Community foundation related news and resources

From time to time there are news items or resources from the community foundation, community philanthropy and WINGS-CF fields that we like to share broadly. In addition to sending electronic announcements to our constituents that include information about these items, we will also post items of general interest here.

August 2007

WINGS Global Fund for Community Foundations announces grants

In its most recent round of grants, the WINGS Global Fund for Community Foundations has made awards to 11 community foundations and two support organizations. Grantees include the Lambi Fund in Haiti, which makes grants to strengthen civil society in that country and the newly registered Phuket Community Foundation in Thailand which was formed in the aftermath of the 2004 Indian Ocean Tsunami. Below is the full list. Amounts are in USD.

Sub-Saharan Africa

• West Coast Community Foundation, South Africa - $10,000 to attend the Community Foundation Network Conference in Liverpool and to visit a UK community foundation
• Morogoro Municipality Community Foundation Initiative, Tanzania - $4,445 to support attendance of South African community foundation practitioners at training for leaders of three emerging community foundation initiatives in Tanzania
• Community Development Foundation for the Western Cape, South Africa - $15,000 grant for local consultant support in the areas of finance, human resource, marketing and organizational development for this emerging CF in the Western Cape
• Uthungulu Community Foundation, Richard's Bay, South Africa - $12,400 for consultant support for needs assessment and strategic planning

Latin America & Caribbean

• Instituto Rio - $15,000 to develop the organization's IT system for grants management
• Lambi Fund, Haiti - $15,000 to support development of Lambi's donor base among Haitian diaspora networks in the United States
• Fundación Comunitaria Oaxaca, A.C., Mexico - $10,000 for general support
• CEMEFI – Centro Mexicano para la Filantropia, Mexico - $30,000 towards CEMEFI's work with its community foundations partners in the area of building cross-sectoral alliances in Mexico

East Asia & Pacific

• Phuket Community Foundation, Thailand - $15,000 to cover US and Thai consultant support to this recently established CF

Europe and Central Asia

• Nitra Community Foundation, Slovakia - $5,000 grant for board development through visit to Czech community foundations
• Penza Community Foundation Civil Society, Russia - $35,000 challenge grant for grantmaking and endowment
• Tyumen Community Foundation, Russia - $11,400 for consultant visit from Poland to develop Tyumen CF's capacities in building social networks, communication strategies and donor development; $4,350 grant for peer visit to philanthropic institution in Poland
• Ukrainian Grantmakers Forum - $15,000 to map community foundation development in Ukraine and to develop capacities of emerging community foundations by facilitating joint trainings with regional specialists

July 2007

WINGS Global Fund for Community Foundations appoints Programme Manager

Vadim Samorodov has been appointed Programme Manager at the WINGS Global Fund for Community Foundations. Vadim has been leading the community foundation work at CAF Russia since 2001. He is a member of the Transatlantic Community Foundation Network, a Senior Fellow with The Synergos Institute, and an International Fellow with the Centre on Philanthropy and Civil Society (City University, New York). He also served on the Global Fund's Management and Grants Committee until recently.

His work with community foundations has taken Vadim to many different parts of the world and he has also spent time working in Uganda for the International Federation of the Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies.

Vadim will join the Global Fund on 1 July and will be based in Moscow. Grants Administrator, Caroline Gobé will continue to work out of the Fund's office at the European Foundation Centre in Brussels and Director, Jenny Hodgson, will be relocating from Singapore to Bangkok in August.

Over the coming weeks, the Global Fund will be reviewing and revising its grants criteria and programmes. Information on the Fund's programmes and the next deadline for applications will be advertised by early September. Prospective applicants are welcome to send inquiries to Fund staff throughout this period at info@wings-globalfund.org.

Egypt's first community foundation

Hilary Gilbert is a member of the Transatlantic Community Foundation Network and the founding Chair of the Community Foundation for South Sinai which was formally established earlier this year. We asked her to share the story of the foundation's establishment with WINGS-CF and others interested in the development of community foundations.

The Sinai peninsula links Africa and Asia. Its desert landscapes include vast barren plains and mountains green with aromatic plants and orchards. Described by mediaeval pilgrims as a "terrible, waste-howling wilderness", the Bedouin who live there call their home "the land of fragrance and scented herbs". Egypt's rarest plants and animals and the world's smallest butterfly take refuge among its highest mountains. Its coral reefs are among the finest to be found. The world's oldest continously-practising Christian monastery nestles at the foot of Mount Sinai, protected by the Prophet himself and guarding pilgrimage sites sacred to three faiths. By any standards, South Sinai is special.

To read the full two-page story, download the PDF.

TCFN report on the future of community foundations released

The Future of Community Foundations. A Transatlantic Perspective has recently been published by the Transatlantic Community Foundation Network (TCFN).

The TCFN sees the report as a way to begin a broader inquiry. Aside from trends described in the US, what other major trends or concepts should community foundations outside of the US be anticipating and exploring?

The report was researched by the TCFN Academy, which is described as a "virtual think tank whose main purpose is to work on strategic issues that are of relevance to the international community foundation movement".

2007 Philanthropy New Zealand Conference

Over 300 people from the philanthropic and grantmaking sector gathered together in March 2007 in Wellington, New Zealand for the Philanthropy New Zealand Conference to explore the theme 'Philanthropy Matters'.

Robyn Scott is the Executive Director Philanthropy New Zealand and has prepred a summary for WINGS-CF readers of the Conference, which was the inaugural combined conference for Community Trusts and Philanthropy New Zealand.

Download Robyn Scott's conference report here [PDF].

Making Connections between Calderdale (UK) and Nidzica (Poland)

Steve Duncan, CEO and Laurie Calvert, a volunteer of the Community Foundation for Calderdale in Halifax, England visited the Nidzica Community Foundation in Poland in late May 2007.

Andrzej Zawieska, a member of the Executive Board and Chairman of the Scholarship Committee of the Nidzica Community Foundation, has prepared a brief summary of this visit, including an overview of each Foundation and his personal observations on success factors for community foundations.

Download Andrzej Zawieska's report here [PDF].

To find out more about community foundation development in Poland or the UK, visit the WINGS Community Foundation Activity Map.