Philanthropy leaders from Canada, the US and Mexico have pledged to reduce poverty across North America. The 10-year commitment, made at the North American Community Foundations Summit in Mexico City, follows a report on the role of community foundations in achieving the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).

The pledge, which will be another boost to the burgeoning field of philanthropy infrastructure, speaks of investing in networking and learning platforms to ensure community foundations worldwide use the SDGs to develop local solutions to global problems.

The significance of the pledge is twofold.

First, it is an implicit rejection of the isolationism of the Trump presidency. The pledge runs, in part: ‘rather than succumb to any desire to turn inward, we believe our collective power lies in building learning bridges across the divides that often disconnect us.’

Second, as an accompanying press release notes, the pledge is the first multinational commitment of philanthropic leaders in North America which talks about the SDGs as both a frame and aim of their work at home and abroad.

Signatories of the pledge include Ridgway White of leading philanthropy infrastructure funder, the C S Mott Foundation, Ana Marie Argilagos, President, Hispanics in Philanthropy, Kathy Calvin, President and CEO, UN Foundation, as well as leaders from the Bermuda, Vancouver, Toronto, and Calgary Community Foundations, and philanthropic leaders from cities across Mexico, including Guadalajara, Jalisco, Punta de Mita and Monterey.