‘Although we move with the better classes, our thoughts are always with the masses.’ (Ross Coggins, 1976) In 1976, an exasperated development worker, Ross Coggins, attending his umpteenth futile meeting to discuss poverty in a fine hotel, penned a poem entitled ‘The Development Set‘. Several years later I joined a leading… Read More
The following is a speech made by Dr Rien van Gendt during the Humanity in Action International Conference, which took place in Strasbourg from 5-8 July 2018: I want to explore with you how foundations can contribute to the European agenda of democracy, diversity and social cohesion. What is the… Read More
Writing about being a model or an exemplar is tricky. Neither the Trust as an organisation, nor I as its Chief Executive, are models. We are more straw effigies that are flawed and can be easily knocked down. That is not being falsely modest. I am proud of what we… Read More
Decades of cooperation have made Europe a great place for research. But as science and politics change, we need to adapt to keep up. Europe must work together to secure our global scientific leadership. As Wellcome heard at our summit of European research leaders recently “research is the only way to… Read More
This blog first appeared on the Alliance magazine website and Euractiv.com blog Growing nationalism and deepening populist sentiment across Europe make it all the more urgent to bolster our shared European values. Civil society, which includes philanthropy, is essential in this. But if civil society… Read More
When deciding on the eligibility of project applications, strict formal and technical specifications play a role, and the projects are also subjected to careful examination by experts. However, it is sometimes difficult for exceptionally creative research projects to survive this selection process because their full potential is not always perceived. Read More
This post first appeared on the Global Fund for Community Foundations website The philanthropic and development sectors have much in common, an ever-expending Jargon, genuine concern for the people at the bottom of the pyramid, evaluating impact, just to name randomly few of the thousands of… Read More
When it comes to urban development, there is a clear proponent in the ranks: Latin America, which continues to be the most urbanised region in the world. Although this is a unique opportunity for sustainable development, it is at the same time a massive challenge, especially taking into account the… Read More
As the European Foundation Centre’s newest member, we are grateful for this opportunity to introduce ourselves. Please consider this Spotlight as an invitation to reach out to us. Who we are, what we do and why PeaceNexus (PN) was founded with a mission to support peace-relevant actors to be more effective in… Read More
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vXLHj3ZIoEs This year Nordea-fonden, a Danish philanthropic foundation, decided to earmark 6.7 million euro to support activities along the Danish coastline. Here’s a brief description of why and how we went about moving our office into a tent on the beach. Land of coastline and associations… Read More