We hope that the majority of our subscribers will now have had the opportunity to read many of the articles in the latest issue of Alliance. The special feature on philanthropy in emerging market countries contains a diverse range of perspectives on this topic: Alison Bukhari of Dasra looks at the power of giving circles in India, Halima Mahomed of TrustAfrica reflects on the landscape of African philanthropy and Bin Pei of the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation China office offers some observations on philanthropy in China, to name but a few. We would like to highlight a few other pieces of content which may also be of interest to our readers.

This issue includes interviews with a number of key figures. As part of the special feature, guest editor Filiz Bikmen spoke to Güler Sabancı, chair of the Sabancı Foundation, about the foundation’s change in strategy to address social injustice in Turkish society and discusses their decisions to work more closely with civil society and government partners. Both Sabanci and Vladimir Potanin, who was also interviewed in this issue, explore the relation between their business and their philanthropy. Sabanci speaks of the ways in which her approaches to these are very different, yet similar in many ways: ‘our institutions share a common culture, a ‘Sabancı way’ of doing things – such as innovation, making a difference, quality and credibility.’

Alliance also interviewed Penelope Lewis, head of the Global Foundations Program at the World Bank. Lewis outlines some recent examples of partnerships between the World Bank and a number of foundations, some successful and some less so, and the best ways for foundations to become involved. While focusing on their relationship with foundations, Lewis’s words on how partnerships can be most effective could be applied to any type of organization in this sector: ‘all successful partnerships rely on close communication and trust and an understanding of why working together makes sense and how all the pieces fit together.’

In another article, Simon Schneider of InnoCentive EMEA Ltd looks at how the Crowd is a powerful force in philanthropy, for sourcing ideas, finding solutions and generating funding. Schneider reflects on a successful collaboration between InnoCentive, GlobalGiving and the Rockefeller Foundation to gain help from the Crowd for global water-related challenges. He emphasizes how the “value of the Crowd to philanthropy is apparent at all levels of charitable work.”

The full contents of the March 2013 issue of Alliance magazine can be found at http://www.alliancemagazine.org/en/content/march-2013. Those who do not yet subscribe can discover more about the options available at http://www.alliancemagazine.org/subscribe.