by Jack Lilley, Communications Manager at the Centre for Strategic Philanthropy
In September, the team at the Centre for Strategic Philanthropy (CSP) held a strategy week at Cambridge Judge Business School to discuss ongoing research, education and thought leadership outputs, and brainstorm new opportunities for 2022 to ‘scale up’ the Centre’s delivery.
During the week, we were delighted to welcome our founding patron, Mr Badr Jafar, who joined the team for an afternoon workshop focused on how the Centre can maximise impact within global growth market philanthropy. The team and Mr Jafar further explored opportunities for the Centre to best support Global South individuals, organisations and family offices in their aims and objectives.
Research was at the forefront of the conversation, as the team looks to develop the CSP portfolio beyond the first industry report, Philanthropy and COVID-19: Is the North-South Power Balance Finally Shifting?. At the of the week, the team welcomed Director of Giving Evidence and CSP Fellow, Caroline Fiennes, who offered her insights and expertise on the Centre’s achievements to date and best practices moving forward.
Likewise, on Wednesday the CSP was joined by their funded researchers, Dr Ingrida Kerusauskaite and Dr Jessica Sklair, and Visiting Associate Elena Christodolou (via Zoom). Ingrida is working with James Hill on a project that examines how philanthropic capital could be better regulated to encourage philanthropic flows while accounting for risks including terrorism and money laundering. Jessica, along with Dr Farwa Sial, is developing a project which analyses the relationship between the innovative development financing agenda and its adoption by philanthropic organisations. Elena is working in collaboration with CSP Research Associate Dr Shonali Banerjee to explore the ecosystem of impact investing in Nigeria, particularly how social enterprises can shift from incubation to sustainable growth and how the impact framework of investors can be adapted to serve the needs of investees. This project will also identify the relevant business development services to address the needs of investees in emerging markets.
The week closed out with further workshops on the Centre’s executive education delivery and thought leadership convening for 2022, following on from the success of the #ShiftThePower seminar series, which engages industry practitioners and academics on a range of critical topics, connecting Global South sector leaders and their allies in the Global North in calling for change.
The CSP team looks forward to the year ahead and sharing new insights soon, as the Centre continues its mission to become the leading hub of actionable knowledge for catalysing greater philanthropic impact from the world’s fastest growing regions.