Donors

The International Development Research Centre (IDRC)

IDRC is a crown corporation created by the Parliament of Canada in 1970 to help developing countries use science and technology to find practical, long-term solutions to the social, economic, and environmental problems they face. Work is directed towards creating a local research community whose work will build healthier, more equitable, and more prosperous societies. Its mission is empowerment through knowledge.

IDRC's main goals are:

• To fund applied research by researchers in developing countries on the problems they identify as crucial to their communities. Most supported projects result from direct exchanges between the Centre and developing-country institutions.  
• To provide expert advice to those researchers.
• To build local capacity in developing countries to undertake research and innovate.

Web Site: www.idrc.ca

Ford Foundation (New York)

The Ford Foundation is a resource for innovative people and institutions around the world. It was founded to advance human welfare, and all of it work flows from this fundamental commitment.

A fundamental challenge facing every society is to create political, economic and social systems that promote peace, human welfare, and the sustainability of the environment on which life depends. FF believes that the best way to meet this challenge is to encourage initiatives by those living and working closest to where problems are located; to promote collaboration among the nonprofit, government, and business sectors; and to ensure participation by men and women from diverse communities and all levels of society.

FF's main goals are:

• To strengthen democratic values
• To reduce poverty and injustice
• To promote international cooperation
• To advance human achievement

Web Site: www.fordfound.org

Open Society Institute

The Open Society Institute (OSI), a private operating and grantmaking foundation, aims to shape public policy to promote democratic governance, human rights, and economic, legal, and social reform. On a local level, OSI implements a range of initiatives to support the rule of law, education, public health, and independent media. At the same time, OSI works to build alliances across borders and continents on issues such as combating corruption and rights abuses.

OSI was created in 1993 by investor and philanthropist George Soros to support his foundations in Central and Eastern Europe and the former Soviet Union. Those foundations were established, starting in 1984, to help countries transition from communism. OSI has expanded the activities of the Soros foundations network to other areas of the world where the transition to democracy is of particular concern. The Soros foundations network encompasses more than 60 countries, including the United States.

OSI's main goals are:

• To build free and open societies.
• To use grantmaking to strengthen civil society.
• To promote economic reform, legal reform and public administration.
• To promote education at all levels.
• To promote human rights.
• To support media and communications
• To promote public health.
• To support arts and culture.

Web Site: www.soros.org