Special Issue of Alliance Magazine: Philanthropy and Power

Courtesy of www.alliancemagazine.org

The September 2013 issue of Alliance Magazine focuses on philanthropy and power. In his article, ‘The power of money’ guest editor Stephen Pittam explores how philanthropy can best use the power brought by increased resources, as it enters its “second golden age”, to increase its impact on social justice and promoting a more equal society.

Contributions include Linda Guinee and Barry Knight on how to define power in philanthropy in their article ‘‘Whats power got do with it?’

In her article, ‘From grantee to grantmaker’, Ana Criquillion talks about the grantmaking processes of the Central American Women’s Fund (FCAM) that are grantee led and help level the playing field between donors and grantees.

In ‘Poverty and wealth in New Orleans’ Albert Ruesga talks about the power that a community foundation has and shares some practical suggestions for how these powers might be used based on the experience of the Greater New Orleans Foundation.

Halima Mahomad and Bhekinkosi Moyo in Whose agenda? Power and philanthropy in Africa’ ‘ask how philanthropic agencies can ensure that their resources are not used as tools of power and control.

In their article, ‘Unleashing foundations’ special powers’, Suzanne Siskel and Anna-Nanine Pond focus on three powers that foundations have to promote social change; the power of advocacy, of public-private partnerships and investing in public philanthropies.

Avila Kilmurray talks about ‘participative grantmaking’ as a means of sharing power across stakeholders in decision-making processes. This issues is presented through the experience of the community Foundation fro Northern Ireland in the article ‘I participate, you participate, they decide’.

On July 8, members of the Working Group on Philanthropy for Social justice and Peace organized a webinar on the issue of power and philanthropy. Extracts from the conversation are compiled into an article entitled, ‘Have foundations become more powerful?’

Contributions to the special issue also include interviews with Luc Tayart de Borms and Theo Sowa; and an article from Shami Chakrabarti on the importance of philanthropy using its power wisely. Carolyn Hayman writes on how development should be locally led not just locally implemented, Richard Murphy on tax power and philanthropy and Sophie Pritchard of edge Fund outlines a range of models by which grantmakers share decision-making with the communities they work with.

Jenny Hodgson writes on how new community philanthropy organizations are moving away from some of the traditional donor-beneficiary power dynamics in her article ‘‘Community philanthropy and power’.

Subscribers can view the full contents of the special issue on www.alliancemagazine.org

Alliance Magazine offers a 20% off on subscriptions to the Philanthropy for Social Justice and Peace Community. You can avail this offer my filling in this form and returning it to alliance@alliancemagazine.org.

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