‘A platform of platforms, a network of networks, an association of associations’ is how WINGS chair Fernando Rossetti described WINGS in the opening plenary of the 2010 WingsForum, held 18-20 November in Como, Italy. Entitled ‘Innovation and impact: the role of grantmaker associations in changing society’, the Forum brought together almost 170 participants from 39 countries, mostly from grantmakers’ associations and support organizations. The role of grantmaking associations was a central topic of discussion throughout. What role can they play? And what is the role of WINGS itself – an organization that is about to relocate to a permanent home in São Paulo in Brazil and in search of a new business model?

A key to WINGS’ future sustainability may lie in the Global Philanthropy Leadership Initiative (GPLI). A joint initiative of the Council on Foundations (CoF), European Foundation Centre (EFC) and WINGS, the GPLI came into a tentative existence at the EFC annual conference in Rome in June 2009 but only in this November has it taken on a more concrete form, following a meeting in Brussels on 8-10 November.