International Perspectives on Trends in Philanthropy

Hello, I'm Michael Layton, the W.K. Kellogg Community Philanthropy Chair, at the Johnson Center for Philanthropy at Grand Valley State University in lovely Grand Rapids Michigan. And if you all wanted to take a moment in the chat, share your name and where you're from, that would be lovely to get a sense of where where folks are coming from. We will be recording this session so we're going to hit that record button so that others who for whatever reasons of time and opportunity couldn't be here

with us, they'll they'll have the benefit of hearing what's said and exchanged in the conversation today. There will be a time allowed for question and answers at the end of the session so please do use that box to share your questions. And you can use the chat to let us know if you're having any difficulties, technical problems and challenges as we go on. And I want to remind everybody and I'll do my best to remember to remind you again there'll be an evaluation sent out and that's just very he

lpful for us in programming and planning for future webinars to know how well it was received or if there's things that we could do better. The other thing I'll say is when you sent in your registration you have an opportunity to say what you're interested in, and it's also very helpful for us to know what's on your mind and what's bringing you to a particular webinar. For the most part the comments reflected the title of the webinar, International perspectives on Trends in Philanthropy. One com

ment that I particularly liked was someone came to get inspired and I think the quality of the panel we have today we could well achieve that end. I'm going to share a couple of slides and after that we're gonna, I'll introduce our panelists and we'll start with the with the conversation today. So a few notes to begin. As I mentioned, the webinar is being recorded, we're monitoring the chat for comments and difficulties, questions in the Q&A, we will share the slides out with people who are regi

stered, and as I mentioned that evaluation will be sent out and please take a moment to fill that out. Here at the Johnson Center we're celebrating our 30 years. We were founded in 1992 as an applied research center which seeks to connect practitioners and communities of practice with the leading research and researchers in the field. And the center was renamed for Dorothy A. Johnson, a real powerhouse here in Michigan and nationally in philanthropy. And Dorothy, or Dottie as she's affectionatel

y known, is our namesake. This is part of a summer series of webinars. The first one was July 12th, How Has Philanthropy Changed in 30 years -- that video is already available and can be viewed, a really interesting look mainly at U.S. philanthropy featuring Michael Moody, formerly the Frey Family Community Chair here at the Johnson Center, and Jeff Williams our director of Community Data and Research Lab. Today, you're in the second webinar, and there'll be a third one looking into the future,

so we have kind of a arc of past, present, and future, Where Will Nonprofits be in 30 years, on September 13th. And you can find out about those and other events and training opportunities there at that link at the bottom johnsoncenter.org/events. And now to the panel. We have three wonderful panelists today that we're very fortunate of taking the time out to be with us and pretty much from around the world. Sameera Mehra is representing Wings, she's the collective intelligence and advocacy dire

ctor. Wings is an international organization and it's based in Sao Paulo but Sameera is joining us from London where I think it's tea time more or less, maybe you missed your tea today, Sameera, to join us today. So we're grateful for that. A dear friend for many years, Ana Maria Sanchez, the director of philanthropy at the Center for Mexican Philanthropy in Mexico City coming from us south of the border. And north of the border our dear colleague and friend, Susan Phillips, who's a professor an

d supervisor of the MPNL program at Carleton University in Ottawa Canada. So we have solid representation from up and down North America and around the world. That's us, johnsoncenter.org, and with that I'm going to close out the slides and you'll see our our panelists, as as long as I stop sharing my screen. So, can I get a thumbs up? We're looking good? As we should? Okay. So, with that our first question is, why should we think about trends in philanthropy? Why is this an important topic for

people in the field to wrestle with and to think about? And I want to start with Ana, and if you could just spend a couple of minutes sharing with everybody why you and Cemefi, in particular, took on this challenge of thinking about trends. Thank you, Michael. What such a good panel. I'm so grateful to be here and this wonderful opportunity to share our experience. I have to say that we started reflecting on the trends also with the Johnson Center and Comunalia. For those who don't know Comunali

a, Comunialia is an organization of 16 community foundations, and in Cemefi we work with around 1,600 organizations corporate responsible enterprises and philanthropists. So while that's important, I mean one of the things that we lack in philanthropy is looking forward and analyzing what has been passing by. And one of the needs, it was like doing so far we cut it into a point of getting into a reflective scenario which we needed to see, okay, what is going on? And what you need to pay attentio

n to. So the trends are really like these signals and these facts that are happening that we need to sort of focus on, and because they're having an impact an indirect or direct on philanthropy, and as long as we sort of see those trends, we might be able to have a better sort of solutions and answers to apply to those trends. Some of those trends are opportunity areas and others are a menace or threats to the sector. So trends are important in the sense that we sort of build a collective intell

