Bridging the Research-Action Gap.

The article presents the author's views on the Ford Foundation. The Ford Foundation does not open an office in the Philippines, or anywhere else, with a program in mind, on paper, or in the form of entries on the stubs of a check book. Rather, the office of the Representative exists to receive and occasionally seek proposals from private and public institutions and agencies, which have as their goal the execution of projects which happen to be in line with the Foundation's objectives. These objectives are subsumed under the phrase that introduces our annual reports, "To Advance Human Welfare." In practice, of course, operational definitions of the kinds of things which are eventually supported bee come a bit more refined and restrictive. The focus of our support abroad is on those research and educational activities which are in some way relevant to the development needs of the host countries. In his annual statement in 1963, the then President of the Foundation, Henry T. Heald, succinctly stated the reasons why a private American foundation works overseas.