Our new issue on foundation investments was launched on 1 September 2020. The issue is guest edited by Danielle Walker Palmour, director of the Friends Provident Foundation, who brings her wealth of experiences working in the financial and voluntary sector. The issue includes state of the debate discussion of foundation investments across the world with views from China, Colombia, South Africa, Singapore, and Australia among others countries.

https://www.alliancemagazine.org/magazine/issue/september-2020/

The issue includes a candid and controversial dialogue between Danielle and Larry Kramer and Ana Marshall the CEO and CIO of the Hewlett Foundation, one of the world’s leading foundations and climate funders. In the dialogue, Kramer condemns what he sees as ‘virtue signalling’ demands for foundations to divest from fossil fuels, suggests that calls for everyone to spend more now to meet immediate needs are ‘short-sighted’ and argues that impact investing is just ‘nibbling around the edges’, while leaving the prevailing system of neoliberalism intact.

You can read our news story and full interview here. https://www.alliancemagazine.org/blog/frustrated-hewlett-chief-hits-out-at-philanthropy-sector-virtue-signalling/
https://www.alliancemagazine.org/feature/virtue-signalling-is-not-always-a-virtue/

It’s also the subject of my editorial https://www.alliancemagazine.org/editorial/the-hewlett-way/

The new issue also includes an interview with the European Foundation Centre ‘s new chair, Angel Font, and the launch of what we hope will be an important new column Philanthropy Confidential to safely and anonymously raise challenging issues and dilemmas in our sector. https://www.alliancemagazine.org/letter/philanthropy-confidential/

The June 2020 issue of Alliance is out https://www.alliancemagazine.org/magazine/issue/june-2020/

As the social and economic impact of the pandemic becomes clearer, the dramatic events of recent months are likely to generate a new wave of social movements of all shapes and sizes at the cutting edge of social change.

The relationship of social movements to philanthropy is the focus of this long-planned issue. Data from Candid suggests that less than 1 per cent of funding goes to support movements. Here is an area in which institutional philanthropy has been missing in action. Yet this crisis could be the moment when philanthropy first understands and then really gets behind social movements.

This issue of Alliance was originally proposed by South African philanthropy practitioner Halima Mahomed, who noted how social movements were changing the African continent while seemingly passing philanthropy by. Halima is joined as guest editor by Graciela Hopstein in Brazil and Romy Krämer in Spain to give you a global overview of social movement philanthropy.

The issue also contains an interview with the CEO of the Thomson Reuters Foundation, Antonio Zappulla.

I love the day we release our new issue of Alliance magazine, the crystallisation of intense work with contributors around the world. https://www.alliancemagazine.org/magazine/issue/march-2020/

This one was made possible thanks to our guest editors, the JR Mckenzie Trust’s Manaia King and Ford Foundation’s Monica Aleman as well as Lourdes Inga of the International Funders for Indigenous Peoples. This issue features Indigenous people from across the globe and discusses why they are indispensable allies in tackling the most pressing issues facing people and planet. Other highlights include interviews with Ford president Darren Walker and a candid chat with Center for Effective Philanthropy president, Phil Buchanan.

This and more is all here https://www.alliancemagazine.org/magazine/issue/march-2020/

Our December 2019 issue on feminist philanthropy is out guest edited by Ise Bosch and Ndana Bofu-Tawamba https://www.alliancemagazine.org/magazine/issue/december-2019/

Ise and Ndana argue that a focus on funding for ‘women and girls’ is not enough. Rather philanthropy needs a feminist consciousness. In one of our more politically charged issues, many contributors highlight the need to question social constructions of gender, challenge political and economic orthodoxies, shift power to the most marginalised, adopt an intersectional approach and place women’s rights and gender equality front and centre. The lead article by Ise and Ndana is here https://www.alliancemagazine.org/feature/philanthropy-is-a-feminist-issue/.