igence of our philanthropy ecosystem is and what is happening in between. And we see and look for the future advice in the what past has been. And so that's what trends are really is sort of the marking point for us to build and plan and a strategic plan to work it together. And I think I will stop right now or maybe I don't know, I'm sort of afraid of the time and I want to hear also my colleagues and since I start this conversation anyway, as well. Thank you, Michael. Thank you, Ana, I think y

ou started this off very well. And that idea of understanding, so often in nonprofits we're sort of confronted with every day and being worried about if we're going to make it to tomorrow, and I think not only in our own heads but in collaboration with others about what's coming and trying to prepare ourselves for tomorrow and the day after, it's a valuable exercise when you think about strategic planning. And I'd like to pass it on to Susan, to share her reflections about why up at Carlton you

all have been thinking about and considering trends and what that means for you. Thank you, Michael. One set of reasons has to do with the very nature of philanthropy. Philanthropy is inherently forward-looking whether foundations are seeking systems change or individual donors are looking at leaving their own legacy, so they're looking forward in understanding where philanthropy where the world might might be down the road. And secondly, philanthropy is personal. Donors do what matter to them a

nd they seek to make for the most part a difference. And third, as a field, philanthropy's professional. For those who work in the institutional part of philanthropy, we seek to give good advice based evidence-based advice and work. And as Ana said therefore we need to anticipate and prepare for future conditions. We need to learn from others, not waste time and and money doing what we if we looked around what might find didn't work elsewhere, and as professionals in this field we seek to do the

right thing and that takes knowledge, it takes data, it takes research. So understanding trends is an opportunity to make philanthropy more effective. And then when we look at trends themselves they're not all the same. Some may be very place specific, some may be quite time-bound, and others are more permeable, they move across borders, they last over time. And sitting up here in Canada, we had a former prime minister who said being in Canada is kind of like sleeping next to the elephant, all

kinds of ideas waft north of the Border, a few cross the Atlantic too and come the other way but they particularly come north whether it's the invention of community foundations a few years after Cleveland came to Canada, whether we're now looking at how we regulate donor-advised funds, how we avoid some of the backlash we're seeing in the U.S. against ESG. So, knowing what's specific to a place in time versus that which is going to be more permeable, more durable, that we need to pay attention

to is critically important, and therefore we can collect data to better understand to have more effective organizational and policy responses, and that's why work of the centers like the Johnson Center's so important because we can focus the attention, we can collect the research, we can engage with others on it. So, both due to philanthropy and and recognizing that trends are not all the same. Thanks very much, Susan, for that wonderful reflection and the idea that being that we're an elephant

here and that some elements of would an elephant might leave behind waft north, maybe not the most flattering way but unfortunately a realistic way to think about the complicated relationship that the U.S. has with the world in general, the good and the bad that we managed to export and share, and increasingly what we bring into the United States and the benefit that we have and knowing about philanthropy in Mexico, philanthropy in Canada, the practices and the policies that we can reflect on, a

nd embrace and be inspired by. So thanks very much for that, Susan. And last but not at all least, Sameera, if you want to talk about WINGS and its treatment of trends and thinking about the future of philanthropy. Sure, and thanks Michael, Pat, and Tory, for hosting the session. It's great to be part of the 30 year celebration. I think I'm just going to feed off what Susan and Ana Maria have already shared. So it was a really interesting question for me because it got me thinking about differen

t kinds of trends, so social, political, economic trends so changes in political ideologies, policies, impact of the pandemic, the cost of living crisis, funding trends, so unrestricted core funding, trust-based philanthropy, or trust-based funding, will this continue beyond a certain point because we've seen a lot of movement during the pandemic towards this. Tech trends such as AI, cryptocurrency, and then trends that help us identify gaps in evidence so funding areas that don't show up or rep

resentation and voices that are missing and so much more. So thinking about trends can of course add a lot of value and for me I think I'll just highlight three and they link into what Ana Maria was saying as well, so really important role in horizon scanning, especially events that can transcend borders such as war, conflict, polarization, regulations of global governance issues, and that might be really hard for individual organizations on our own to be able to see or even address, and they ca

n be quite meta so there's the real role to sort of help understand how these events filter down to different levels, at an organization level, at a network level, and then across different geographical levels, whether it's county, national, regional, or global, and then the idea of foresight and that trends can really give us the ability to look at what's coming and then we need to have the ability though to be flexible and nimble enough to pivot and proactively prepare for it versus simply rea

