Building Social Change Partnerships
Please note: ForAL is currently inactive.
Our Mission
Forging Alliances South and North (ForAL) promotes inter-American partnerships between the philanthropic community, primarily in the United States, and civil society organizations and movements working for social change in Latin America and the Caribbean.
ForAL seeks to:
• Foster
mutual empowerment, understanding, and collaboration
• Work
to increase the transfer of funds from North to South to address pressing
social issues
Bridge Building Between Grantmakers & Grantseekers in the Americas
| Philanthropy in the United States facilitates
the transfer of billions of dollars to deserving causes. However,
domestic issues predominate, and comparatively few resources are
directed abroad. According to a recent Foundation Center and Council
on Foundations study, just 3.3% of US foundation grants go overseas
and a large part of those funds are channeled to Europe rather than
to economically disadvantaged regions. Yet global problems are often
most acute in poorer countries, and global solutions must incorporate
dynamic social movements in those regions. Moreover, philanthropic
funding in the South can be highly cost effective. |
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Beyond the quantity of resources, voices from within Latin American civil society and the North American philanthropic community are also calling for an approach that better empowers and enhances the effectiveness of all involved in the grantmaking process. ForAL is bridging the divide between US-based funders and social movements in Latin America and the Caribbean, a divide characterized by language differences and insufficient familiarity with each other's social and political contexts. ForAL deepens hemispheric relationships and provides information, analysis and other services to the philanthropic community in the North and social change organizations in the South. |
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| ForAL's Distinctive
Features: • Innovative bridge-building • Mutual empowerment • Not-for-profit initiative • Primarily Latin American directed • Extensive regional expertise and contacts |
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