Author Archive:

Andrés Thompson

Conference reports 4 Andrés Thompson 9 March 2017

WINGSForum 2017: Business as usual in a changing world

It was the first time that I attended a WINGS Forum and, I must recognize, my expectations were moderate. Big conferences organized by “industry” organizations, such as the ones serving philanthropy, are usually self centered and …

Conference reports 1 Andrés Thompson 12 December 2016

Moving forward community philanthropy

On reflection, having attended the Global Summit on Community Philanthropy a couple of weeks ago, I have no doubt that it was a great, creative and productive summit. However, there are some issues that I …

Special feature Andrés Thompson 29 November 2016

Latin American community philanthropy in the vanguard

In Democracy in America Alexis de Tocqueville remarked on ‘the general equality of conditions’ in the United States. He didn’t travel to Latin America. If he had, he would have seen a very different picture: …

Conference reports Andrés Thompson 16 July 2015

Social justice philanthropy in Brazil seeks a clearer identity

While Pope Francis was travelling and preaching about social injustices, poverty, corruption, colonial wars and exploitation in Ecuador, Bolivia and Paraguay, an important group of people and organizations were meeting in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil …

Conference Report Andrés Thompson 1 June 2012 For Subscribers

Social transformation through football? Sporting mega events now on agenda of Brazilian social investors

For the first time in its history, GIFE (Group of Institutes, Foundations and Corporations) included two sessions on sports in the programme of its 2012 Congress – Brazil’s largest conference of grantmakers and social investors …

Conference reports 2 Andrés Thompson 8 April 2012

Social transformation through football? Sporting mega events now on agenda of Brazilian social investors

For the first time in its history, GIFE (Group of Institutes, Foundations and Corporations) included two sessions on sports in the programme of its 2012 Congress – Brazil’s largest conference of grantmakers and social investors …

Opinion 2 Andrés Thompson 20 March 2012

Tax incentives for social investment: notes from Brazil

Whether tax incentives for promoting private social investment and philanthropy are a useful tool or not has been a matter of debate and controversy in recent years in Latin America and beyond. The case of …

Opinion 1 Andrés Thompson 3 February 2012

Mind the gap! Corporate social responsibility in Latin America

Fresh from the oven came to my desk the most recent regional study on perceptions about the state of corporate social responsibility (CSR) in Latin America. Although I am skeptical about the quality of these …

Opinion 3 Andrés Thompson 2 December 2011

NGOs: is the dream over?

After a long decade of growth and international recognition of the role of non-governmental organizations (NGOs) in fostering democracy, advancing social justice and participating in public policies, just to name a few, there are signs …

Opinion 1 Andrés Thompson 19 October 2011

Latin America by Latin Americans?

The most recent well-known update about trends in the field of philanthropy in Latin America is almost a year old, and very little reflection has happened since then. The report was produced by the Inter-American …