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Foundations
Help needed to cross the bridge, says Family Foundation Giving Trends 2011 report
More support is needed in setting up family foundations so that they can become ‘fundamental and widespread’ in the UK. So says the Family Foundation Giving Trends 2011 report, published by the Pears Foundation and …
Social investment: how can foundations help develop this market?
Trusts and foundations have a unique role to play in developing the social investment market. This opportunity comes at a time when I expect a lot of funders are pondering the lacklustre performance of their …
Giving in perpetuity or spending out: pros and cons
As director of GrantCraft in Europe, I always have my ear to the ground so as to pick up on the impulses and trends that are driving the foundation sector which can later serve as …
Fashioning new government-mandated charity policies for accountability and transparency
At the present time the Chinese Ministry of Civil Affairs (MoCA) has a very robust web portal for civil society, both nationally and for the local bureaus. The national web portal http://www.chinanpo.gov.cn has online application …
View from the bridge: ACF conference looks to challenging times
The opening plenary of the UK’s Association of Charitable Foundations’ 2011 conference on 18 October was called ‘view from the bridge’. And the view was very much what we might have expected to see: what …
Beware consensus: we’re all venture philanthropists now!
On 21 September I attended an event in London to launch Beyond money: A study of funding plus in the UK. The study, written by the Institute for Voluntary Action Research and commissioned by Barrow …
Mission-related investing: a cautionary tale
Always eager to find ways to leverage their assets while advancing their organizational mission, foundations increasingly are turning to a new tool in the grantmaking toolbox: mission-related investments (MRIs) – i.e., investing a portion of …
Cross-border giving – how can we sustain the momentum?
The recently released Giving USA 2011 annual report on philanthropy showed that international affairs (giving) is the big winner – up 18.6 per cent cumulatively between 2008 and 2010. Some may assume that this …
EFC conference focuses on oceans as metaphor for sustainability
Held in the pretty seaside resort of Cascais in Portugal from 26 to 28 May, the European Foundation Centre’s 22nd annual conference was entitled ‘Resources and Sustainability – The Oceans’. The intention, as explained by …
Report on US non-profit funding of journalism shows achievements and limits – and has lessons for Europe
In the last ten years, the US non-profit sector has invested over a billion dollars in safeguarding and promoting quality journalism to combat perceived threats to the role of the media as the watchdog of …
