Perspectives on investing in civil society, philanthropic and technical infrastructure.  Civil society – both in its more and less institutionalized forms – has organised extensively to respond to the health, humanitarian and governance challenges unleashed by the COVID-19 pandemic. Our space to do so varies hugely thanks to the diverse regulatory, reputational, philanthropic, and technical…

Perspectives on investing in civil society, philanthropic and technical infrastructure.   Civil society – both in its more and less institutionalized forms – has organised extensively to respond to the health, humanitarian, and governance challenges unleashed by the COVID-19 pandemic. Our space to do so varies hugely thanks to the diverse regulatory, reputational, philanthropic, and technical…

By Julie Broome, Executive Director of Ariadne In March, Ariadne, a network of European funders for social change and human rights, published its 2020 Forecast exploring what the coming year holds for European philanthropy.  The report draws from the input of 170 funders. The start of 2020 has surprised many of us, and none of…

By Chris Worman, Vice President at TechSoup   In late January, before COVID-19 dominated our newsfeeds and dictated our daily lives, Regine Webster, Vice President at the Center for Disaster Philanthropy, authored a blog post titled ‘Raise Your Hand if You are Disaster Philanthropist.’ With her years of experience in disaster philanthropy, Regine is worth…

WINGS surveyed its members’ CEO/senior leaders to find out how the crisis has impacted them, what measures they are taking, their initiatives in response and what type of priorities they place at the global level for the philanthropy sector.   The survey provides an insight into what our members are doing, how they are working with…

By Chandrika Sahai, Coordinator for Philanthropy for Social Justice and Peace (PSJP) (with inputs from Maria Chertok, Ana Valeria Araujo, Atallah Kuttab, Jenny Hodgson and Barry Knight)   Just before Christmas last year I found myself with a very small and unsure group of ‘anti-CAA’ protestors outside a public park in Jaipur. We weren’t certain…

By Lester M. Salamon, Johns Hopkins University   Energetic efforts are being made at the present time to promote the development of community foundations or other community-based philanthropic institutions in less-developed and transition regions around the world. A crucial barrier to the success of these initiatives, however, is the general lack of capital to underwrite…

By Naina Subberwal Batra, AVPN CEO   Whether I am speaking with a small social purpose organisation just embarking on its impact journey or leaders of long-established foundations, we always circle back to the same conundrum: how do we allocate limited resources, like philanthropic capital, most effectively so that we do not compromise on one…

Since our last newsletter, where we shared the impact of Covid-19 as well as our members’ response in China, there has been a worldwide proliferation of the virus. As in the case with China, our members and the philanthropy community has moved with speed and agility in response to the crisis. Given it has impacted…

By Benjamin Bellegy, WINGS Executive Director   At the time of writing this note, more than half the human population is under lock-down and a huge proportion of all human activities have halted, generating a deafening silence and propelling humanity into the unknown, placing strain on the global economy and raising deep doubts about our…

COVID-19 has upset virtually every industry in China, as people were ordered to remain at home and not return to their place of work after the Chinese New Year. This includes WINGS’ four members based in the country, along with millions of other Chinese citizens. WINGS checked in with its members in the country, and…

The WINGS Network is made up of over 150 philanthropy support organizations from 50+ countries, and is growing every year. See some of the organizations that joined for 2020 below, and get to know your network. Check out our map to see which countries WINGS members are based in. From WINGS, a warm welcome to…

by Filiz Bikmen, founder and advisor at Constellations for Change, and the Founding Director of Esas Sosyal, in Turkey. Author of WINGS recent Philanthropy Networks: Creating Voice, Value and Collective Impact. This is a proverb, (idiomatic) which means: In hindsight things are obvious that were not obvious from the outset.[1].In this blog, I’m sharing some…

By Stefan Schurig, Secretary-General of the Foundations-20 Platform   It was one of those – indeed – unforgettable speeches at the General Assembly in New York, September 2019. The room was packed with more than 200 presidents, heads of states, policy experts, people from the financial sector and civil society representatives. And yet, one couldn’t…

By Noura Selim, Executive Director at Sawiris Foundation   19 years as one of the first family foundations in Egypt, the Sawiris Foundation for Social Development, working actively and tirelessly to serve the most marginalized communities in Egypt through education, economic empowerment and social empowerment. What have we achieved in these 19 years? Can we…

by Benjamin Bellegy, Executive Director, WINGS   Who said net-working means not-working? Few forms of organization and action require as much thoughtful, work intensive, persevering, adaptive, and well- resourced effort and labour than networks to be successful. While their reward lies in sustainability, impact, trust and effectiveness, their establishment and management are complex. In philanthropy,…

By Weiming Wu, Senior Program Manager and Legal Officer at Woqi Foundation   The 1980s saw a great change in the development of Chinese philanthropy when the government started opening space for civil society to help deal with social problems, and welcoming the increasing number of international aids/development projects started entering the country, which, to…

By Edgar Villanueva, author of the book “Decolonizing Wealth: Indigenous Wisdom to Heal Divides and Restore Balance”   Whenever we are faced with a problem, there is a tendency to embark on paths for new solutions. We over-appreciate new research but underappreciated the lessons of history, passed down via oral traditions, storytelling and written documentation.…

By Mariana Sandoval Ulloa, Executive Director at Comunalia   With the current situation in the country and the world, Comunalia, the alliance of community foundations in Mexico, decided for the first time to include a strategic transversal line of advocacy aimed at creating better conditions for a favorable development environment for organized civil society, with…