The Ford Foundation announced a $50 million endowment grant to Harvard University's John F. Kennedy School of Government. It is the largest single donation the Kennedy School has ever received and the largest single endowment ever made by the Ford Foundation. The funding will be used to establish the Institute for Government Innovation at the Kennedy School designed to encourage innovative government programs in the United States and overseas.

"For too long, our culture has focused excessively on the failures of government, which has helped create a distrust in government," said Joseph S. Nye, Dean of the Kennedy School. "The endowment grant is an investment in public service which is so vital to the nurturing of healthy democracies throughout the world. We hope the institute will help inspire a renewed passion among young people to work in the public sector for the betterment of society as a whole."

The funds will build on the success of a 1986 Kennedy School program, Innovations in American Government. Innovation winners have received funds to develop programs for reducing crime, reforming schools, preserving natural resources, improving social services and other public issues. The Innovations in American Government program has recognized 145 creative government initiatives with grants of $100,000 each and 135 finalist with grants of $20,000.

The Institute for Government will run the expanded Innovations awards program in the United States and serve as the hub for a global network of innovators. Aside from awarding grants, other institute activities will include conferences and training sessions for public managers, publications and research fellowships.

Susan V. Berresford, president of the Ford Foundation said, "Creative solutions for public problems abound in government at all levels. That has been amply demonstrated by the Innovations awards in the United States and is increasingly apparent in other societies around the world. The Kennedy School incubated this idea with great success, and this significant support will allow its new institute to make connections and engage others on an international scale."

The Ford Foundation is an independent nonprofit grant making organization with goals to strengthen democratic values, reduce poverty and injustice, promote international cooperation and advance human achievement.

The Innovations program in an awards program of the Ford Foundation administered by the John F. Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University in partnership with the Council for Excellence in Government in Washington D.C.