There are also some male perspectives on feminism including my editorial here https://www.alliancemagazine.org/editorial/philanthropy-needs-a-feminist-consciousness/

Elsewhere, we talk to Sandra Breka about a major overhaul at the Robert Bosch Foundation and their new climate programme. And David Bonbright discusses several books which respond in different ways to critiques of our philanthropy sector levelled by Anand Giridharadas.

Philanthropy rightly receives it fair share of criticism but at $2.8 billion per year, it is playing a critical role in supporting human rights around the world. This is particularly important at the present time as the open, liberal, and democratic societies which human rights help to foster are under sustained attack.

We’ve devoted a whole issue of Alliance to exploring the opportunities and challenges ahead. We talk to the Oak Foundation’s Adrian Arena about building the foundation’s major human rights programme and we discuss the Open Society Foundation’s exile to Berlin with Selmin Caliskan. We also feature views on economic and social rights, and transitional justice, from across the global south and hear about the Ford Foundation’s work in Brazil to prevent digital dis-information. All this and more here https://www.alliancemagazine.org/magazine/issue/september-2019/

Peace-related philanthropy, at less than 1 per cent of all grantmaking, seems irresponsibly small given that armed conflict spoils lives, divides societies and ruins economies. Our latest issue of Alliance goes in search of philanthropy’s role in peaceful development. 

Guest edited by a new generation of philanthropy practitioners, Lauren Bradford (Candid), Rasha Sansur (Dalia Association) and Hope Lyons (Rockefeller Brothers Fund) share their hopes for the future and discuss ways to open up the field to new voices and partners.

The issue also highlights findings from a landmark survey of peace philanthropy. It discusses whether the UN and the Sustainable Development Goals can give new impetus to peace-building, the role of community philanthropy in Indonesia, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka and Palestine, and the need to re-think existing peace and security paradigms.

Elsewhere, we talk to Lavinia Jacobs, Chair of the Swiss based Jacobs Foundation, about trying to change the status quo in early years education in Switzerland and the Ivory Coast. And our round-up from around the world of philanthropy includes news of significant increases in Chinese giving. 

The March 2019 issue of Alliance is out. https://www.alliancemagazine.org/magazine/issue/march-2019/

Philanthropy and systems approaches are an obvious coupling but the future of their relationship remains far from clear. Our latest special feature explores a growing aspiration to achieve system-level change, taking a more self-critical look than is usually found within the sector.

Guest edited by Julian Corner, CEO of the Lankelly Chase Foundation, we note the potential and pitfalls while sympathetically profiling various approaches and examples from across the foundation world. The feature includes a peer dialogue with Canada’s McConnell Foundation, a look inside Switzerland based Jacobs Foundation’s approach to changing systems and collaborative efforts to combat gun violence in Chicago.

Everywhere, we survey the state of French philanthropy and I talk to Stanford philanthropy scholar and critic Rob Reich who outlines some bold proposals to reform the sector.

The latest issue of Alliance magazine is out

https://www.alliancemagazine.org/magazine/issue/september-2018/

It includes an exclusive interview with pioneering philanthropist Ise Bosch, winner of this year’s German Philanthropy prize; DAFNE’s Max von Abendroth on what philanthropy wants from European law-makers; Andrew Milner on impact investing in Asia; Marcos Kisil on the PtP (Philanthropication thru Privatisation) program in Brazil; and an in-depth special feature guest edited by Tariq Cheema and Dr Yunus Sola on the rise of Muslim philanthropy with viewpoints from South Africa, Saudi Arabia, Turkey with, Egypt, the UK and US among others. I hope you enjoy our news and views of philanthropy worldwide. Please share your comments on @Alliancemag

The June 2018 issue of Alliance magazine is devoted to philanthropy’s developers – the people, organisations and networks central to the growth and development of philanthropy worldwide. The issue offers a new vision for the future development of the field http://www.alliancemagazine.org/magazine/issue/june-2018/