cting or being at the mercy of this change where I recognize that that actually means that organizations need to have the bandwidth and resourcing to do this. And then using trends to anticipate developments and create different scenarios for the future so the different possibilities as well as the one that we want to work towards and I think reflecting on how trends require us to shift and adapt to make sure that our work and our impact is relevant, to how do we how can we leverage them and rid

e the wave on the one hand, but how do we understand how they could never negatively impact what we're doing and counteract that, so I think it's really connected to your next webinar that's coming out on September 13th, so that's good to hear. And I think the only other reflection for me was that you know depending on how organizations look at trends, it can really inform our work to create a ripple impact. In some cases it can help us truly reflect on our practices for longer, deeper change, a

nd sometimes trends can be quite short or can be the next shiny thing, and can actually be disruptive and how do we balance both sides of trends. Sameera, thanks so much, and I think that that last point really complements something that Susan talked about, about the durability of trends, and I think we would all admit that philanthropy in our sector, there do tend to be these blips that occur, we chase after these shiny objects that do not endure, and trying to navigate and figure out what's en

during, what's important, to paraphrase Susan, what's going to last, what's going to fade away is an important aspect of that. One thing that really struck me as each of you were speaking, and the rationale for having these three speakers with us today, is that each of them represents a different sort of institution that's very complementary when we think about philanthropy as an ecosystem, in that our friend Ana, from Mexico the Center for Mexican Philanthropy, is a national philanthropy suppor

t organization that brings together, as she mentioned, the corporate social responsibility philanthropy support for the nonprofit sector policy advocacy. Susan being a very distinguished professor with a long track record of education and research in Canada and internationally, has that focus of the professionalization of the field, what does it mean to prepare people to enter and to contribute to this field, and how trends tie into that. And then finally Sameera, representing a global organizat

ion that supports many national philanthropic service serving organizations north and south of the globe, and how they can be of service to these organizations connecting those national trends and those national challenges with an international perspective which can become so valuable in giving us leverage points and comparative perspective about what are the strengths, what are the challenges that our particular national sectors face, and how we can join forces and inspire each other across bor

ders. So again, I can't help but express my gratitude for the three of you spending this hour with us and the 90 participants that we have online right now. So our second question, I want to be sure to phrase this very precisely because it was very carefully thought out collectively, as we know philanthropy is both an acutely local and broadly global phenomenon. We brought you all together because your work and your organization's work illuminate this interplay. I'd like to hand it off to each o

f you now to talk about philanthropy and trends from a global perspective exploring some of our opportunities and challenges. And we're going to reverse the order with Sameera addressing this first, and taking a little bit more time to develop this and share your thoughts. Thanks, Michael. And so I guess when we thought about this we thought that it might be useful to talk a bit about the Philanthropy Transformation Initiative, but I'm going to take a step back and start with some context. You k

now we've already sort of referenced some of the challenges that we're facing, war, conflict, climate crisis, unchecked tech developments and what they could mean for the future of humanity, and when we look at this situation, all these challenges themselves are rooted in inequality, inequity, and some of the structural issues which have created this dynamic of very interconnected massive issues which is being referred to as the poly crisis. And so for us at WINGS we really feel like we need to

reflect on our very existence and the future of humanity because if you really think about it, philanthropy is about the love of humanity. So we need to have a sector level conversation about this globally. Philanthropy has and it continues to play a critical role in filling gaps that are left by governments in the private sector. We're trying to have greater impact and trying to be more effective but it doesn't feel enough given the magnitude of the challenges that we are facing, so we can't ju

st focus on our individual missions, and there's an opportunity and the timing now to step into a new role, a catalytic role, a role that is more transformative that gets us to look at our own economic models, our own governance models, and our own mindsets. So against this backdrop the Philanthropy Transformation Initiative is a collective and a unified effort from philanthropy networks, advisories, support organizations, academic centers, and funders from across the world to really challenge o

urselves in our field to make a greater impact. It reflects and really builds upon a whole number of debates, reports, guides, tools, frameworks, that are being developed by our members as well as our broader partners, and they've done this across their different contexts and spheres of influence. So for us and Ana Maria used this word, is like it's a reflection of our collective intelligence it really brings together the diversity of our networks, the context, the insights, and the wisdom. Our

aim for this initiative is to make that intelligence accessible. It's the aim is to co-create what we're calling a global framework which is underpinned by a broader set of values uh and we express them as 10 principles because the idea is that this is something that can be living in breathing, something that can be informed by, and can be leveraged by, local, regional, contextual developments for years to come. And for us, it's really important to sort of see this as a movement to ensure that t

