Newsletters

Global Philanthropy Newsletter—February 2018

Friday, February 16, 2018 - 12:10 pm

Natalie Ross

Last week in Mexico City, the Council co-hosted the first ever North American Community Foundations Summit, which brought together more than 200 leaders to discuss how we can truly leave no one behind and achieve the SDGs in North America by 2030. It was a powerful conversation about our shared challenges; discussing complex issues like poverty, inequality, climate change, immigration, trade, and more. We hope you saw the article Devex published this week, highlighting the potential of community foundations to achieve the SDGs and discussing both the Summit and our new report: What Role Can Community Foundations Play in Achieving the SDGs?

Out of the Summit, more than 85 foundation leaders have signed on to a shared pledge, committing to work together across borders to learn from each and address shared challenges – regardless of larger, geo-political challenges between our countries. Read the Summit commitment here and please consider signing on! This transnational solidarity is an important leadership opportunity for civil society and we look forward to facilitating learning across borders for all in 2018 and beyond.

Next week, I will be in India for meetings with WINGS and the Indian philanthropic sector, joined by several US funders working in the region. Please let me know if you’d ever like to set up a meeting or call to discuss your global philanthropy or the Council’s programs.

Thank you for all the work you do to advance global philanthropy and grantmaking. If you would like to increase your impact and gain access to the resources and networks required to do so, please consider joining the Council. You can discuss the benefits of Council membership with our membership team by calling 703-879-0645 or emailing the team at membership@cof.org.

Best,
Natalie
Vice President, External Relations

Philanthropic leaders in Mexico City Discuss SDGs & Community Foundations

The first-ever North American Community Foundations Summit on February 5-6 was co-hosted with Comunalia, Community Foundations of Canada. With over 200 attendees, the Summit focused on achieving the SDGs and included discussions about reducing poverty, building resilient economies, ensuring diversity, equity and inclusion, utilizing new technology platforms to accelerate action on global goals and protecting against climate change and natural disasters.

If you weren't able to make it to Mexico City, you can watch the Summit’s four Plenary Sessions on the Council’s Facebook page:

We were also joined in Mexico City by nine travel scholarship recipients who represented diverse U.S. communities.

A very big thank you to the Knight Foundation, International Community Foundation, Resource Foundation, Arizona Community Foundation, and Hispanics in Philanthropy for sponsoring these scholarships.

We will feature stories from our scholarship winners in upcoming blogs.

New Report Released in Mexico City!

At the Summit, we released our new report, Local Leadership, Global Impact: Community Foundations and the Sustainable Development Goals.

Local Leadership, Global Impact continues the conversation we started in Mexico City about how community foundations, using the framework of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), can leverage their knowledge and expertise to make an even bigger local and global impact. The report is free to download and includes:

An introduction to the 17 global goals
Ten steps to get started on the SDGs
Case studies from community foundations around the world

Local Leadership, Global Impact is an effective and easy way to help to get the conversation about how community foundations can leverage the SDGs to improve the quality of life for all in and beyond your community. Since its release, the report has been featured by Devex, Alliance Magazine, Philanthropy News Digest, and others.

Recent Global Philanthropy News and Reports

Global Landscape of Philanthropy Report—WINGS recently published a fabulous new report about global landscape for philanthropy, looking at philanthropic infrastructure, the changing role of community foundations, the role of corporate social impact, and trends in philanthropy globally.

Philanthropy in Russia—Philanthropy for Social Justice and Peace, in association with CAF Russia, Alliance, and WINGS recently published a report on the current state of philanthropy in Russia. The report is divided into five main sections providing a snapshot of the context of Russian philanthropy, laying out what currently exists in terms of philanthropy in the country, the driving factors as well as setbacks for giving and the potential for greater development of philanthropy in Russia. This report is part of a larger study, started in 2016, to review the current state of philanthropy in emerging economies and the role philanthropy is playing in the world today. The first report in the series was published in October 2017 and focused on Indian philanthropy.

Global Opportunity Report 2018—Recently featured by Fast Company, the report focuses on four SDGs that need most attention and some of the boldest action: inequality, responsible consumption, climate change, and oceans management.

Africa’s diaspora and its small givers can transform the continent – Highlighting the current reality and potential for philanthropy in Africa and by the African diaspora.

Grantmaker Salary and Benefits (GSB) Report

The Council’s 2017 Grantmaker Salary and Benefits (GSB) Full Report is now available online and continues to be the largest and most comprehensive analysis of the philanthropic sector in the United States. This year’s report offers insight on positions, salary, benefits, and demographics of nearly 10,000 full-time paid profession and administrative staff members. Members and survey respondents can access this tool for free – non-members can purchase access for $439.

We encourage you to use this tool to:

Determine salary levels for staff to recruit and retain talent
Plan your foundation’s annual budget
Benchmark personnel practices

We will begin collecting data for our 2018 GSB Survey on April 2^nd with a release date in early October 2018. Please mark your calendars to reserve time for your participation!

Upcoming Council Webinar and Events

For a full list of all upcoming Council events and webinars click here.

Diversity of Thought: Atlas Corps Fellows Program

Thursday, February 28 2:00PM EST

The Council is partnering with American Express and Atlas Corps to host a webinar about the Atlas Corps Fellows Program. The Council and American Express will share how participation in the Atlas Corps Fellows program helped strengthen our work and diversify our organization. Atlas Corps facilitates overseas fellowships for the best of the world's rising leaders who volunteer for 12-18 months at American organizations working on social issues. During the last 12 years, Atlas Corps placed 600 leaders from 88 different countries at many of the world's leading organizations, including AirBnB, American Red Cross, Nike Foundation, Points of Light, UN Foundation, and many more.

Register to join us for a discussion with Scott Beale, Founder and CEO of Atlas Corps; Richard Brown from American Express and their fellow, Abeer Pamuk (Syria), alongside myself and the Council’s own fellow, Maxsalia Salmon (Jamaica) to learn more.

Public Policy Summit

April 11-13, 2018| Philadelphia, PA

The Council’s inaugural Public Policy Summit promises to engage foundation leaders, policy experts, media representatives, and others in important conversations around the policy issues that are critical to ensuring philanthropy flourishes. Register now.

Remember to keep checking our global program page and the global grantmaking resources for all the latest updates!