In 2001, the Ford Foundation initiated a project entitled GrantCraft that collected the experiences of foundation program officers and other experts in a series of brief guides and videos. Recognizing the value of these materials as an educational resource for foundation program officers as well as for general audiences interested in civil society, JCIE cooperated with the Ford Foundation to create a Japanese-language version of the GrantCraft video series, selecting three episodes from the series that would be of particular value to Japanese audiences and using them to create an hour-long Japanese-language videotape. At present, there is much discussion in Japan on fundraising and ways to increase financial support to NPOs, but little yet on the qualitative aspects of funding. The introduction of the GrantCraft series in Japan is designed to serve as one way to help trigger debate on a series of issues related to effective grantmaking.

As an initial step in the dissemination of the GrantCraft video, it was presented at the 2003 annual meeting of the Japan NPO Research Association (JANPORA) in Nara on March 14–16. Following this launch, the video has been showcased in various professional seminars and workshops around Japan.

For more information on GrantCraft, please visit the Ford Foundation’s GrantCraft project website.