here is continuity of action, because transformation is a journey and it is continuous, to make sure that it's connected. There's so much work that is going on across the globe, how do we make sure that we're not working in silos and that we're continuing to learn from each other, and Susan mentioned this as well. And really how do we make sure that we're moving as a collective because there's so much power in that. So where we landed with all of the work which has been work in progress over the

past couple of years, and we've definitely like that leverage the collective wisdom, is we've landed on the need for three big mindset shifts for philanthropy. And we believe that this applies as much at an individual level as it does at an organizational or field level. The first one is really about the mindset shift around moving from seeing ourselves as achievers or implementers who deliver our own impact against targets to really seeing ourselves as enablers. So giving up some control which

is never easy, and really being at the service of others, whether it's our partners, communities, movements, but also other sectors like markets and governments, and triggering change through them because triggering change just through philanthropy is not going to be enough. In order to really contribute change at a greater scale, it needs collaboration with others and philanthropy really needs to confidently step into its role or embrace its USB of being a risk taker and maybe also being a ris

k seeker. The second one is about walking the talk, and I know in the U.S. you the expression is walking the walk, but we have settled with walking the talk. This refers to the incredible potential of leveraging all of philanthropy's assets, and this goes beyond just grantmaking, so using endowments, influence, networks, operations, programming, how organizations are governed, the role of the board and leadership, organizational culture in leading the transformation agenda, all of these assets a

re massive levers for change. And sometimes when you have internal change in an organization that can have a ripple impact in the sector. And it's also about how do we unify these assets behind values so it pushes us not just to look at where resources are being distributed, but how they're being distributed, how they've been created in the first place, and who the decision makers are. And the third mindset shift is really about thinking about the long term, like the necessity to keep the future

in sight whilst looking at what we need to be doing to address immediate or visible needs and really reflect on the kind of society we want to be contributing to building. It's about anticipating what impacts us right now, but also future generations, and how do we act with that in mind. I think in terms of realizing this or embracing this approach, it's a lot about taking a broader intersectional lens, and reflecting on what certain trends like, or certain issues, existential issues like the c

limate crisis could mean for our work. Doesn't mean shifting completely, but how does it impact the work, even the very existence of our work, and how our work can impact not just the symptoms of the challenges that we're talking about, but the root causes. So we're looking at something that's long-term but deeper and something where we're moving ground. Now these mindset shifts are connected to 10 principles that we've co-created. There's a lot in each of this and I'm not going to discuss that

in detail, but for those who are interested and want a long read, we've just launched a report with the Centre for Strategic Philanthropy at Cambridge University. It is a bit of a long read but interesting if I can say that myself but if you're keen on just a couple of principles you can also deep dive. And it sort of highlights some of the nuances and the debates that are going on in each of these principles along with the recommendations on how people can act. We also have started with an init

ial pool of 10 stories of transformation. and I know someone said the word inspiration, so hopefully these stories can inspire you and the idea is that we want to continue to collect these stories because no one is going to go from a zero to 100. And we need to have an idea of how the process of change is happening because that provides food for thought and inspiration. Now some of these principles will be all too familiar like acting with transparency, openness, accountability, philanthropies r

isk capital, exercising trust, distributing power, and supporting local agency, and then there might be some that are slightly different or new like investing and strengthening philanthropy ecosystems, and growing philanthropic societies, or integrating a polycrisis lens. Again there are recommendations on how you can move on that journey. I think some principles might feel intimidating or overwhelming in terms of scope, but we hope that this collaborative approach will continue to highlight the

nuances and challenges in living these principles on the one hand, but also continue to highlight recommendations and best practices on how to make this change happen. And so my ask to the community in the audience here today is, please, do give us your feedback, and if you've got resources and work that you're doing please share it with us, and please share your stories of transformation. I'm going to pause then, and hand it back to you Michael. Sameera, thanks so very much. And folks who are

attending, those resources, the links to those resources are available in the chat, and please also use that to communicate back with us with what we've talked about so far, especially Sameera's reflection here, gives us a lot of food for thought about the challenges that we face. So as you have any questions, doubts, points of clarification, please be sure to share those in the comments. We expect to allow time for some Q&A at the end of this. And so Susan, you're queued up next, and we've aske

d you to talk particularly from a northern hemisphere perspective about the challenges of philanthropy but feel free to expand on that in your expanded amount of time here. Great, thank you, Michael, and thank you, Sameera. I agree completely with Sameera that philanthropy's at an inflection point, at that point of moving ahead with significant transformation if we do things differently. But I'm going to talk more to a kind of meso level, not at the huge transformation be they demographic, or te

