Blog

Global Update - October 2016

Friday, October 14, 2016 - 11:39 am

Natalie Ross

This week, those affected by Hurricane Matthew are very much on our minds here at the Council. On Tuesday, the Council co-hosted a special webinar with the Center for Disaster Philanthropy to inform funders about recovery needs, and we have additional disaster philanthropy resources on our website. We also encourage Council members to engage in funding conversations and share information and resources on the Council’s DisasterNet Exchange community.

Looking forward, fall conference season is already off and running. I’ve included below a list of convenings I will be speaking at in the coming months. If you or a colleague will also be in attendance, please do let me know so we can schedule a time to meet.

Below is a number of updates related to the Council’s global philanthropy work. I hope this monthly update is useful and that you’re also using the information on our global program page and global grantmaking resources on our website.

Habitat III

From October 16-19, more than 45,000 people will be in Quito, Ecuador for Habitat III, the United Nations Conference on Housing and Sustainable Urban Development held every 20 years. Attendees, including global private and corporate foundations, will be working towards agreeing on a new Urban Agenda that can ensure sustainable cities and urban development over the next 20 years.

The Council will be in Quito for the conference, and I am speaking at a side event about philanthropy and the Urban Agenda hosted by the European Foundation Centre (EFC) that is open to all attendees on Monday, October 17 from 9:30 – 10:30 AM. Please be in touch if you’ll also be in Quito.

Below are a few resources about Habitat and relevant parts of the conference for philanthropy:

Habitat III events hosted by or featuring philanthropy, from EFC
An overview of Habitat III and its importance, from Citiscope
Resources from the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, who have led a year of engagement with U.S. stakeholders around informing the new Urban Agenda

Annual Conference 2017

Registration opens this month for the Council’s 2017 Annual Conference April 23-26 in Dallas, Texas, and with it a four-week call for session proposals from our members. I hope you will consider submitting a proposal to share your learning from global collaborations and programs that have supported vibrant communities.

We will also be holding a pre-conference session focused on grantmaking into Latin America. Please be in touch if you’d like to suggest speakers or topics for that pre-conference!

Also, in case you missed it, last month the Foundation Center and Seattle International Foundation released an updated fact sheet on grantmaking into Central America, which found that in 2013, only 1.1 percent of international philanthropy was for Central America.

Launching New Global Liaisons Program

Later this month, the Council will launch a new “Global Liaisons” program which will aim to bring together partnership staff and offices within federal agencies and key multilateral institutions (like the U.N., World Bank, and development banks) every other month to discuss how best to partner with and engage philanthropy. This program will be modeled after the Council’s existing Federal Liaisons program, which has built strong relationships with federal agencies during the Obama Administration.

SDG Resources

In case you missed it, last month we highlighted how U.S. philanthropy is working to achieve the SDGs in our blog series, 17 Days, 17 Goals. Our partners at the SDG Philanthropy Platform also recently launched their new SDG Indicator Wizard, which can help identify which SDG goals, targets, and indicators your grantmaking is supporting.