Ford Foundation: Corporate Partnerships for PIT

The Assignment
The Ford Foundation was investing in Public Interest Technology (PIT), and they wanted to engage technology corporations in their efforts.

PIT is a broad field of inquiry and interest that builds on the promise of a tech-enabled future to better serve the public and help deliver more positive outcomes.

Our challenge was to effectively bridge the foundation and PIT with private-sector technology companies to cultivate partnerships that could drive the field and tech equity forward.

The Process

• Document review, stakeholder interviews, and outlining Ford’s PIT philanthropic structure, which includes New America’s PIT University Network, or PIT-UN

• Defining corporate-partnership opportunity areas, positioning, and target audiences

• Interviews with tech industry network and continual relationship-building with private sector, including at events like SOCAP

The Outcome
The Ford Foundation scored a meeting with Chuck Robbins, the CEO of Cisco, where they discussed shared priorities and partnership opportunities. Meanwhile, we continued to pursue other private-sector partnership targets and helped bring stakeholders along in the process through planning and facilitating activities such as the Partnership on AI (PAI) board meeting.

The Results

• Cisco Convening: This half-day session with Cisco at PIT-UN engaged 30+ attendees across academia and the private sector to find opportunities for collaboration around AI and workforce equity. The Ford Foundation has many other opportunities for future engagement with Cisco around PIT as well.

• Research Paper: Our detailed framing document on Artificial Intelligence and Workforce Equity grounded the conversations at the PIT-UN convening. 

• Fundraising Strategy: Partnering with Arabella Advisors and Civic (Re)Solve/Wend Collective, we advised the Ford Foundation on a fundraising strategy going forward.