Ford Foundation to Close Offices in Russia and Vietnam as Part of Cost-Cutting Effort

After losing almost one-third of its assets during the last year, the Ford Foundation announced last week that it would close its offices in Russia and Vietnam.

“Given our obligation to our grantees worldwide, and the people they serve, we have been forced to make some very hard choices to bring about further savings,” Luis Ubiñas, the foundation’s president, wrote in an e-mail message he sent to Ford employees.

“It is with great regret,” he added, “that I share the news that the foundation will be winding down its operations in Vietnam and Russia by the end of September.”

The move will eliminate 30 staff positions.

It will also save the organization at least $4-million in its 2010 fiscal year, which starts October 1, said Alfred Ironside, the foundation’s director of communications.

He said Ford chose the two offices, both of which opened in 1996, because their closures would be “considered least disruptive to staff and operations.”

In his e-mail message, Mr. Ubiñas wrote that the foundation was able to reduce its operating expenses last year by $22-million thanks to cost-cutting efforts.

But with its assets falling 30 percent, to $9.5-billion last year, that amount was not enough to prevent drastic moves and layoffs.

Other Changes

The foundation recently announced changes in its grant making, saying it would not alter the types of causes it supports but would try to spur collaboration and efficiency among its grantees.

The decision to close the offices was unrelated to those changes (The Chronicle, April 23).

As for its Russian and Vietnamese programs, the foundation is “enormously proud of the work” of the staff and grantees, said Mr. Ubiñas.

And he praised the programs for helping to build stronger nonprofit groups and improved human rights and economic development in their respective regions.

He also said that the Ford Foundation would continue to operate two signature programs in the regions.

The International Fellowships Program provides scholarships for graduate study to people from developing countries.

The second surviving project, Mr. Ubiñas said, eases the health and environmental damage caused by Agent Orange, the chemical herbicide used by the U.S. military during the Vietnam War.

Ford, the second wealthiest American foundation, will continue to have a global presence with 10 other overseas offices in Indonesia, South Africa, and elsewhere.

Despite the closing of the foreign offices, Ford, which has its headquarters in New York, still needs to trim its budget, Mr. Ubiñas said.

“We are all affected, both personally and professionally, by the severity of this global recession,” he said.

“At the foundation, our challenge is to make the decisions required of us to ensure that our grant budgets are as robust as possible in this time of need and that our costs are structured to meet our long-term needs,” he added.