chnology, or climate change, and the changing nature of wealth, but within philanthropy itself particularly from what we're seeing in the north, in North America, and also in Europe in important ways. And we're seeing in philanthropy both a decline in the sense of a decline in the participation rate, but also a maintenance of the philanthropy of philanthropy as measured in dollar terms or financial terms, and that seems like a paradox, how can it be getting smaller and bigger at the same time? A

nd it goes to reduced rates of participation across the population, but larger gifts at the higher end, so the overall size of the pot, if you will, is still large and increasing. And I think that has, that dynamic has several implications that we need to take seriously. Sort of at the high end, the big donor level, we're seeing much greater use of of donor-advised funds as as a vehicle for for giving because of their convenience, partly too because and they will grow because of the the wealth t

ransfer as we see families selling the family business, the family farm, the professional practice, those moments of liquidity in which that important. But they also raise questions of transparency and and equity. Do we regulate them further if so how is that country specific? So one is the are the vehicles in the changing nature of giving patterns. The second is the important role of advisors potentially as gatekeepers, those who are wealth advisors, philanthropic advisors, what they what the c

onversations they have, whether they have the right conversations that donors want, whether the extent to which they understand the sector becomes increasingly important. And at the same time and all that very large gifts are growing in size and number, it's still the case and this is certainly in my own country that high net worth donors, not the mega rich, or the ultra, but that broad entirely sure why or how to prompt them into being more so in terms of engaged donors. And at the sort of more

modest strata of regular donors, the challenges are undoubtedly part economic, rising inflation, the cost of housing, the cost of a whole variety of things, but there's also an important information gap that a lot of donors aren't giving who might have in the past or who could because they just don't know where to donate, where to give, what to support, and they know the brands, the big ones, but really understanding the local community, the causes that they support, I think we have a lot more

work to do around closing that information gap. So one trend is around that big sort of questions about participation rates and the managing the larger size of gifts that come from wealth inequality. And it's important because maintaining a culture of philanthropy across the giving spectrum is incredibly important. It's important not because of the money it brings to nonprofits and charities, although it's certainly important for that reason, but philanthropy is fundamentally around citizenship.

It's around participating in our community, our communities, and once we lose that we've lost something significant and of great value. So we need to pay more attention to that culture of philanthropy and how we inculcate and nurture it across the spectrum. The second sort of big bucket of trends are new players, the rise of a younger generation, more diverse communities, diaspora communities, non-majority communities, and women, as women are more significant in their own wealth. And that has a

variety of implications in terms of new players. The changing technology, we're certainly seeing I see this with my students all the time, more critical questions being asked around perpetuity of endowments, around colonialism embedded in philanthropy, and we have to be prepared to address and to change some of those traditional practices. We see more engagement in other ways, in volunteering, and participating in activism, as well as as financial contributions, a sense that women and youth are

more likely to do due diligence of the organizations in which they're going to direct their philanthropy and perhaps more likely to support advocacy causes than international causes. We certainly need to know more about that but there's a changing nature there, and we know very little about the diaspora communities whether the global south moving around growing middle class or in northern countries. And all of that is put a much greater pressure as it should on nonprofits and philanthropic inst

itutions to be more diverse and inclusive in their staff and their boards. It's starting to change but certainly many would argue, me included, that it's not changing fast enough. And the third broad change is what Sameera's addressed, that much greater interest emphasis need for more justice-oriented systems change philanthropy. That's not entirely new but it has a new urgency and a new prominence, with foundations changing practice with new kinds of foundations that are doing things in very di

fferent ways, again of more diverse and inclusive staff and boards, greater transparency on the investment side, knowing how ESG comes into that, impact investing, etc. And I think as part of that we'll see an even greater role for community foundations as we really try to understand and enhance some of the place specific manifestations of philanthropy. And I would be remiss as an academic if I said that that puts more pressure on us more value and need for us to do really nuanced research, that

's applied, that's relevant, that's mobilized throughout the sector. So those would be my three, a changing dynamic within philanthropy, a new set of players, and an important new set of of practices and orientations toward more of a justice and equity deserving lens. Susan, what a wonderful deep analysis of what's going on in our field and really complementing nicely Sameera's sort of literally and figuratively global perspective about the world and philanthropy's place in it, and your thoughtf

ulness about the the sector philanthropy how the pieces interact and what the important challenges and tensions and pressures are within that. So thanks very much for that. I do want to mention we have a wonderful question about the professionalization of fundraising in the chat from Preeti, I hope I am saying your name right, if not my apologies, that we will get to, but first I want to pass it on to Ana to share her thoughts about the trends in Mexico and sort of ground us in the challenges th

