SAGE Fund Receives Ford Foundation BUILD Grant
The SAGE Fund is pleased to announce that we have been selected as a recipient of the Ford Foundation’s Building Institutions and Networks (BUILD) initiative. SAGE is poised to go further, faster as we work to advance human rights in the global economy. Being selected for this grant is a testament to the early success SAGE has had and shows confidence in our unique collaborative model that centers deep partnership with our grantees.
The grant provides five years of general operating support, combined with targeted organizational strengthening support. As we enter our 10th year, we are stepping back to evaluate our work and determine how we can improve and scale the model we have put into action to deliver more for our grantees. This grant will enable us to take fundamental steps to strengthen our core infrastructure for long-term resilience and impact. Specifically, this grant will be leveraged to:
Refine our Strategy: Conduct a refresh of our Theory of Change (TOC) and grantmaking model to ensure our work continues to be deeply connected and responsive to the field.
Build Foundational Functions: Build out our learning, documentation, and communications functions to create a robust system for capturing, assessing, and sharing the strategies and impacts emerging from our grantmaking.
Strengthen the Model: Design a more participatory and grounded grantmaking model, rooted in Global South perspectives and incorporating greater field and constituency input across our structures.
SAGE Fund has established its niche by employing a systems-focused, cross-movement frame that tackles the structural dimensions driving inequality. This approach has allowed us to support a wide range of thematic grant rounds, from Climate and the Just Transition to Worker Empowerment, Gender Economic Justice and the Care Economy, delivering 12 million in grants to over 216 organizations in over 52 countries since 2015.
In an increasingly complex and interconnected world, the SAGE Fund has recognized that by working collaboratively, across sectors, we can make gains that would have otherwise remained siloed. We can act as a bridge between movements, between geographies, and between civil society organizations. We have always centered the needs of the field in our grantmaking, diving into deep research and partnerships that have resulted in strategies that make a difference. Now we will be poised to do more.
We are immensely grateful to our grantees, to Ford Foundation and other funders who have bet on SAGE and its model. This is only possible because of your trust in us and your support for our work. Together, we look forward to moving into this next chapter with hope for more collaboration, connection and change.