Priority Communities: Fostering Inclusive and Resilient Economies

Since launching in 2020 with a focus on supporting efforts to build inclusive economies in five cities – Fresno, Salinas, San Bernardino, Stockton, and Riverside – Irvine's Priority Communities initiative has achieved progress towards its goal to create good jobs and foster inclusive economic development that benefits all workers.This learning and evaluation report lays out key findings from the first four years of the initiative's grantmaking, and highlights progress across several of Priority Communities' impact goals as well as challenges and tensions inherent to initiatives that involve diverse stakeholders, sectors, and other complexities. It explores what it takes to transform local economies and includes examples from each community to provide more nuance.Key findings:Support from Irvine has significantly shifted the composition of regional economic development tables, with a substantial increase in participation from grassroots organizations that represent worker and community voiceRobust cross-sector partnerships are reducing silos and promoting collaboration, resulting in billions of dollars in new investments from federal, state, and philanthropic sourcesRegions are piloting innovative projects with promising initial results that pave the way for new jobs in emerging sectorsRegional partners are building credibility, new narratives, and political will for more inclusive and equitable economic development that leads to the creation of good job

Promises Versus Progress: How transparent are foundations about their local funding commitments?

The localisation movement has been gaining traction for a number of years, with calls to shift decision-making and implementation to the local level. These calls were primarily aimed at bilateral donors, but in December 2022, 26 philanthropic foundations joined donor governments in endorsing the Donor Statement on Supporting Locally Led Development. This was a public commitment to prioritise local leadership in development efforts. A key component of this commitment - Action 2 - focuses on increasing direct funding to local organisations. Having philanthropies join bilaterals was, and is, a welcome step – localisation is not an easy lift so having philanthropies and bilateral donors aligned bolsters the chance of success.What was not included in the statement, however, was a mechanism to track and report progress on these commitments.Publish What You Fund has been researching and assessing locally led development for several years. We assessed the United States Agency for International Development's (USAID's) progress on its target to channel 25% of its funding directly to local organisations, and compared five leading donors on their local funding efforts. This report focuses on the extent to which the 26 philanthropic foundations who signed the December 2022 Commitment are tracking and reporting their progress on locally led development

Challenging Times: How U.S. Nonprofit Leaders are Experiencing the Political Context

This Research Snapshot examines how nonprofits are experiencing the rapid shifts in policy and the current U.S. political climate under a new presidential administration. Drawing on responses from 585 nonprofit leaders collected from February 3 to 21, 2025, the report highlights nonprofit leaders' most pressing concerns with the political climate and what they would find most helpful from their foundation funders. Â

Nature-Positive Solutions: Kenya

The Nature-Positive Initiative at a glance:What are the main actions?Working with stakeholders across agriculture, economic, environment, and natural resource management sectors at farm- and community-level, CGIAR researchers and partners will:1. Boost critical ecosystem services and enhance social and economic benefits, including equality2. Tackle the root economic and political causes of environmental degradation from agricultural production3. Harness the power of nature-based solutions and ecosystem services alongside advances in digital agriculture and agronomy to reverse negative trends around natural assets, including climate, biodiversity, land, and water4. Promote improved waste management and circular economyWhere is it focused?Burkina Faso, Colombia, India, Kenya, and Vietna

Forging a Post-Imperial Rural Subject: Strategies of Rural Regeneration in Post-Habsburg Countries between Local State Building and Transnational Philanthropy

In the aftermath of the First World War, several empires in the Eurasian borderlands collapsed, including the Habsburg Empire. In its successor states, various actors pursued what this paper calls "strategies of rural regeneration," aiming to transform not merely the countryside but also the bodies and minds of its inhabitants. Indeed, the primary objective of these biopolitical initiatives, as this paper demonstrates, was to create a new, post-imperial rural subject. Although competing visions of this subject reflected divergent political agendas, they uniformly promised that this transformed individual would shed the undesirable legacies of the Habsburg imperial past. These imperial legacies were thus conceptualized as embodied and medicalized, inviting intervention from interdisciplinary networks of experts, including public health specialists influenced by eugenics, engineers, and sociologists. While these efforts were integral to the local state building in the rural areas, they were significantly enabled by and negotiated with transnational philanthropic initiatives. To substantiate this argument, the paper compares four such biopolitical projects in Czechoslovakia, Hungary, Romania, and Yugoslavia. By adopting and adapting specialized rural health demonstration areas, promoted and co-funded by the Rockefeller Foundation, these projects aimed to shape post-imperial subjects in rural settings in several distinct ways. By examining and comparing these divergent biopolitical strategies of rural regeneration, this paper sheds new light on the complex interplay between transnational philanthropy and local state-building actors in shaping the post-imperial world

