The second day of Philea’s Annual Conference began with one of ten site visits across the Šibenik region. From The Falconry Center, a scenic walk through Krka National Park, to a boating trip to the island of Zlarin, these visits allowed attendees to explore Šibenik outside of the glossy conference venue.

Zlarin is the first plastic-free island in Croatia, situated on the Dalmatian coast. With just 300 inhabitants – that swells to 3,000 in the height of tourist season – and no cars, local community activism has managed to ban single-use plastics in their entirety. Amidst gorgeous surroundings, we heard the story of their work since 2018, and their ideas for the future – including bringing back traditional rainwater harvesting.

The first session of the day was Centering lived experience in migration: How can philanthropy ensure more legitimacy and equity? This was a panel discussion led by Ayesha Saran (Barrow Cadbury Trust) and with opening remarks from Sophie Ngo-Diep (EPIM). On the panel Samaher Al-Hadheri (Union of Exiled Students) and Dejan Marković (European Roma Grassroots Network). Letícia Ishibashi (Paul Hamlyn Foundation) was also due to speak, however her passport got stuck in an embassy awaiting a visa. An unfortunately apt issue within the context of the discussion.

Al-Hadheri began by speaking on the origins of the Union of Exiled Students, as higher education is not universally guaranteed. Having been uprooted from her home country, Al-Hadheri understands the obstacles and frustrations, in particular administrative mistreatment. ‘We don’t want to be victims of our stories, we want to be part of the solution. We want to integrate… the process can be very difficult when you first come to a new country with zero support. It creates a huge psychological burden on that person and it’s extremely overwhelming. Our structure tries to lessen the burden.’

ERGO, said Marković, was established in 2008, founded on the philosophy of active citizenship, shared responsibility and grassroots empowerment. They look to deliver on education, housing, health and want, as well as combat discrimination and anti-gypsyism. ‘Terminology might be new, but the discrimination isn’t.’

Marković stressed that their network brings together more than 30 Roma and pro-Roma organisations across Europe, including Ukraine – which currently needs their active focus. Pre-war, there were half a million Roma living in Ukraine; now there are 150,000. These refugees are now in Central European countries, with ERGO’s support.

When asked what is missing from the philanthropic sector to really understand and incorporate the concepts being discussed, Marković posited that philanthropy has to understand local frameworks, and how to support people at the local level. ‘Sometimes there are big differences between reality and the person writing the policies.’ Al-Hadheri stated that discussions like those at Philea were a first step – to hear testimonies and stories directly.

Marković acknowledged frustration in the tendency to replace state responsibility with NGOs. Sometimes we have a problem because local authorities see us as service providers when we don’t have the capacity to outsource their jobs. Need to work with different stakeholders; a multi-sectoral approach.

‘There is an 80% dropout rate in Ukraine for Roma because they cannot follow education – can attend officially, but don’t know language, have access to internet, etc. We don’t know how to fix that. Also a problem with labour market – these people are not visible to it. We cannot solve everything, but… we have hope.’

The last half of the session saw the room divided into breakout sessions to discuss what we were all doing in this area, and how we could improve. It was agreed that funders in this area should aspire to people with lived experience of migration on boards, on their governing body – at minimum through advisory groups. ‘Then you’re not far from those you help.’ Without those with this experience having representation around your strategy and your direction, this can lead to exclusion. This also means that it can be very difficult to be a migrant and talk in these surroundings, leading to stress and a lack of confidence. More support and opportunities for development are needed in this area.

The last session of the day was Let’s debate: Lessons learned from over 30 years in philanthropy by a sunsetting foundation. After having granted more than €1 billion, the MAVA Foundation is closing – a long-planned move, decided by the funder quite some time ago.

This session was packed, filled with people keen to learn insights from Lynda Mansson, Director General of MAVA. However, this was an interactive session, with as much participation from co-speakers Jo Swinson, Director of Partners for a New Economy and Leslie Johnston, CEO of Laudes Foundation, as the audience themselves.

Mansson started with eight lessons learned from her decades in the grantmaking business:

1. Invest in collaboration – we as funders need to fund the mechanism (a person to coordinate meetings, help with fundraising, and so on), not just ask for it to be done
2. Capitalise on partner knowledge – pay for grantee time to develop strategy, to develop proposals, etc.
3. Take even more risks – we felt like we were good risk-takers. We funded the crazy, untested ideas, but when we evaluate how they went, most went well. Normally that would be a good thing, but you need more to not go well as an indicator of how much risk you took
4. Stay true to your roots to grow your branches – we funded in the same regions over decades, establishing networks and context
5. Be flexible for the benefit of your partners – so many times you put inflexible demands on partners that don’t serve them
6. Be an octopus – don’t make just grants, but use all your tools. Leadership development, sustainable finance mechanisms – whatever it is, use it all
7. Be bold and act systemically – those of us as private funders can do that especially
8. Aim to put yourself out of business – you should aim for a future where you’re not needed

For the last half of the session, the speakers focused on three of the above lessons. For each lesson, two of the speakers would take a polarised view of either ‘for’ or ‘against’ (not necessarily their own personal views) and the audience would vote by standing on either side of the room accordingly.

This was a dynamic, spirited and well-organised session that, when the speakers realised they were going to run out of time, the audience actually asked for it to continue on past the time allocated. All three speakers were able to highlight the best and worst of philanthropy in their arguments – from progress made through collaboration, to the need to be comfortable in ‘not knowing’, to a great question to end on: ‘Why should we have trust in billionaires?’

Amy McGoldrick is the Head of Marketing, Advertising and Events