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 Joana Mortari, Member of the Leading Committee of the Movement for a Culture of Giving and Board Member of Associação Acorde In a recent essay, writer, historian and activist Rebecca Solnit expressed, in a vivid and clear way, that although invisible and immaterial, we reside within many overlapping structures. “They are assembled from ideas,…
By Pablo Collada, Senior Advisor and Coordinator for Latin America & the Caribbean for WINGS. Just a few weeks ago, in Philanthropy in Focus, we published a piece about an amendment passed by the Indian parliament that modified the Foreign Contribution Regulation Act, which regulates foreign funding flows to Indian nonprofits. In that piece, Brian…
By Laurence Lepetit, Chief Executive Officer, France générosités. Our annual campaign “Vos dons agissent” has just ended and as France générosités we thought we’d share our successes and lessons learnt with WINGS members. Each year in France, 40% of donations are received in the last quarter of the year and half of them only in December. Our…
By Eugenia Mazurenko, CEO of Zagoriy Foundation According to a recent study produced by the Zagoriy Foundation, 60% of Ukrainians engaged in charitable practices in 2019. Furthermore, 87% of them have participated in charitable activities at least once in their lives. What encourages Ukrainians to give? The most popular reason why Ukrainians help others is compassion for…
By Asha Curran, CEO, GivingTuesday and WINGSForum 2020 Planning Committee member. As we approach the WINGSForum in a time of uncertainty and upheaval, how can we use this moment, and one another, to rethink, reframe, and refresh the work we do in the world? Our sector often looks at generosity through a narrowly defined and…
By Dr Sarayu Natarajan, Founder of the Aapti Institute. The word access contains a bit of a paradox within – you cannot have access unless you have access! Especially in the context of technology deployed between the state and the citizens, access is impossible without having access to technology in the first place aka the…
By Brian Kastner, Manager, Global Philanthropy at Council on Foundations and Natalie Ross, Vice President, Resource Development & Strategic Opportunities at Council on Foundations. New laws can significantly impact entire grantmaking portfolios overnight. That’s what happened on September 20, when the Indian parliament introduced new legislation amending the Foreign Contribution Regulation Act (FCRA), the law…
By Heba Abou Shnief, philanthropy specialist focusing on emerging economies and a CUNY Fellow. [1] As the COVID-19 pandemic has triggered and accelerated digital transformations across diverse sectors in both the private and public spheres, the question of whether it has had any impact on inducing Arab philanthropy programmatic support towards ‘digital solutions’ and ‘technology…
By Moutushi Sengupta, Head, India office, John D and Catherine T MacArthur Foundation. India ranks third in terms of absolute levels of carbon emissions after China and the United States. In a business as usual scenario, by 2030, emission levels are predicted to reach more than 4.4 gigatonnes of carbon dioxide (GTCO2) equivalent of greenhouse gas—up from 3 GTCO2…
By Deepali Khanna, Managing Director of the Asia Regional Office of The Rockefeller Foundation COVID-19 is undoubtedly the most defining global health crisis of our time and the greatest global humanitarian challenge the world has faced since the Second World War—both in terms of the toll it has taken on human life and well-being, and…
By Radhika Shah, Advisor, SDG Philanthropy Platform, Co-President Stanford Angels & Entrepreneur; Prof. David Cheriton, Professor of Computer Science at Stanford University, Investor, and Prof. Ken Birman, Professor of Computer Science at Cornell University, Entrepreneur, Investor. A Unique moment in time offers opportunity to Reimagine our world “Imagination is everything. It is the preview of…
By Noha El-Mikawy, Regional Director, and Yara Shawky, Program Associate, Ford Foundation Middle East and North Africa office. The ability to organize, speak up, and engage is critical if underrepresented groups are to influence decisions that affect them and to hold governments and the private sector to account. As Benjamin Bellegy argued in the “Fit…
By Laurence Lepetit, Chief Executive Officer, France générosités. France générosités was established in 1998 at the initiative of non-profit organizations and foundations, such as Fondation de France, the Red Cross, Greenpeace, Caritas, and Pasteur Institute to promote and develop charitable giving in France. Today this union comprises of over 100 of the main French non-profits…
By Kris Putnam-Walkerly, Global Philanthropy Advisor Civil society membership associations were made for times like these. Shining bright these past six months, they’ve heroically grabbed their members’ hands and illuminated pathways forward. They’ve helped members navigate the pandemic and prepare for recovery, offering real-time learning, sharing best practices, creating rapid-response funds, soliciting critical information through…
By Eugenia Mazurenko, CEO, Zagoriy Foundation. Online meetings, innovative charitable tools, creative approach, and digitalization. The third sector adopts commercial problem-solving approaches and tries to use the crisis as an impetus to qualitative changes. NGOs compete with the commercial sector not for money but for people’s attention. In other words, charity workers invest all available…
By WINGS Team One of the main ways in which COVID-19 has caused disruption at the workplace is the requirement to adjust events and in-person meets to online convenings. Earlier this year, WINGS took a decision to move the in-person WINGSForum event to 2021. This was a big decision and the challenge around going digital…
By Nicolas Miailhe, Founder & President, The Future Society Harnessing responsible AI for sustainable development On June 11, UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres released his Roadmap on Digital Cooperation. The roadmap builds upon the recommendations outlined in the report from the High-Level Panel Guterres had appointed last year co-Chaired by Melinda Gates and Jack Ma. At…
By Jacqueline Asiimwe, CEO, CivSource Africa. Like most countries around the world, when news of the coronavirus pandemic came through, Uganda went into a total lockdown. All except essential workers were disallowed on the streets. This was an unprecedented crisis and the government needed a lot of support to address the pandemic. The government quickly…
You recently published a comparative analysis of the Legal Framework for Donation and compared Chile with other countries in Latin America and several OECD countries. To get us started into the topic, which are the pillars that compose a general legal framework? A legal framework for donations that is inclusive must follow two principles:…
By Emma Hutchins, Policy and External Affairs Manager, Association of Charitable Foundations. Does the origin of wealth matter when it comes to philanthropic giving? This question has been debated in philanthropy for centuries, but is currently under a global spotlight. A few weeks ago, #BlackLivesMatter protestors in Bristol city centre pulled down the statue of…
Philanthropy in Focus 