MAVA is reaching the half way point on its final strategy covering 2016-2022. As we enter our final chapter, there are some inherent challenges any foundation in such a situation would face. From some partners who still believe funding will continue, to persistent high levels of partner dependency, MAVA staff… Read More
My first concrete contact with the EFC occurred six years ago when I attended their Annual Conference and General Assembly in Copenhagen in 2013. At that point, I had been working at Kone Foundation for several years, first as a Scientific Secretary and for a year as Head of Cultural… Read More
In 1989, when the Berlin wall fell – and the EFC was created – I was 16. I belong to the first generation of Italian young people who became massively passionate for Europe. Feeling a strong bond of solidarity, we discovered Hungary, Poland, and Russia, backpacking with InterRail on a… Read More
Happy 30th Birthday EFC! Thirty years have passed since the start. Any signs of a 30-year crisis?? You know, doubts about the past, questions about the future, reflections on your identity. Torment over what has been achieved, about what could have been done differently, or better. Wondering if you are… Read More
A version of this blog was published in the UK in April 2019 It may be a bit of a cliché to suggest that the world moves a lot faster, that the pace of change is greater now than 30 years ago, when the EFC was founded. I’m… Read More
In February 2019, hundreds of diplomats, heads of state, cabinet ministers, parliamentarians, and high-ranking military officers gathered in Germany to discuss the fractured state of geopolitics and the daunting question it poses: Who will pick up the pieces? This was the theme of the 2019 Munich Security Conference, an annual… Read More
At the EFC’s Annual General Assembly and Conference 2019, in Paris, Körber-Stiftung announced that they will gift their share of Philanthropy House to the EFC, as part of the celebrations for the EFC’s 30th anniversary. I would like, in this short anniversary blog, to… Read More
I was asked to offer some reflections about what the 30th anniversary of the EFC represents. On the one hand, while I have worked in philanthropy for over 25 years, as an American, I am an outsider. On the other hand, the annual conference in Paris this year represents my… Read More
I recently travelled to Brussels to see my long-time friends Gerry Salole and Rien van Gendt at the EFC. As usual, we spoke about the status of philanthropy in Europe and the United States. A huge topic, indeed. Rien spoke eloquently about two relevant developments in Europe. The first is… Read More
This sentence may seem provocative or absurd. However, communications experts are sometimes perceived as being «they»: They have written something; they have published something; they have posted something. They versus the readers? Is there a visible and apparent difference between the two? This difference is only formal. It doesn’t say… Read More