Former Ford Foundation Head Speaks on Philanthropy in Hard Times

Susan Berresford, former president of the Ford Foundation and now a philanthropy consultant for the New York Community Trust, discussed how foundations can meet the challenges of the current economic tur­moil in a recent public dialogue hosted by the George H. Heyman Center for Philanthropy and Fundraising. Among the topics covered were the looming threats to the existence of multigenerational foundations present­ed by calls for them to increase annual spending from their endowment principal, a situation expected to be exacerbated by government social program cutbacks during these hard times.