Donors Working Together: The story of the Global Alliance for Community Philanthropy (original) (raw)

The Evolution of Community-based Philanthropy

PhiLab Blog, 2021

The past year has brought into sharp relief the ways in which global trends, phenomena, and crises play out in local spaces. For community foundations, like many civil society groups, this spotlight on the local has had a significant impact on the way they operate and relate to their stakeholders.

Philanthropy as an Emerging Contributor to Development Cooperation

Philanthropy as an Emerging Contributor to Development Cooperation, 2014

Philanthropy resists easy definition and categorization. That has made it difficult to track its contribution to specific development goals. But it need not impede philanthropy’s ascent into deep engagement with others in international development cooperation. Philanthropy, no matter where it originates, is driven by the imperative to meet human needs, alleviate suffering, and tackle the systemic challenges that prevent human development and progress. On one end of the spectrum it can be pathbreaking, supporting innovation, field building, first movers and fast movers - and at the other, it provides patient capital for long-term challenges that require painstaking efforts that go beyond political winds and shorter-term business interests. Philanthropy needs to leverage the larger resources and expertise of official development cooperation actors. And governments and the UN system need to leverage the insights, innovations and more nimble approaches of philanthropy and those organizations who the sector supports. Philanthropy reaches across borders and silos to create a better and safer world for all. The power of joining the forces of official development cooperation and philanthropy in the service of the new international, universal development goals will make a substantial difference. But this will require new mindsets, partnerships and forms of collaboration amongst the UN system, governments and the philanthropic sector alike. The challenge is worth surmounting for the leverage and greater impact it will bring.

Community philanthropy: a new model of development

It has always been a weakness for many small non---government organisations that donors tend to 'own' them and their programmes in the communities where they work. But a new model in development-community philanthropy-is emerging through forms of community foundations shaped by local context.

The Special Standing of Community Foundations as Sponsors of Donor-Advised Funds

2015

Accelerating growth of donor advised funds has attracted vocal advocates and critics whose arguments are fundamentally about definition (the purpose of philanthropy), values (good philanthropy versus bad philanthropy), regulation (government or market), policy (the role and value of tax incentives), and sponsorship (for profit or nonprofit agency). Community foundations assert a special standing as sponsors of donor advised funds (DAF) because of their unique role in communities as anchor institutions whose mission is to serve the interests of their community. The question is, is this role grounds enough to justify and preserve the distinctive value of donor advised funds held by community foundations in their present form? THE PURPOSE OF PHILANTHROPY Without going into exhaustive definition, philanthropy is generally defined as private initiatives for public good, and we can go further to define it as to improve the wellbeing of humankind by preventing and solving social problems. ...

Collective Impact: Dialogue at the Interface of the Colliding Systems of Philanthropy

World Review of Entrepreneurship, Management and Sustainable Development, 2020

Collective impact as a collaborative effort arose from the acknowledgement that existing methods and development approaches were incapable of addressing large-scale and long-term societal problems, the so-called wicked problems. By creating a model of the ecosystem of organisations around a particular issue, a funder can understand who else is working in the same space, identify potential allies, and anticipate political or economic challenges that might arise. In a case study to assess the developmental impacts of foreign aid and developmental programs on women and children in one of the poorest districts in Ghana, we developed an approach through which collective impact can be initiated and evaluated. Through the life of Lamisi Seidu, a typical, poor, rural Ghanaian woman, we tell the symbolic story of poor women living in rural, peri-urban, and urban areas all over the world. We examine what defines collective impact, how such initiatives are structured, and the challenges in creating collective impact initiatives that achieve successes that are both long lasting and large scale. We also discuss the landscape mapping approach we developed.

Philanthropy and community development: the vital signs of community foundation?

Community Development Journal, 2016

Increased funding pressures on community development and reductions in governmental funding for community support suggest potent roles for philanthropy as a funding source, and the possibility of changing relationships between community development and philanthropy. Focusing on English community foundations and their implementation of the Canadian Vital Signs initiative, which is geared towards assessing communities' vitality and social priorities, our article explores whether, and how, such changes may be occurring. Using the literature on the respective value of 'unsettling' and 'settled' third sector organisations to community development, we reflect on the roles and contributions of community foundations to community development through community philanthropy. Vital Signs reports' content indicates donor-led community philanthropy associated with ameliorative rather than fundamental social change positions, as well as uncertainty surrounding community leadership in this context. We identify community foundations as 'settled' organisations within the community development spectrum and as reflecting the 'directed' community development form. In this instance, it appears that the philanthropycommunity development gap that we suggest is at best being partially bridged. Nevertheless, and paradoxically, these organisations' achievement of financial security through community donorship could also strengthen their community leadership roles in 'unsettling' ways, so doing more to lessen philanthropy and community development's separation.