Every month Alliance regional representatives provide a report on the latest happenings in philanthropy from their region. Below is roundup for April 2024 Successful demonstration test of world’s first zero-emission ship in Japan By Fan Li, East Asia Regional Representative The Nippon Foundation Zero Emission Ships Project expected to promote carbon neutrality in shipping sector. A zero-emission ship demonstration test was successfully conducted in Japan from March 26 to April 4, 2024. Using the hydrogen fuel-cell-powered crew transfer vessel HANARIA, this test was part of the Zero Emissi ..read more

My first advice to a would-be philanthropist would be to remember that everyone will tell you they love you. It’s the curse of the wealthy. Those of us who run Foundations forget it at our peril. It means we all have to dig deeply to find out how to improve. No-one walks away. No-one tells us our funding approach is counterproductive, our reporting is onerous, or we tie them in knots. One small organisation we fund in Leeds told me they had 17 funders and 17 staff. Three of the 17 staff members spent all their time satisfying the hungry needs of funders for data they would likely never use. At ..read more

An education relief fund for Palestinian students has been launched by the Abdulla Al Ghurair Foundation (AGF), an Emirati philanthropic organisation.   The fund will provide grants to cover tuition fees, living expenses, and other essential costs for students at university. Both Gazan and West Bank students in their final year of study or training, who are studying abroad, are eligible for the fund.  Some 900 students have already been supported by the programme.  ‘The ongoing conflict in Gaza has placed immense hardship on its population, including in education’, said Sonia Be ..read more

The last decade has seen a raft of big new ideas about innovating financing models for social enterprises. Philanthropic organisations and program investors have been overwhelmed with gurus promising smart new thinking about how to extract more impact and influence from their grant, loan, and blended finance dollars. A decade ago, Anthony Bugg-Levine and his collaborators told us that, ‘Financial engineering, then, can be a powerful force for change.’ A report for ZBW and the Kiel Institute for the World Economy around the same time advised that ‘the creation of a standardized set of performan ..read more

Happiness and excitement were my two emotions when I first stepped into the Ágora Bogota International Convention Center in December 2023. They were the same feelings I had when I joined a group of activists at the Highlander Research and Education Center in Tennessee, USA, for its 75th anniversary. Highlander was started by Myles Horton in 1932 and gave birth to civil rights leaders, including Rosa Parks and other civil rights activists. Being at Highlander for the 75th Anniversary was like being in a mecca for community organizers. There was a feeling of utopia, with hundreds of people celeb ..read more

After a world war with devastating consequences and loss of human life seventy-five years ago, governments declared that human rights belong to everyone. The Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR) affirmed hope and humanity, and underscored the universality of rights by mentioning ‘everyone’ 30 times. It grounded a more expansive human rights system that now includes migrants, indigenous peoples, and persons with disabilities – at least on paper. But the reality remains far from this promise of rights. For example, less than one percent of Foundation funding for Human Rights Defenders in ..read more

UNHCR, the UN’s refugee agency, has teamed up with Asia Venture Philanthropy Network (AVPN) to explore innovative financial models to help strengthen support for forcibly displaced people in Asia and the Pacific.   The two organisations within the world of philanthropy and the humanitarian sector signed a memorandum of understanding at the AVPN Global Conference in April.  Christian Schaake, chief of UNHCR private sector partnerships in Asia said he wanted to ‘scale up’ work in the region via ‘innovative finance’, a means in which humanitarian organisations like the UNHCR receiv ..read more

Throughout UK history, affirmative action has been fundamental in advancing gender equality, with our government, communities, and numerous independent organisations each contributing to this cause—a fact deserving of recognition and celebration. Yet, today, government commitment, particularly in funding, appears to be wavering. Such unforgivable negligence will have devastating consequences for women who, despite the significant steps taken toward equality, continue to face significant challenges. In recent decades, steps toward greater gender equality have been felt across UK society. In the ..read more

Young philanthropists in the Middle East are showing appetite for a more hands-on approach, a greater emphasis on transparency and accountability and a move away from traditional family foundations, to focus more on individualised giving.  These were among the key findings from a new report published by the Pearl Initiative and the Zovighian Partnership, with support from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, at a gathering of next generation philanthropists in Dubai on 25 April.  Speaking at the launch, Lynn Zovighian, said the research collaboration was intended to fill an ‘info ..read more

Biodiversity conservation is a top priority of environmental philanthropic funding in China, according to China’s largest environmental grant-making foundation.   Findings by the Society of Entrepreneurs and Ecology (SEE) Foundation show that $270 million was allocated to biodiversity conservation from 2016 to 2020, accounting for 69 per cent of the environmental philanthropic funding in China.  Funding for biodiversity conservation is much higher than pollution control, energy, and climate change initiatives.   Most of the total philanthropic funding for biodiversity conservati ..read more