WINGS is pleased to announce that, with effect from January 2008, Fernando Rossetti is the new WINGS chairperson. Fernando is the Executive Director of Grupo de Institutos Fundações e Empresas (GIFE), the Brazilian association of grantmakers. He succeeds Monica Patten of Community Foundations of Canada.

WINGS’ network of 144 participants from 55 countries in all the regions of the world continues to grow. The knowledge and experience of philanthropy available and continuously being created by WINGS’ participants is its biggest asset. Over the next three years, WINGS will strive to put in place a knowledge management system to help participants improve performance and achieve their goals. WINGS, in collaboration with its network participants, also hopes to share with the broader development and philanthropic sectors knowledge and information about philanthropic trends, practices, issues and innovations; regulatory environments and cultural contexts; and philanthropic support organizations and grantmaker associations.

There are many challenges that need to be addressed in order to achieve this: how can WINGS support and facilitate global learning across geographies and cultures? How can we increase the participation of the network’s stakeholders in the knowledge management process? How can we keep up with the increasing pace of knowledge creation to respond to demand for knowledge? How do we deal with information overload? How do we maximize the use of information technology, given the diversity of the network participants?

In overcoming these challenges, WINGS will draw on network participants and the guidance and support of the WINGS Knowledge Management working group, which comprises Filiz Bikmen (Third Sector Foundation of Turkey), Clare Brooks (Community Foundation Network, UK), Kenneth Strmiska (Council on Foundations, USA) and Noshir Dadrawala (Centre for the Advancement of Philanthropy, India).

WINGS (Worldwide Initiatives for Grantmaker Support)
Director: Marissa Camacho-Reyes
T + 63 2 926 9446
info@wingsweb.org
http://www.wingsweb.org