Congratulations to the Alliance team, and its outstanding guest editors Halima Mahomed, Graciela Hopstein and Romy Krämer for your coverage of the interplay of progressive social movements and philanthropy in the last issue (June 2020). The issue is brimming with insight, experience, tested practical suggestions, and inspirational stories and its global breadth distinguishes Alliance from other sector media tackling this theme.

If I were to anticipate one emerging synthesis, it would be that there is a coherent craft and approach for organised philanthropy to support social movements. There are clear, effective, ‘right’ ways to ‘support’.

I would even say that this craft has been around for a long while now. Many years ago, I found myself in a job providing international grant and other support to liberation struggles in South Africa and Namibia. This issue brought me right back to my day-to-day challenges as a grantmaker in southern Africa in the 1980s. Remembering that time, while reading this issue, I guess my reflection would be that success, then and now, flows from deep ties of mutuality, solidarity and trust. Relationships of deep ties do not happen without explicit dedicated effort. Make space for that work!

David Bonbright
Chief executive,
Keystone Accountability