A Recap of the Greater Giving Summit
This article originally appeared on the WINGS blog
This April, Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation hosted the Greater Giving Summit in Seattle. Bringing together over 170 participants from all over the world, the goals of the Summit were to facilitate new insights; engage with bold ideas and opportunities; and to connect people, projects and concepts, all revolving around promoting greater charitable giving around the world.
The Summit was organized under the umbrella of the Foundation’s program “Giving by All”, which focuses on addressing bottlenecks to enable more and better giving. Issues such as giving channels, the giving ecosystem and greater giving in key regions (USA, India, and China) were all in play. We were participating as representatives of the global #GivingTuesday movement, joined by colleagues from Kenya, Liberia, and India.
Overall, the summit was a unique opportunity to learn and share. With so much attention paid to nonprofit capacity building over the years, the Giving By All program stands out as one of the few initiatives to invest in strengthening the supply-side of philanthropy. The summit really sharpened the focus on everyday givers and the extent to which innovation and good design can incentivize strong everyday giving. Yet while it is clear that some innovations can be straightforward to implement, others will require strategic collaboration and for the deeper issues of trust and transparency to be addressed.
Growth in giving can happen very quickly. New and inclusive technologies can play a large role in converting millions of people into donors so that giving will eventually be as easy as saying hi to our neighbors every day.
By promoting giving we are promoting a stronger philanthropic sector too. But to do so will require ongoing investment in support of our philanthropy ecosystem. Understanding data, advocating for an enabling environment, campaigning for the sector, everything will have to grow alongside giving.
#GivingTuesday is part of that ecosystem, helping new approaches to philanthropy to spread globally, even against a backdrop of vastly different cultural and philanthropic contexts. More than a simple campaign, it is a movement that inspires individuals in overs 50 countries to give more generously.
Greater giving, greater philanthropy, better world.
Anita Gallagher, Director InnovaSocial and #GivingTuesday leader in Mexico
João Paulo Vergueiro, CEO of ABCR – Brazilian Fundraisers Association and #GivingTuesday Leader in Brazil
Teresa Echaurren, #GivingTuesday leader in Chile