at you and Cemefi are facing there in your context. Thank you, Michael. Okay, I didn't mention that before but when we started like looking at the trends is like, we all want to sort of know what the future might take us on, and that's quite difficult indeed. So we use a couple of tools to foresight, exciting as Sameera may mention, so what we did actually was a collective exercise and with other organizations of the environment, reflective of the different things that they address in Mexico, an

d I must say that there are a lot of parallels and comparisons with 11 trends at the Johnson Center report as well as Susan just mentioned. So we came up with seven trends. I'm not saying that these are the only trends that we might have looked at but those were the most like impactful for the organizations that we were discussing those trends. The first one is interesting indeed because we are like looking at switching the nonprofit models and more the rise of social enterprises in the philanth

ropic sector. What we see here is a challenge identified by the sector because there are no legal frameworks that are and are identifies but social enterprises might be doing indeed. And I also have to say that by going in deep into the subject, I mean it's, we are looking at a different sort of sector, which some might call the fourth sector. And I can see like the parallel draw for example in the Johnson Center 22 2023 reports for profit news outlets are exploring nonprofit models, which we se

e a social enterprises is staying in between, like founding for-profits and nonprofits because they serve their needs in different reasons indeed. And we haven't actually, there are several challenges addressed to that. So one is like what how can more synergies be generated between social enterprises and civil society organizations. What is the role of whatever wants and the others and I am not actually addressing here the social economy sector which is a totally different sector in Mexico. I w

ant to stop here as well and say okay even if some of you might know what the Mexican context look like in the philanthropy sector, it's very different than the U.S. and perhaps as a Canada a philanthropy sector. I mean we are looking at really a small sector compared to the U.S., and a lot of more like restrictions in the fiscal and legal ways of promoting this citizenship, Susan mentioned I love what you said about philanthropic being much more about civic participation. And but that doesn't m

ean that we might have like some deal with similar challenges and one of the other trends that we encountered was like the rapid sort of conceptualization of philanthropy. I found that in the I think it was the Johnson Center 2022 report, they mentioned about the changes between what we think about a philanthropist and philanthropy, and not also what we think about philanthropy but also with the tweeting the terms that we used. I have the feeling that those terms are going faster but actually th

e practice that we create on those things, so we start thinking about impact investment, and exactly what does that mean within the sector. How are we applying impact investment? And everybody now and then is like okay the importance of social impact and nobody exactly knows how tomorrow's measures social impact, or there are certain and different measurements of social impact and they have to speak to each other, because as Sameera and Susan just mentioned, the noble sort of work of philanthrop

y is doing the right thing, doing good. Okay, so, the second trend that I think was also mentioned by Susan we shared that bit is the youth promoting a different kind of philanthropy. I mean youth are not interested in at least in Mexico of creating nonprofit sectors, it's too cumbersome, I mean it's too much of a trouble like trying to sort of going through the administrative process of creating a nonprofit. There are more attractive movements, there are more attractive informal collectives, an

d so you might see for example the women's movement in Mexico you know and for several reasons is the strongest one that I can think of here. At the same time you see a new generation more concerned about [the] environment. I mean I think the way to attract new generations is like, okay, how and what is philanthropy going to alleviate or to mitigate the issues that we are creating against, and then the earth, and that's something that they know how to talk to, I mean, and they are doing things r

elated to that. But I know that I mean the challenges that we see here is like it's not only like considering okay, let's integrate youth people to philanthropy. It's like more building a perspective of youth perspective within philanthropy, and how does that look like, that's much more different than just like saying, okay, let's invite the young people to participate in philanthropy. A little bit different of the trends that Johnson Center just highlighted in the 2021 report on the next change

I mean it's a little bit slightly different in the sense that not a lot of young people have the possibility of saying, okay, let's, I have this capital and I want to donate it. For us is a similar in the sense that a lot of young people want to make and build a social entrepreneurships and instead of nonprofits as well. Okay, the third and there are two trends that speak to each other within the Mexican context, and one might be, I mean this is slightly different from the European, Canadian, a

nd U.S countries were very similar to a lot of Latin American countries is the closure of civic space and initiative activities in the society organizations. That's why we speak a lot about creating the different discourse about visibility, about promoting the work that we do, because constantly we are affected by people in the political sector like trying to sort of point it at those and not really recognizing the work the nonprofit sector is doing. And they do it in several different ways. I m

ean for example one of the tools that I might that we use a lot is like, for example, the Monitor of Civics [Civicus Monitor] scene because the Mexican context is designed as a repressed context for civil society organizations which means that in certain I mean Mexico is a huge country, I mean this is, and it is that we face for example, fiscal and legal tortiness and no recognition of the work that civil society organizations are doing, and in some cases like a persecution, and not yeah and for

human rights offenders mostly, and the violent environment that you heard all the time in the news. Then another one is very aligned to the trends that Johnson Center has also found, is funding models in the philanthropy sector and becoming more flexible. I think the pandemic just taught us that we need to sort of change the mindset of the funders that we can't sort of be restrictive with the funding that we give. And a wonderful sort of initiative was founded by a couple of organizations calle

d Pulso OSC which saw the opportunity of not only looking at the way that nonprofits were affected by the pandemic, but also starting the conversation on how that might disaffect nonprofits and how can we keep or improve our ways of giving to nonprofits. And finally, and I think that's also speaks to the trend in 23 from the Johnson Center, is a looking around and improving working conditions is gaining momentum, and that means that more nonprofits are seeing for example that the need of looking

at the way that they treat their workers, which wasn't actually an issue at the beginning, I think, for most part of the nonprofits in Mexican sector is like you grow to be heroes, but that's not the case so it's more like looking at the well-being of the workers in the nonprofit sector and also seeing what the laws are to protect the workers by the nonprofit sectors. And we saw for example last year an initiative of building a labor union of workers of the nonprofit which is I think is the fir

st one that the first initiative that we are looking at at least in Mexican context. And I think I'm gonna stop here, Michael, just to mention that all these seven trends that you can look at the report here, the links are in the chat just make us think what are the next steps, what should we also like sort of do after we know this information, and how quickly are those changes happening, and a way of looking at trends is just sort of dividing the daunting reality that we see everywhere. Because

if we sort of hear the public crisis and the several complex problems that we're facing nowadays in the world, it just it makes you paralyzed, and then and if you look at the trends you might say, okay, I kind of start with this, I can sort of promote this collaboration with other nonprofits and so on, and they start a movement as Sameera mentioned. And thank you, Michael, I will stop here. Thank you, Ana, and I had that sense that you were just sharing about how overwhelming these challenges a

re, but how inspiring it is when people take action, and when I was in Mexico in May of this year, Ana put together and moderated a wonderful panel with young people, which I know will shock everybody that I was invited to a panel with young people, but it was a great conversation with folks who were engaged in those challenges of the treatment of women, gender equity, economic opportunity, youth engagement, LGBTQ rights in Mexico in a civic space that is closed dramatically in the last six year

s. And it was, I came away from that conversation so inspired and so hopeful, and I think it's a great way to end this formal part of our conversation to talk about facing challenges and thinking about how within a national context you address them. We do I do have two questions queued up. Two quick things, I want to thank everybody for joining us from all over the world, very grateful for that, and I'm going to go through these questions and sort of address them to our panel and please if you h

ave a question share it in the Q&A box or in the comments, and we will be sharing on YouTube a recording of this session. It'll be out within about a week. So the first question I think is really addressed to Susan, and it's an intriguing and challenging one, how has the professionalization of fundraising and philanthropy operations, thinking about advancement in university specifically, contributed to the shrinking pool of philanthropic participation? In my world we focus heavily on stewarding

and engaging primarily high-net worth folks, so I'm intrigued with what your take is on that element of this shrinking level of participation with how we highlight and focus so much on the people that have greater resources. Universities have long been the most among the most professionalized of nonprofits seeking seeking philanthropic support and rely heavily along relied heavily on high-net worth donors as well as their alum, and I think they'll continue to do so, it's in a sense universities

remain in a very privileged position there, although I I must say that I'm at the only research center in philanthropy in Canada, and there is no named chair in my country related, no equivalent of the Kellogg chair in philanthropy, although I'd be happy to accept one. So I think what that means universities are going to face somewhat different challenges which are the use of endowments, as the sort of efficiency of endowments gets questioned, and the need partly through their own internal audie

nces to have gift acceptance policies that is who they're going to take gifts from because, among the student movement we're certainly seeing those critical questions being asked. The loss of high-net worth, it's not a loss, the underperformance, should we say, of a high-net worth during this is is affecting the rest of the sector I think more than more than universities. And they're still giving, but they're not giving, at least in Canada and there's some evidence to their capacity to do so. So

they're still critically important and we will come to rely more on on high-net worth and and ultra wealthy donors, but that changes the distribution of philanthropy in ways that we don't yet know. Universities are likely to remain more in the privileged end of that. And I think it's true along with the debate about the decolonization of wealth within philanthropy, the role the big universities play, the size of their endowments, whether they are really reaching and serving the public good rath

er than rich alumni and their children, it's an ongoing and important debate particularly acute within the United States. So thank you, Susan, and in the Q&A box I'm going to pop a resource there's a blog called HistPhil, all one word, h-i-s-t-p-h-i-l, and they happen to have a review of a book related to this topic a couple months ago that is very valuable. And I saw another very interesting question in the comments which I'm scrolling and now I have not seen it oh trust-based philanthropy. How

do you see trust-based philanthropy as a positive or negative trend, particularly when it comes to releasing restrictions on gifts, as well as trusting to fund grassroots entities that do great work but are not officially registered nonprofits, 501(c)(3) in the case of U.S. So Sameera, I see you nodding your head, do you want to tackle that first and I'll give our other panelists an opportunity to chat about it? Yeah, definitely, I think in terms of a positive or negative trend I think if you l

ook at I mean there's a lot that's been written about trust-based philanthropy and there are a lot of practitioners around this. From my perspective trust based philanthropy really looks at coming, is trying to address the power imbalance that exists between grantors and grantees, and sort of to reframe the inequity balance, so it's so much more than about unrestricted funding. It's about looking at how do you strengthen relationship building between partners and actually for it to become a true

partnership, how is their mutual learning, how is their mutual transparency and accountability, and so I think it's really defining that relationship moving forward, and when you define that redefine that relationship it doesn't mean that there's going to be just unconditional trust, there is accountability and transparency that still exists but it is moving beyond the fact that, how do you trust the skills, the expertise, the insight of your partners to recognize the needs on the ground, and t

o do what they do best, and to provide the conditions and support and strengthen that local agency, and when I say and in terms of conditions sometimes it's just a question of the fact that there are bureaucratic systems in place that don't enable people to exercise their agency. So how does philanthropy again coming back to the role of the enabler, set up the conditions that removes these barriers moving forward, and I think yes, I think in terms of trust-based philanthropy, there is there's a

lot of thinking that resonates in terms of the role of philanthropy as an enabler but also in terms of sharing power and supporting local agency and trust, but all of this takes time and it takes work and effort. And in terms of, there's a lot of formal and informal philanthropy that happens, there are a lot of informal and formal organizations, structures, entities working on the ground in terms of civil society. In some countries, it makes, there are, it's very bureaucratic to become registere

d as an organization that could receive funds so how do we make sure that we're taking those into account and creating, making sure that resources are available for those who are doing great work on the ground. So I'll pause there. That reminds me, I I remember years ago working in Mexico with the tax authority there called the SAT and off the record which I'll share now 15 years later one of the the head of this area told me the light motif of our regulation is we don't trust you, addressing th

e nonprofit sector, and I think in a few words he really captured the nature of that relationship, and the issue that Sameera has highlighted is the central challenge of trust-based philanthropy. In our last couple of minutes there's one more question that I oh I'm so sorry I'm going to miss this last one, someone asked about the relationship and interface between impact investing and philanthropy moving forward. And Ana, since you talked about that in your remarks, I'm hoping that you can just

start to imagine the future, how do you see that, talk about impact investing, the practice of impact investing, influencing interfacing with philanthropy moving forward. Just really quick, thank you, Michael. I mean I don't see, it's quite quite blurry, the sort of boundaries between impact investment done by different actors indeed. So what I see is like how do we and that's a question that I talk to the public as well, we should just be looking at how to leverage the ground for different acto

rs doing impact investment, and how do we sort of interact, and promote a sort of better role and think about impact investment in the most meaningful way. You know I I tend to just think when I speak to some of the foundations of other corporations that we work with it's like unpack the issue, how do you want to impact investment at the ground level, and how does that look like. And I think one of the main key issues is like and thinking about shifting the power that somebody just mentioned, is

not just like a nice slogan because with the to address it and see how that looks like in the ground, and impact investment is now used every now and then for people who wants to make change, so let's just bring everybody at the table with these actors that have differences and major difference in terms of capital in terms of a power of influence and so on. And I will stop here. I think that's a very appropriate place to stop and on behalf of everybody that's had the privilege of listening in o

n this and me the privilege of interacting with you all in planning and doing this webinar just a big word of thanks and gratitude for the time that you invested beforehand in prepping for this and the hour that you spent with us and our audience. So again remember those evaluations. They'll be coming into your mailboxes. Please fill those out for us. They will include a YouTube video of this session, and don't forget we have a lot of upcoming events including a look to the future of philanthrop

y on September 13th here in the same space. So thanks so much everybody. Have a lovely day and look forward to seeing you on another webinar soon.