The WINGS network gathers together every four years for the the global WINGSForum.

WINGSForum 2010 will be hosted by the Associazione Italiana Fondazioni e Enti di Erogazione (Association of Foundations and Grantmaking Organizations) or Assifero and the Associazione di Fondazioni e di Casse di Risparmio Spa (Association of Italian Foundations and Savings Bank) or ACRI.

Philanthropy is working in an environment where the challenges the world is facing are age-old. What is different is that they are more complex and evolve at a faster pace; they are intertwined, interconnected, interdependent and global/moving across borders.

With the current status of global philanthropy, three primary areas are important for the future of philanthropy:

• Improving the legal and enabling environment for global philanthropy
• Developing models for more effective philanthropic collaborations to address global challenges
• Engaging philanthropy more strategically with policymakers and multilateral organisations.

WINGSForum 2010 is planned to address these three key areas, hearing case studies, sharing promising practices, and learning from content experts on how grantmaker associations can support global philanthropy's future.

At a time when philanthropy needs to muster all its resources to deal with these difficulties, associations of grantmakers have a special role in helping philanthropy to become more effective. Grantmaker associations need to think both creatively and deeply about new solutions, innovate, and how to scale up new methods and solutions.

A Powerful Opportunity

WINGSForum 2010 promises to be a powerful opportunity to:

• Build the field of grantmaker support, strengthening and reinforcing the role it plays in developing networked, effective philanthropy and bringing new donors to the table
• Demonstrate (through cases) how associations and philanthropy support organisations contribute to social change and promote the scaling-up of creative/innovative solutions to social issues for greater impact
• Examine new strategies and their applicability across different cultures which address poverty, racial discrimination, gender inequity and other issues that threaten our societies
• Gather a broad-based global network to share stories and promising (best) practices
• Give visibility to philanthropy and what philanthropy does for the world.

Features of WINGSForum 2010

• Case studies around innovations and creative solutions to issues and challenges that can be scaled-up and/or replicated by other philanthropy support organisations in other parts of the world
• Thought leaders on improving the legal and enabling environment for cross-border giving
• Plenary sessions that challenge the role of support organisations to link policymakers, multilaterals and philanthropy together.
• Concurrent sessions that provide both the innovation and practical tools to be effective as a grantmaker association/philanthropy support organisations
• At the end of the conference, reports on the three key areas will be shared with the field