A version of this post first appeared on http://youngfeministfund.org/ on June 30, 2014

After four years since it’s founding, FRIDA remains the only youth-led fund in the world focused exclusively on supporting global young feminist activism.

Last March, a small group of social justice philanthropy thinkers and advocates gathered for a 2 day meeting at the sidelines of the WINGS Conference in Istanbul, Turkey. Participants were mainly from Africa but we also had a few from the diaspora and the global SJP community. The meeting was a culmination of offline and online conversations and conference calls that had been going on throughout 2013 and the felt need for getting together to consolidate and build consensus on how best to carry the group's work forward. The offline conversations include the discussions at the AFF and AGN convenings in Cairo, Egypt and Johannesburg, SA respectively in 2012 and the EAAG Conference in 2013 in Mombasa, Kenya. These were complimented by bilateral ongoing conversations. The decision to have a substantive working meeting was made in October 2013.

By Rita Thapa

Yesterday I was invited to watch “Waiting For Mamu” - a film made on 2012 CNN Hero, Pushpa Basnet.  From start to finish tears flowed down my face shamelessly.  More so, when Pushpa who has now taken in over 100 children of jailed mothers from 14 prisons across Nepal, spoke of how the “Butterfly Home Project” for her children is an absolute commitment on her part so that they are no longer thrown away from rented homes as in the past years.  

She will need over $ 700,000 or more (I gather from my experience) to build and equip something to house that large a family.  So far she has acquired land and has received approximately $ 100,000 in cash.  I returned from the film with a silent pledge to my self to commit my personal gift of Rs. 100,000 and while that accumulates, to look for a matching gift/s of US $ 100,000 for Pushpa. 

This article first appeared on May 17, 2014, in Latest from Alliance - the blog of the Allaince Magazine

A large part of the conversations at the 25th EFC Annual General Assembly and Conference in Sarajevo have drawn focus to the uneasy realities of the ‘European project’.  Framed by the backdrop of Sarajevo – a city that knows much about conflict and peacebuilding, continuous rains and news of the worst floods in the Bosnia in 120 years, discussions at the conference have been hard-hitting, forcing a critical questioning of the role of philanthropy in Europe today.

The following is a cross-posting from White Courtesy Telephone by Max Niedzwiecki Ph.D.

Max, the principal of Daylight Consulting Group, is a social justice advocate, researcher, and fundraiser based in New Orleans. 

Steal This Survey: Creating a Research Agenda for Social Justice Philanthropy

The focus of people who work in philanthropy shifts in mysterious ways. Our attention spans are notoriously short. We might care about income inequality, for example, and see the issue come into sharp focus during the rise of the Occupy Movement. Weeks later, it’s old news. The same goes for topics such as the digital divide, social capital, collective impact – you name it. Areas of focus and styles of giving go in and out of fashion in philanthropy as quickly as couture changes on Paris runways.

Avila Kilmurray’s presentation at the WINGS Forum in Istanbul in March 2014 titled ‘Role of Philanthropy in Difficult Times’ resonated deeply with us at the Neelan Tiruchelvam Trust, (NTT) an indigenous foundation based in Sri Lanka engaged in community philanthropy. While stressing the importance of community philanthropy Avila set out the elements that make community philanthropy an integral part of social justice initiatives. One in particular encapsulates what community philanthropy does best, and lies at the core of the success of community philanthropy; community philanthropy’s ability to ‘be the antennae of the philanthropic world; and in terms of outcomes, it can be the source of social capital that can bridge the global and the local contexts, in addition to promoting solidarity within the local itself’. The experience of NTT, which I share in this article, is testament to this.  

I find that with each passing year the philanthropic discourse succumbs more and more to thinking and language that’s driven by and suited to market-based solutions. In this context, the ‘Barry Gaberman Lecture’ delivered by Avila Kilmurray titled ‘The Role of Philanthropy in Difficult Times’, provided a refreshing grounding to the conversations at WINGSForum 2014: The Power of Networks, held in Istanbul in March. Avila provided a contextual analysis of what is happening in the world today.

by Rita Thapa

Photo: SC Closing Event 2 April 2014 at the Tewa Center - A Community of Donors

Just this month, I was witness to 3 philanthropic phenomena!

1. The 3 year long Samapanna Campaign (SC) was brought to closure at Tewa, the Nepal women’s fund in Kathmandu,
2. I had the opportunity to participate in the Global Donor’s Forum (with a focus on Arab philanthropy), and
3. Independent youth activists, painted powerful mural messages in Kathmandu, volunteering their time and pooling in necessary resources.

The SC had a goal to raise US $ 900,000.   We managed to raise US $ 1,000,000 including the well-timed gift of US $ 300,000, which came from a private Trust housed in the Royal Bank of Canada, Jersey Island, UK.  Of this total amount US $ 130,000, was gifted by Nepali donors alone, 90 Tewa grantee organizations from all over Nepal also became donors to the SC, and furthermore ALL the staff and almost all the members of Tewa became SC donors! 

Last week I attended a public lecture in the magnificent York Minster, the great cathedral in northern England.  I felt as if I was in the heart of the English establishment, with all the wrappings of church and state.  The lecture was given by the Director of Christian Aid in Scotland.  Her day job is concerned with global poverty and how to promote development in the global south. 

In his book, ‘A Tale of Two Cities’, Charles Dickens wrote that ‘It was the best of times, and it was the worst of times’; and as ever the Chinese have a proverb (some say a curse) – ‘May you live in interesting times’, but our lecture title today – ‘The Role of Philanthropy in Difficult Times’ undoubtedly has a resonance with Barry [Gaberman] given his many years of thoughtful and insightful contribution to global philanthropy.  Difficult times are invariably complex and bring with them both challenges and opportunities.  So my optimistic sub-text today is the following question: