Exploring our futures

You may notice that the special feature in this issue of Alliance is shorter than usual. Well, you may not notice – and you may wonder why I’m drawing your attention to a housekeeping issue like this. The reason is that we wanted it to be longer but simply couldn’t find the material to include. Click here to read ...

Exciting news from Alliance

A new website

After ten years of publishing Alliance we have a huge archive of articles and interviews on a wide variety of themes from a wonderful set of contributors from all over the world. Many are as relevant now as they were when we published them. Click here to read ...

Ripples or powerful tides?

One thing all philanthropy commentators seem to agree on is that giving by wealthy individuals is increasing - not just in the US and Europe but across the world, with countries like India and China showing particularly rapid growth. And it's likely to increase even more dramatically in the next decade or so.

In a world where cash-strapped governments are unwilling or unable to raise taxes, this influx of private money could make a big contribution to solving social problems the world over. But will it? Is there anything we can do to ensure that it is well used and really does contribute to the long-term solution of problems in a way that provides a decent life and justice for all the world's people? Click here to read ...

Philanthropy - whose vision?

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Measuring impact: who counts?

When one starts thinking about measuring impact, one seems inevitably to be pulled in two opposite directions. On the one hand, there’s the demand for ‘metrics’. This demand often comes from those working with donors, who are said to be looking for measures analogous to those available to people thinking to invest in the mainstream stock market. The claim made is that if we had better metrics, a functioning philanthropy marketplace, donors would be prepared to ‘invest’ more – the sort of claim that is often made by those promoting transparency and accountability. The image here is releasing a floodgate and funding for good causes flowing out. Click here to read ...

Can we go a bit faster?

People may question why Alliance is devoting an issue to climate change. After all, we don’t see ourselves as a magazine that deals with single issues, however important. The reality is becoming all too clear: climate change is not a single issue, it’s an issue that will affect all the work funders support – poverty, social justice, global health, the lot. Click here to read ...

Can we do better?

It seems that foundations, whatever their current mission and focus, are increasingly being pushed to try to tackle the world’s most pressing, and threatening, issues – poverty, disease, global warming. While this year’s Council on Foundations conference looked at ‘Philanthropy and the Challenges of Our Time’, the European Foundation Centre’s conference focuses on ‘The New Challenges of Global Philanthropy’. This is also the theme of this issue of Alliance, while the September issue will focus on addressing climate change. Click here to read ...

Let the good ideas drive out the bad

The word ‘philanthrocapitalism’ was coined only last February, by Matthew Bishop in ‘The Business of Giving’, an Economist special supplement on philanthropy. In this issue of Alliance, Bishop sums it up as ‘a new way of doing philanthropy, which mirrors the way that business is done in the for-profit capitalist world’. Click here to read ...

Alliance going it alone

This is the last issue of Alliance that will be published by Allavida. The March 2007 issue will be published by Alliance Publishing Trust (APT), which is a UK charitable company. APT’s first Trustees are Rien van Gendt, Gerry Salole and David Carrington.

Allavida and Alliance

Why have Allavida and Alliance decided to part company? After five years of growth within Allavida, Alliance is now ready for the next stage of its development – as an independent organization. Allavida and Alliance have always taken great care that Alliance should be fully independent editorially, and full independence is the logical next step. Click here to read ...

Joining the dots?

The cover photo for this issue shows a single bright-green shoot sprouting from the unpromising bark of a mature tree. It’s an evocative image, but perhaps not quite right for social capital markets, the focus of the September special feature. What the cover should show is hundreds of tiny shoots bursting up all over the place, thickly in some parts of the world, in ones and twos in other places. An act of faith is needed to imagine them all coming together to form coherent and effective systems for channelling much-needed funds to social purposes. Click here to read ...