What are you doing to lift up social justice issues in your work? Who best to hear about addressing root problems than from the communities themselves and incorporating their voices into your work? Philanthropy infrastructure may run the risk of seeming dry at times. Punching data, research, networking events, publications on the landscape of your…
Charles Keidan is the Editor of Alliance Magazine 1- Is this the first time Alliance is doing a special feature on philanthropy infrastrusture? Why now? Why is it an important enough topic to feature philanthropy infrastructure in the June edition of Alliance? Alliance has always played close attention to philanthropy infrastructure but this is…
This post originally featured in Alliance Magazine. WINGS members can benefit from a free or discounted subscription – be sure to get in touch to find out more. Everybody knows about the Paris Agreement, but what many don’t know is that cities played a crucial role in making it happen. Around 450 mayors from five…
Our latest post is brought to you by our partners at Alliance Magazine – be sure to get the latest issue! The December 2015 Paris Agreement, and the thousands of commitments it catalysed, is the first truly meaningful global response to the climate crisis. Together, the commitments made at Paris by national governments, states, cities,…
Maria Chertok (CAF) reports on the second Emerging markets philanthropy forum held in Beijing. “The fundamental driving force for this new wave of philanthropy development is a tension between rapid economic growth and accumulation of wealth, and growing inequality and lack of adequate social policy.”
The 3rd award ceremony for the Olga Alexeeva Memorial Prize took place during the 2nd Emerging Markets Philanthropy Forum in November in Beijing, China. Alina Porumb, prize winner, is strategic philanthropy programme director with Romania’s Association for Community Relations (ARC). The core of her work in the last ten years has been helping to create an active community foundations movement in Romania, offering a model of self-reliance and mutual support to communities at a time when they were accustomed to look outside for resources and assistance.
Dr. Atallah Kuttab is promoting a better understanding of local practices and philanthropy discourse — a trend he hopes will create a “truly global philanthropy enriched with its diversity”. We met with Kuttab to learn more about Arab philanthropy, its history, and how it fits into an “ecosystem of philanthropies around the world”.
In all the countries of the Arab region there is a longstanding tradition of social giving in a variety of forms and inclusive of all faiths, the best known being waqf.
The six finalists for this year’s Olga Alexeeva Memorial Prize come from Brazil, China, India, Romania, Russia and the USA – and they are equally diverse in terms of the variety of their approaches to building philanthropy.
The six finalists for this year’s Olga Alexeeva Memorial Prize come from Brazil, China, India, Romania, Russia and the USA – and they are equally diverse in terms of the variety of their approaches to building philanthropy.
The six finalists for this year’s Olga Alexeeva Memorial Prize come from Brazil, China, India, Romania, Russia and the USA – and they are equally diverse in terms of the variety of their approaches to building philanthropy.
This month marks the end of Caroline Hartnell’s tenure at Alliance magazine, and it brings us great pleasure to highlight her outstanding contributions to WINGS and to the field of philanthropy with a few words from our members and partners.
The Charles Stewart Mott Foundation and the MacArthur Foundation were recent named on a list of organizations whose actions the upper house of the Russian parliament recommended designating as ‘undesirable.’
Independent global philanthropy professional John Harvey recaps a recent three-day dialogue in Rio de Janeiro hosted by Brazil’s Network of Independent Funds for Social Justice, an event he says “may well be remembered as a watershed for Brazilian philanthropy.”
In his report from the African Grantmakers Network Assembly in Arusha, Yves Niyiragira (Fahamu) highlights grassroots initiatives that seek to promote agro-ecological policies for food security and sovereignty in Africa, calling on major grantmakers for their support. “How do we help to amplify the voices of rural women farmers who promote agro-ecological farming so that their message is heard all over the world?”
Space for civil society has been closing around the globe, with a noticeable rise in restrictive laws and pushback by state and non-state actors. In mid-June, Ariadne, the European Foundation Centre, and the International Human Rights Funders Group convened an international group of funders for a two-day workshop to develop strategies to counter this trend.
Brad Smith (Foundation Center): “Inequality is an inescapable fact of our world: while extreme poverty in many regions of the globe may be declining, recent research suggests that the gap between rich and poor is fast becoming a growing threat to peace, economic prosperity, the environment, public health, democracy and just about any other major challenge you can name. Indeed, one of the 2030 Sustainable Development Goals developed by seventy nations (with the direct participation of 7.5 million people around the world) is to ‘reduce inequality within and among nations.’ So, why don’t more foundations embrace the term?”
Community foundations take a special role in long-term rehabilitation work following natural disasters, but as Avila Kilmurray (GACP) suggests, they are often not seen as international partners. “No one is better situated to make this long-term commitment than community foundations, but they are often left out of international relief efforts.”
Otar Makharashavili (Bolder Giving) reports on a recent webinar cohosted with WINGS, as part of the organization’s Global Givers Initiative, which aims to advance philanthropic giving by promoting donor awareness and action in Southeastern Europe through donor storytelling. “The lack of trust in civil society and the NGO sector in general continues to be the biggest roadblock for groups working on local individual philanthropy promotion.”
Caroline Hartnell (Alliance magazine) reports from the 26th EFC Annual Conference in Milan, focusing on 2015 as a critical year for change. “European foundations have a responsibility to recognize that what is needed now is not system maintenance and recovery; it is system innovation, redesign and transformation.”
Philanthropy in Focus 