It seems that foundations, whatever their current mission and focus, are increasingly being pushed to try to tackle the world’s most pressing, and threatening, issues – poverty, disease, global warming. While this year’s Council on Foundations conference looked at ‘Philanthropy and the Challenges of Our Time’, the European Foundation Centre’s conference focuses on ‘The New Challenges of Global Philanthropy’. This is also the theme of this issue of Alliance, while the September issue will focus on addressing climate change.