Guidance for Philanthropy: Powering Transformative Multistakeholder Partnerships

Philanthropy has a vital role to play in solving the world's most pressing challenges—by enabling collaborative partnerships that reach across sectors and borders. Philanthropy brings flexible, risk-tolerant funding, convenes diverse partners, opens access to influential networks, and elevates local and community leadership. Through multistakeholder partnerships (MSPs), philanthropy can spark innovation, build trust, and unlock long-term, systemic change. Based on findings from regional research by WINGS and its partners in Africa, Asia, and Latin America, this brief recommends nine ways philanthropy can help MSPs thrive

Ford Foundation Philanthropy in Switzerland and the Promotion of European Integration (1957-1967)

Between 1957 and 1967, the Ford Foundation financed the Centre de Recherches Européennes (CRE) in Lausanne, Switzerland, a project born from the collaboration between Henri Rieben, a professor of European integration at the University of Lausanne, and Jean Monnet, a key figure in European Integration. Rieben and Monnet first met in 1955 and quickly began working together on projects to promote European studies. Monnet approached Shepard Stone, director of the Ford Foundation's International Affairs Program, in 1955 to propose creating research institutions to address European integration. In 1956, Monnet submitted a proposal for three initiatives, including the CRE, which was funded by the Ford Foundation starting in 1957 with an initial grant of $25,000.This report analyzes the Ford Foundation's objectives in supporting European studies in Switzerland, examining its broader philanthropic activities in the region during the 1950s and 1960s. It compares this foundation's investments with those of the Rockefeller Foundation and provides a micro-historical analysis of the grants given to Rieben's projects. The study emphasizes how personal relationships and ideological interests shaped the decision-making process in funding European integration research, revealing the importance of personal networks in securing philanthropic support

Transformando la Filantropía 2025: Familia, Empresa & Sociedad

This year's edition of Transformando la Filantropía by Filantrópico reflects on the evolution of Colombia's philanthropic culture - from a tradition shaped by colonial legacies and family inheritance to a growing movement rooted in purpose, collaboration, and long-term impact. Drawing on 25 years of comparative research between the United States, Colombia, and Latin America, the report highlights the structural barriers that have limited a stronger culture of giving, including distrust, fragmented efforts, and the absence of incentives. Yet it also celebrates Colombia's vibrant social ecosystem, longstanding family foundations, and the emergence of new generations who see philanthropy not as charity, but as a strategic commitment to country-building. Marking Filantrópico's 15-year anniversary, this publication invites families, organisations, and allies to shift from accumulation to impact - building legacies that endure, bridge generations, and help shape a more just and inclusive future for the region

Climate Change, Health & Equity (CCHE) Initiative Final Evaluation Report

This report outlines the progress and impact of Kresge's CCHE initiative. The $30 million effort aims to advance climate policies and solutions that benefit low-wealth communities and communities of color, reducing their climate-related health risks over the long term.The initiative emphasizes cross-sector partnerships, advocacy, community engagement, and power building to achieve key outcomes such as strengthened relationships, increased climate resilience funding, and the adoption of equitable climate and health policies and solutions.The report includes key findings, recommendations directed at public and private funders who play a pivotal role in driving systemic change, and examples of network partner successes and impacts over the course of the initiative

Statewide Hunger Study: Findings from a Survey for Second Harvest Heartland

Second Harvest Heartland contracted with Wilder Research to conduct a randomized statewide study to learn more about the prevalence of hunger across the state. In addition to gathering this information, Second Harvest Heartland and Wilder Research collaborated on the development of a metric to better assess food security on a spectrum