Author Archive:

Avila Kilmurray

Opinion Avila Kilmurray and Barry Knight 12 December 2023

Peace needs more than one per cent of giving

Philanthropy should re-engage with peacebuilding in 2024. A gathering in Belfast must be the start of something bigger ‘We live in an age of war, and this is a perilous moment for the world’ is …

Opinion 2 Avila Kilmurray 6 December 2022

The problem with glorifying resilience

A winter’s day in Belfast is grey; the political climate is even greyer reflecting seven months of Northern Irish political breakdown and a serial dysfunctional UK Government. Do I feel resilient? Hell yes, but that …

Opinion Avila Kilmurray 4 December 2020

Covid-19, statelessness and the power of a ‘consortium’ approach to funding

What do you think when you hear that someone is stateless? That they are some kind of free-floating personality that lives without borders? That they are a citizen of the universe? If only. The reality …

Opinion 1 Avila Kilmurray and Martin O'Brien 19 June 2020

Build back better: A role for philanthropic scaffolding

Philanthropy has a responsibility to respond to the inequalities revealed by COVID-19 and graphically underlined by the killing of George Floyd. Many philanthropies have listened to their grantees and are already offering no cost extensions …

Letter Avila Kilmurray 3 September 2019

Giving peace a chance can pay rich rewards

‘What’s peace got to do with philanthropy?’ A stupid question you may mutter. Of course, peaceful and stable societies are the foundation stone for the vast majority of philanthropic endeavours as Cath Thompson of the …

Opinion Avila Kilmurray 7 August 2019

The collide-o-scope of philanthropy: old patterns shifting to meet new challenges

This article was written for the European Foundation Centre as part of a specially commissioned blog series celebrating Its 30th anniversary. Click here to read more posts from some of the most influential thought-leaders on philanthropy discussing the …

Conference reports 1 Avila Kilmurray 22 January 2016

How Political Aren’t We?

That was the question that was posed at a plenary of the International Human Rights Funders’ Group conference in San Francisco.  Over 120 attendees pondered the boundaries of what might be considered ‘political’, whether with …

Special feature Avila Kilmurray and Jenny Hodgson 1 December 2015

Case study – Community philanthropy chimes with SDGs

Implementing goals, community by community The Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) have arrived after years of dialogue. Where the earlier Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) were formulated in United Nations offices – one was even added as …

Conference reports 1 Avila Kilmurray 25 June 2015

Community foundations offer disaster recovery lessons: is anyone listening?

When the Global Alliance for Community Philanthropy focused on the role of community foundations in disaster and emergency relief in July 2014, they had in mind the 10th anniversary of Hurricane Katrina, which devastated the …

Special feature Avila Kilmurray 1 December 2014

Holding it together in Northern Ireland

The societal rollercoaster of political transition can be exhilarating but it is not comfortable. How can philanthropy offer a steadying hand? Over 30 years of political violence a small number of largely UK charitable foundations …