Jim Ward

Jim created the foundation in 2018 to organize his financial support of initiatives in New Orleans and Guatemala. Jim is a lifelong resident of New Orleans but has a longstanding connection to Guatemala dating back to the 1976 earthquake.

Increase access to education for underserved people in New Orleans and Central America.

Guatemala: Initiatives focused on smaller to mid-sized programs serving girls/women and/or education, largely in the Pre-K through 12 space. New Orleans: Education-focused organizations of small/mid size (less than $1 million budget) that are focused on children and youth living within the city limits.

At present, the foundation supports organizations providing direct services in Guatemala and New Orleans. The foundation also supports several intermediary networks dedicated to coordinating the efforts of smaller organizations in Guatemala. In Guatemala, we are exploring ways of moving “upstream” with grantees to support advocacy efforts for education reform.

Guatemala: The foundation focuses largely on girls/women, with a particular interest in Indigenous populations. Our “sweet spot” tends to be initiatives that serve this population with educational services. New Orleans: The foundation currently supports initiatives providing innovative education-focused services to underserved children and youth.

Flexible/Learning: The Ward Foundation aspires to be flexible to meet the needs of its partner organizations as we learn together. We aim to provide more than funding by providing technical support (when relevant) and connections. Trust-based Partnerships: We subscribe to the tenets of Trust-Based Philanthropy, which allows us to engage in positive, honest relationships. Empathy: The Ward Foundation staff has spent many years in the role of fundraising and project implementation.

Size: One of our weaknesses is that the Ward Foundation is not large. We distribute around $1 million per year between New Orleans and Guatemala (about 20% NOLA and 80% GT). This limits our ability to provide more significant gifts. We also have just one full-time staff person. Inexperience: The foundation is only 5 years old, and we really only have 2-3 years of active engagement in grantmaking. We are therefore still defining our areas of focus and the best ways to serve our partners. We are not a well-recognized foundation. We aspire to help challenge and move some of the more traditional philanthropic practices; but, as a new foundation, we lack name recognition and clout in the foundation space.

References from existing grantees and like-focused foundations. We monitor relevant networks of organizations within our areas of focus. The inquiry page on our website.

Use the contact form on our bilingual website.

We have two grant cycles each year (spring and fall).

To avoid wasting the time of interested organizations, we aspire to connect with potential partners before the application process to explore fit. For that reason, we receive minimal applications for new funding (less than 5 new applicants per year).

For New Orleans, we fund between 5-8 entities each year. In Guatemala, the number of active partners is between 15-20 organizations.

The majority of our grants are unrestricted.

The Ward Foundation currently provides one-year, renewable grants. We strive to make sure to inform current grantees well in advance of any plans to sunset their funding.

The foundation has a limited amount each year to support the capital projects of existing or previous grantees. The vast majority of the grants are unrestricted.

Currently, the Ward Foundation only grants to entities with a US 501(c)3 or US fiscal sponsor. We also fund entities in Guatemala that have legal recognition.

Yes, in addition to English, we can field any communications in Spanish.

Yes, though we try to clarify any misalignment well before the proposal process.

1 Full-Time (based in Guatemala) and 1 Part-Time (based in New Orleans)

New Orleans, USA and Antigua, Guatemala

The 1.5 staff are both male.

50% of the foundation board is female.

The founder, 96-year old Jim Ward, is engaged with the foundation’s work at a high level. The foundation staff aspire to interpret Jim’s vision and values when seeking out, creating, and sustaining partnerships.

As a newer family foundation, the board of directors is small (6 members) that draws largely from Jim’s family.

Approximately $1.1 million in 2024.

Average size is around $15,000 in Guatemala, with a range of $10,000 to $100,000. In New Orleans the average is $20,000 and in Guatemala the range is $20,000-$30,000.

We are in our discovery phase and a growth mindset. As a new foundation, we are not set in our ways with rigid guidelines. We see our role as supporting the whole ecosystem of civil society, not just our grantees. We aspire to view the foundation’s decision-making through the lens of the founder, Jim. His values include: integrity, justice, hard work, and win-win scenarios.

The foundation’s assets fluctuate and are not always liquid. The funds come from real estate and stocks, both of which change. For this reason, making multi-year commitments is currently difficult for us. Our goal is to limit/eliminate unnecessary work for grantseekers. We will only invite you to apply if you have a high probability of approval. We are not a big foundation and there is minimal bureaucracy. At this point, we are still able to be very responsive to inquiries and requests for conversations from potential grantees.

The Ward Foundation aspires to foster spaces of collaboration among grantees. We look for evidence of proactive collaboration when seeking out partners. The majority of the foundation’s funding goes towards smaller to mid-sized organizations (usually less than $1 million annual budget) that are in intensive phases of growth. The foundation seeks to support "locally-visioned" organizations with leadership that is proximate to the cause it aspires to address. We shy away from organizations with large, distant leadership offices and instead prefer in-country/local executive leadership.

The foundation has a strong aversion to organizations with elements of rescue/hero white saviorism. This is evidenced through donor-centric programs like child sponsorships or unskilled voluntourism for service provision. The foundation has no religious affiliation and avoids programs with any overt religious connotations. The foundation avoids large organizations where our financial support is not clearly impactful.

To save time, please talk to us before writing up any formal documents.

As a new foundation, we are still exploring how we can best support our grantees and the general landscape of philanthropy.

2024 Guatemala: MAIA Guatemala, Maya Health Alliance, Women’s Justice Initiative, Wings, Limitless Horizons Ixil, Creamos, Planting Seeds, Guatemala Youth Initiative, Sueños, Peronia Adolescente, Atlas, She’s the First/Ellas al Fente initiative, El Directorio Guatemala, RECARGA, Nueva Esperanza, Esperanza Juvenil, Puerta Abierta, ANADESA, Amigos de Santa Cruz. (Former grantees: ChildAid, MathKind, Antigua International School, Teach for Guatemala, El Colectivo) 2024 New Orleans: Live Oak Camp, 18th Ward, Bard Early College, UnCommon Construction, BeLoud Studios, Camp FLo, College Beyond

Creamos - Guatemala (current) MAIA - Guatemala (current) Live Oak Camp - New Orleans (current)

Philosophy on hero-victim dynamic: https://www.weareforgood.com/episode/142 Trust-based philanthropy: https://www.trustbasedphilanthropy.org/ Foundation Archetypes (we identify as Venture Catalysis and Designers)