Giving Compass' Take:

• Alliance and other partners hosted Next Philanthropy's London event, where panelists discuss how to address global philanthropic challenges.  

• What are the main issues in global philanthropy? 

• Learn more with the global philanthropy guide. 

The end of February saw Alliance hosting Next Philanthropy’s first-ever London event, amidst both literal and metaphorical storms of change. Next Philanthropy, initiated by the German Association of Foundations (BDS) in partnership with Alliance, AVPA, AVPN, DAFNE, EVPA and WINGS, seeks to address the challenge of keeping up with the increasingly globally connected philanthropic landscape.

Some are taking note of the weather and embarking on reform and modernisation in response to concerns about a lack of internal diversity, opaque investments and undue influence. Others are looking to the future to see whether the next generation of wealth holders take philanthropy in new and potentially more progressive directions.

We brought together a panel of five: Felix Oldenburg, Secretary General of the Association of German Foundations and chair of DAFNE; Kurt Peleman, European Representative of AVPN; Kristina Johansson, managing director of the Solberga Foundation and Nadya Hernandez, programs manager for WINGS, who was speaking live from Brazil. The discussion was moderated by Alliance editor Charles Keidan.

Next Philanthropy was created as a way to channel this into an open conversation. ‘It’s not how it should change; we’re not talking about personal opinions or recommendations necessarily, but about all the different forces that we can identify.’ These forces are truly global in a way that is completely new to philanthropy.  ‘Most of us as support organisations are set up domestically, with a limited geographic focus. Whereas if you follow the news about philanthropic initiatives over the last few years, a lot of it now has a global reach. It also will be far more digital, in ways that existing organisations aren’t and may not ever be.’

Read the full article about global philanthropy by Amy McGoldrick at Alliance.