A global movement of community foundations is emerging. This was first demonstrated in December 2004 at the Symposium on a Global Movement meeting in Berlin. It was demonstrated again, and the potential for such a movement was the specific topic of conversation, at a September meeting in Seattle, Washington following the US Council on Foundations’ 21st Annual Community Foundations Fall Conference.

Energized by closing remarks given by Avila Kilmurray of the Community Foundation of Northern Ireland,[1] around 35 people from at least 13 countries met to discuss how to build on the global connections that now exist across community foundations. The discussion started where the closing address had ended. Quoting George Bernard Shaw on the role of unreasonable people in making progress, Kilmurray had urged the assembled, ‘It is time for community foundations to be unreasonable.’ This charge was eagerly taken up by those who gathered for the global follow-up.