Latest from Alliance

Analysis

How leading funders build strong, resilient nonprofits in India

12 March 2024
Pritha Venkatachalam, Shashank Rastogi and Aditi Sharma

Chronic underfunding of nonprofits’ ‘true costs’– programme expenses, core administrative expenditures, organisational development investments, plus reserve funding – blunts the impact funders and nonprofits strive for. As a result, neither party lives up to its aspirations for beneficial change, while those served miss out on opportunities. The Pay-What-It-Takes (PWIT) India Initiative, launched in 2020, is a collaborative effort to seek sector-level solutions for this problem and has identified five principles that funders can adopt to …

Analysis

The false dichotomy between trust and results

5 March 2024
Varja Lipovsek

  As the trust-based philanthropy wave is washing over the sector once again, concerns over its ability to prove impact, facilitate learning, and evaluate previous approaches are bubbling up. As a philanthropy professional with over two decades of experience in learning, measurement, and evaluation, I believe it is a false dichotomy to pit ceding control against measuring impact.  Trust-based philanthropy is having a moment – from the first ripples caused by news of MacKenzie Scott’s …

Analysis

Four blended finance trends that will drive impact

28 February 2024
Maya Ziswiler

The enormous funding gap needed to address the UN Sustainable Development Goals stands at around $3.9 trillion each year. However, there is around $100 trillion of unused private and institutional money seeking returns every year. That’s a big pool of untapped capital out there waiting to be mobilized. Government officials, NGOs, philanthropic organizations and financial institutions broadly agreed that blended finance structures will play an increasingly prominent role in delivering outcomes aligned to the UN …

Analysis

The social impact opportunities of AI in India

27 February 2024
Alex Counts

To paraphrase Bangladeshi Nobel laureate Muhammad Yunus, trends such as financial and technology innovation, the proliferation of social media, and globalization can massively help or harm society’s most vulnerable people. Which scenario becomes reality depends in large part on enlightened government policies and bold efforts by civil society, especially nonprofit organizations, to harness these forces for good. Information technology can clearly help government agencies and nonprofits work more efficiently. But there are also tantalizing opportunities …

Analysis

Localising philanthropy – what does it entail?

26 February 2024
Arun Kumar and Ritesh Datta

Localisation, shifting power and decolonisation are among the most talked about phrases in social development spaces today. If pursued earnestly, …

Analysis

HIV drugmaker provides a case study in philanthropic whitewashing

6 February 2024
Shafi Musaddique

In October Funders Concerned About AIDS, a philanthropic body that describes itself as one to take ‘bold actions and push …

Analysis

What’s possible when infrastructure has infrastructure? PEX as a container to practice the future of philanthropy

22 January 2024
Birce Altay, Alina Porumb, Hanna Stähle, Olga Tarasov, Vinzenz Himmighofen, Alexandra Stef, Francesca Mereta and Alina Shenfeldt

“What if?” is the guiding question for visionary communities to take organisations, sectors and societies forward. This question took European …

Analysis

Corporate philanthropy: a pathway to strengthening healthcare in low and middle-income countries.

17 January 2024
Tom Achoki

Health systems encompass the institutions, organizations, and resources (physical, financial, and human) assembled to deliver healthcare services that meet population …

Analysis

System change is both a marathon and a team sport

11 December 2023
Jesper Nygård

Three things are important if foundations want to solve wicked problems and drive real system change: binding cross-sector collaborations, experimenting …

Analysis

De-NGOsation: the re-foundation of the heart of civil society

4 December 2023
Florencia Roitstein

‘We do not want to be part of the system that has generated social injustice, the climate crisis, and violence …

Analysis

Multisolving allows us to address climate and other societal challenges

1 December 2023
Active Philanthropy

A climate science workshop series by Active Philanthropy: Episode 7 The start of the annual UN Climate Change Conference serves …

Analysis

Participatory grant making is key to shifting the power

28 November 2023
Deborah Doane

What’s the best prescription for achieving the SDG’s? For international NGOs and funders to cede power and control over decision-making …

Analysis

We must adapt to and reduce sea level rise 

24 November 2023
Active Philanthropy

 A climate science workshop series by Active Philanthropy: Episode 6  In the sixth episode of our climate science series, Dr. …