Editor’s Note:
We bring forward from our Foundation Watch section below two Ford Foundation announcement’s which we considered to warrant fuller treatment here.

New $25 million fund for South African civil society groups working to advance constitutionalism
Ford Foundation
5 February 2015
Joint statement from the Open Society Foundations, Ford Foundation and Atlantic Philanthropies
Today the Open Society Foundations, Ford Foundation and Atlantic Philanthropies announced the launch of a joint fund to support local organizations promoting and advancing constitutionalism in South Africa, to mark the first 20 years of South African democracy.

The three contributing foundations, each of which has decades of experience working in South Africa, and which ordinarily support civil society organizations, the local philanthropic community and also government, will provide a collective $25 million to South African organizations whose purpose is to advance a democratic and open society.

Twenty years after the adoption of the South African Constitution, described as the world’s most progressive, South Africa still has many challenges. Delivering on the civil, political and socioeconomic aspirations embedded in that Constitution requires a society that is transparent, open, non-discriminatory and operates according to the highest standards of Constitutional accountability.

Responding to these challenges, and recognizing the significant innovative and leadership role that South African civil society organizations play in both articulating these challenges and providing appropriate responses rooted in the rule of law, the three foundations will in implementing the fund rely extensively on an independent local Selection Panel, chaired by former Constitutional Court Justice Yvonne Mokgoro, to advise the foundations on allocating resources from the fund to South African organizations that meet the criteria of the fund…

Ford Foundation Expands Creative Commons Licensing for All Grant-Funded Projects
A change consistent with organization’s longtime commitment to transparency, knowledge-sharing
3 February 2015:
(New York) – The Ford Foundation announced today that it is adopting an open licensing policy for all grant-funded projects and research to promote greater transparency and accessibility of materials. Effective February 1, grantees and consultants will be required to make foundation-funded materials subject to a Creative Commons license allowing others, free of charge and without requesting permission, the ability to copy, redistribute, and adapt existing materials, provided they give appropriate credit to the original author.

The Ford Foundation has long supported transparency—including open licensing, which is an alternative to the traditional “all rights reserved” copyright and encourages sharing intellectual property in a digital global commons. By moving to broadly disseminate a large amount of educational and research materials resulting from its funding, the foundation hopes to make its work and the work of its grantees more accessible and ultimately, increase its impact.

“Our organization is committed to being as transparent and open as possible, and this philosophy extends to the work we fund and the valuable materials we and our grantees produce,” said Darren Walker, president of the Ford Foundation. “This policy change will help grantees and the public more easily connect with us and build upon our work, ensure our grant dollars go further and are more impactful, and—most importantly—increase our ability to advance social justice worldwide.”

The Ford Foundation plans to use the most recent Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY 4.0), the most open license offered by Creative Commons, a nonprofit organization and Ford Foundation grantee dedicated to facilitating the sharing and use of materials through simple, standardized open licenses…