Philanthropy seemed always a bit of a mystery to me. Until I worked for a foundation.
In my 10 years of international development cooperation work, both at big players like the UN, or smaller ones like Irish Aid, I have only tangentially come across philanthropic foundations. And I've never directly worked with them. Examples that I heard of in my early career were the McArthur Foundation in the migration field, or the Gates Foundation as an example of big philanthropic money in African health systems. I had a hard time understanding how philanthropic foundations work, how they align themselves (or not) with the bilateral and multilateral donors and partner governments, and how to actually collaborate effectively with them.
Now that I have spent the last part of my career in the world of philanthropy, I have a better sense of how to find the right information and to understand different players and platforms for foundation work, particularly in the education, EdTech, evidence and migration field. Given the limited transparency and accessibility of information on philanthropy in the global social impact sector, I want to share today with you some key information to ease that process of keeping yourself informed about the sector.
Datasets and reports on philanthropic foundations
If you are interested in understanding more about the geographic scope, thematic focus and proportional contribution of philanthropic funding to international development cooperation and social impact more broadly, I would recommend you to have a look at the following:
1. OECD Centre on Philanthropy
The OECD Centre produces one of the most comprehensive and up-to-date dataset and reports on philanthropic spending. It also produces a data dashboard where you can dive into particular topics, foundations, geographic regions or time spans.
2. Lilly Family School of Philanthropy
The Philanthropy Department of the University of Indianapolis has a comprehensive research initiative analysing philanthropic funding and trends. Based on data from the OECD (see previous point) and beyond, it has developed the Global Philanthropy Indices which include an index on national and regional philanthropy environments, as well a global philanthropy tracker.
At the national and regional level, you can find research institutions and individual platforms dedicated to analyzing and supporting the philanthropic sector. Some notable examples that I've come across:
Europe: ERNOP
UK: Giving Evidence
South Africa: CAPSI
Switzerland: Geneva Centre for Philanthropy, CEPS
National, regional, global philanthropy ecosystems
Philanthropic foundations increasingly engage in collaborations and peer-learning activities through national, regional and global associations. Usually, those associations are membership-based and either have a specific approach (e.g. participatory grantmaking), topic (e.g. education) or geographic focus (national associations). While those associations are generally organising events that are only accessible for foundation staff and their close partners, these platforms regularly produce publicly accessible resources and open webinars.
Regional ecosystems
Asia: Asia Philanthropy Circle, Philanthropy Asia Alliance
Global platforms
Building Evidence in Education (BE2)
Individual philanthropic foundations: Strategy, Annual Report, LinkedIn/Social Media
Given the paucity of publicly information and accessible events in the philanthropic world, I would highly recommend you are crystal clear which thematic focus/geographic region/type of foundation you are interested in, possibly by looking at more high-level data on the philanthropy world. Once this is clear, I would access the available information on the target foundation's website (e.g. strategy, annual reports) or keep yourself updated by following them and their individual staff member on social media. With this approach, you get a good sense which foundations align fully to your personal or institutional ambitions and what priority topics and engagement opportunities arise.