PEX announces new collective governance model to better harness collaboration within the philanthropy infrastructure community
Brussels, 24 March 2025
PEX, a network of philanthropy infrastructure organisations, transitions to a new collective governance model stewarded by Assifero (Italy), ECFI (Europe), iac Berlin (Germany), INSPIRE (Romania) and Philea (Europe). The newly minted PEX Collective aims to practice new paradigms in philanthropy and unlock the collective potential and agency within the philanthropy infrastructure community.
The PEX Collective structure and ethos are reflective of the involved organisations’ strong desire to decentralise power across the community and act collectively. PEX aims at providing a platform for philanthropy infrastructure organisations and networks to share their knowledge and elevate collective learning. This next phase will focus on:
- PEX Catalyst Infrastructure Lab: We aim to describe, model and test catalytic principles, practices and experiments for and by philanthropy infrastructure
- Narrative Change about Funding: We explore the role of philanthropy infrastructure in changing the narrative about resources, unlocking “fractal” funding and non-financial resources
- Systems Practice and Foresight: We collectively detect weak signals and explore visions of desirable futures using systems thinking and foresight and trailblase how paradigm and practice shift
The team from the stewarding organisations, along with facilitator will also work to activate the community towards PEXfest (formerly – PEXforum) in Bucharest, Romania on 3-6 March 2026.
Founded in 2020, PEX provided an open space for philanthropy infrastructure which brings together 400 philanthropy professionals from over 80 networks. It was created with the goal of connecting the diverse and fragmented philanthropy infrastructure field in Europe.
The PEX Collective pilot phase is enabled through generous funding and support provided by the Robert Bosch Stiftung.
About the PEX Stewards:
- Assifero is the reference point for private philanthropy in Italy, encompassing 180 of the leading private foundations (family corporate and community foundations) and other philanthropic organisations. Its mission is to strengthen Italian institutional philanthropy, make it more informed, connected and effective, by increasing information sharing, exchanging knowledge, innovative approaches and impact assessment methodologies, by building relationships and collaboration and accelerating the learning process.
- ECFI – a collaborative initiative committed to strengthening and promoting the community foundation movement in Europe. Community foundations operate at the critical intersections between issues as they affect people’s lives in a given locality and drive sustainable and equitable development at the local level. ECFI is hosted by the German Association of Foundations.
- iac Berlin – As a Do & Think Tank for impact networks, iac Berlin works with foundations, academia, public institutions, and locally rooted non-profit organizations to build networks and alliances with social impact and to initiate new forms of collaboration and engagement.
- Inspire Institute – on course of changing name from the Association for the Practice of Transformation – supports community foundations’ leaders and philanthropy infrastructure professionals to unlock the potential of social innovation as designers and architects of change. We center experimentation, learning, and future orientated design, in international, European and national communities of practice focusing on the innovative roles of local, national and thematic philanthropy infrastructure.
- Philea – Philanthropy Europe Association nurtures a diverse and inclusive ecosystem of foundations, philanthropic organisations and networks in over 30 countries that work for the common good. With individual and national-level infrastructure organisations as members, we unite over 7,500 public-benefit foundations that seek to improve life for people and communities in Europe and around the world.
For more information, please contact PEX Facilitator Teodora Borghoff.