In June 2010 the Global Fund for Community Foundations (GFCF) launched a study, ‘More than the Poor Cousin? The emergence of community foundations as a new development paradigm‘. The study proposes that:
- Community foundations may be a missing part in the jigsaw of international development, able to reach those most in need while offering local leadership, ownership and accountability.
- Community foundations develop ‘trust’ as one of their main concerns – a vital component in addressing poverty.
- There is a particular value in the role of local money in solving local problems which often gets overlooked.
- Through small grants and building relationships with grassroots organizations, community foundations can play a role in enabling the voices of local people, including the poor, to be heard.
We are now looking to engage a broad cross-section development and philanthropy practitioners in discussion and have established this blog as a way to encourage this.
The report was launched on June 1st at the European Foundation Centre’s ‘Foundations Week’ in Brussels, Belgium at a session organized by the GFCF. The opening post of the blog provides a summary of the discussion and some of the feedback we received from individuals present at the session commenting through a blog established by Alliance magazine.
Click here to join the discussion.
