catch up with each other.’”
While Ford’s alumni group is thought to the first effort to gather a foundation’s alumni, other organizations have followed suit.
Mott’s Outstanding Old Timers — or MOOT — is a similar group, established last year for former employees of the Mott Foundation. In 2005, the Asia Foundation created an association for its alumni.
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