SOURCES OF SUPPORT AT HIGH LEVEL

When The Ford Foundation established the Police Foundation in 1970, it did so with a $30 million fund to "assist a limited number of police departments in experiments and demonstrations aimed at improving operations, and to support special education and training projects." The fund, which would support projects for a five-year period, would join with Federal, state, and local agencies in order to increase its impact. But at the end of that five-year period, Ford decided to continue its support of the Police Foundation because it had strongly established itself as a catalyst for change in policing and it was clear that much work remained to be done. Between 1970 and 1993, The Ford Foundation continued to generously support the Police Foundation’s work.

To ensure that the foundation would become a permanent institution and continue its work as an independent and nonpartisan advocate for innovation and improvement in policing, The Ford Foundation in 1993 provided a generous grant to The Third Decade Fund for Improving Public Safety, the Police Foundation’s endowment fund.

Many individuals, corporations, and foundations have funded or contributed to projects and to general support of the foundation’s work, and specific projects have been supported by Federal, state, and local government grants and contracts.