People behind the Summit

One of the beauties of the community philanthropy field is its diversity. Community foundations, most certainly! But just as important are the rich networks of women’s funds, environmental funds, social justice funds and every other type of grassroots grantmaker.

A key objective of the Global Summit on Community Philanthropy (1 – 2 December 2016, Johannesburg) is to embrace and celebrate that diversity of organizational types, as well as different geographies and cultures. As we build up to the Summit, we will be hearing from some of those people working with the GFCF to ensure a truly global, inclusive and dynamic event and one which will propel the global community philanthropy field forward into the future!

Wendy Richardson, GFCF (Belgium)

“When she wants to complain about something’s utility (or lack thereof), my Granny often uses the phrase “as useful as a chocolate teapot.” Soon after starting my job with the GFCF in January 2014, I began hearing about a Global Summit on Community Philanthropy – I’ll admit now, I had a bit of a “chocolate teapot” reaction. I suffer easily from conference fatigue, and my first thought was “who needs another one?” So why, despite this, am I excited about the Summit?

It’s likely because, for us at the GFCF, we’ve never really thought of the Summit as a conference. It’s rather one step in a much longer process to raise the profile of a potentially extremely powerful element of civil society: community philanthropy. The impressive network of organizations already involved in preparations for the Summit (from the Advisory Committee, to those undertaking research in advance of December, to our co-hosts) are also all working to ensure this won’t be just an interesting two days, forgotten as participants return to their offices, emails and day-to-day realities, but rather a real game-changer for this essential, but all too often overlooked, field.”

Chandrika Sahai, Working Group on Philanthropy for Social Justice and Peace (India) 

“The emergence of community foundations, particularly in many regions of the Global South, in the past few years has brought with it a positive trend of programming that supports civil society activism, community-led innovation and addresses the root causes and structural mechanisms of inequality, injustice and poverty. In regions of overt armed conflict and persistent and reinforcing injustices, where foreign aid and top-down philanthropic models have had limited impact, this new breed of community foundations is playing roles of paramount importance by supporting social change agendas that are locally owned and driver. They are in a unique position to drive and support this work because of their rootedness in the communities, and their knowledge of the deep-seated issues and power relations. 

For the Working Group on Philanthropy for Social Justice and Peace, which is committed to strengthening philanthropy’s impact on social justice and peace issues, the Summit is a timely and necessary event to build the momentum of this burgeoning field, and to help it develop, connect and strengthen. We are thrilled that the GFCF is at the helm of this exciting moment in philanthropy!”