darren walker ford foundation.

Outgoing Ford Foundation President Darren Walker’s new book “The Idea of America” is a collection of more than eight dozen texts spanning his 12-year tenure with one of the nation’s leading philanthropies. He says he regrets that American democracy weaker now than when he started. He finds that younger generations lack access to the “mobility escalator” he rode from poverty. And he describes the Trump administration’s first six months as “disorienting” for the philanthropic sector. But he still considers the upcoming collection to be patriotic. He says: “My own journey in America leaves me no option but to be hopeful because I have lived in a country that believed in me.”