Rethinking, reimaging, reshaping futures:
Never before has cooperation proved so essential

Giacomo Pinaffo, with a career in the social economy and ethical and alternative finance, and now Secretary General of one of the most progressive community foundations in Europe, was an ideal person to bring a community foundation perspective to the Philea ‘Futures Philantrhopy Gathering of Leaders’ in Tunisia. Designed to provide space to rethink and reshape philanthropy so it can be a true enabler of just and equitable futures it brought together some 50 participants from foundations, NGOs, and civil society organisations from Africa and Europe to exchange ideas, challenge assumptions, and imagine new possibilities. Below, Giacomo reflects on discussions, highlighting the need for building bridges within the philanthropy ecosystem to align issue and interest with local dynamics and realise more systemic and durable impact.

‘Tilal Utique, just outside Tunis, near the historic sites of ancient Carthage, is a place steeped in history and rich with cultural layers — once a powerful maritime hub shaped by Phoenician, African, and Hellenistic influences — and today, as a centre that places art at the core of its mission to foster dialogue and build bridges between continents. It offered a perfect space for connecting foundation and civil society leaders over 3 days to apply their minds towards rethinking and reshaping philanthropy so it can be a true enabler of just and equitable futures, especially between Africa and Europe. The conversations were driven by three core questions:

• How can futures thinking help us envision and contribute to more hopeful cross-continental futures?
• How can philanthropy move beyond historical narratives and stereotypes to build more respectful, equitable partnerships between the Global North and South?
• What needs to change in order to establish the kind of trust-based dialogue that can support real systemic transformation?

What made this gathering especially powerful was the diversity — not just of the participants themselves, but of their perspectives and of the imagined futures. Some looked to the future with hope, others with a degree of scepticism, and different potential futures of philanthropy were analysed: a “decolonised” one, a more interconnected one, a community-centred one.

Local-global dynamics

Despite the enriching difference in viewpoints, it emerged clearly that that while each local context may have a different evolution, we are all affected by the same global dynamics — polarisation, radicalisation, growing individualism — and that many of the social and environmental achievements we once thought secure are now under threat.

Philanthropy played a role in advancing those gains, and it must now rise to the challenge of defending and evolving them. One action that counters these global trends is that of “cooperation”. Never before has cooperation proved so essential for those working for a more fair and sustainable future, because one of the greatest fears for many in the social economy is not so much the size and number of the challenges we face, but the feeling that we have to face them alone.

Shifting mindsets from giving to sharing

Building bridges between organisations, sectors, and geographies is therefore strategic. And this is just as true within philanthropy itself. More specifically, I believe that creating spaces where local community foundations and larger, non-local foundations can come together and co-design solutions for systemic change would be of strategic importance.

Indeed, during the gathering, a particularly thought-provoking point of discussion centred on the phrase “money is power”. When resources come from actors external to the community — as for instance from “non-local” philanthropic institutions — there’s a risk that decision-making stays concentrated far from the people those funds are meant to support. Traditional funding models often reinforce existing imbalances. So different approaches were addressed in Tilal Utique: what if philanthropy helped shift power toward communities? What if those most affected by societal challenges also held the resources and the authority to lead the change? That means moving from a mindset of “giving” to one of “sharing”.

Having ‘place’ at the table

Community foundations have a critical role to play here. Because of their deep local roots, they’re uniquely positioned to surface and amplify community assets, support collective vision-building, and help communities rediscover their potential. They work to bring systemic change by generating, co-generating, re-generating and organising territorial resources in innovative ways, enhancing the opportunities of the territory. In this ecosystem-based view, “money is power” is only part of the picture — also knowledge is power, natural heritage is power, social capital is power. Without tapping into these other local forms of wealth, financial resources alone are often ineffective or, worse, counterproductive. In this sense, philanthropic money is a peer sitting at the table of the local community stakeholders, a partner in the broader ecosystem working toward a shared future of the whole of the community itself.

And community foundations are relevant facilitators at such a table: they engage in a range of community leadership and partnership activities, serving as catalysts, convenors, collaborators to empower local communities by raising self-confidence and awareness of their capacities and assets. At the same time, they accumulate and deploy capital (in various forms – human, financial, physical, intellectual, social and cultural) implementing activities that address a wide variety of needs in the locality: grantmaking is often only one of a broader set of financial and non-financial tools that generate impact. Such collaboration within philanthropy — between local and non-local organisations — could therefore open up new opportunities for systemic change. On the one hand, thanks to their ecosystemic approach, community foundations can offer a more complete and integrated understanding of local realities — including the material and intangible resources that are too often overlooked by external actors. On the other hand, larger non-local philanthropic institutions can bring to the table not only economic resources, but also a wide set of methodologies and lessons that have emerged from different geographical and sectoral contexts, and that can be adapted to the local context. A stronger cooperation between these two levels of philanthropy would allow for the design of funding processes that better align with local dynamics, integrating local resources and therefore multiplying the effectiveness of any external support, thus delivering more systemic and durable impact. At the same time, cooperation becomes a tool for breaking down internal silos within philanthropy and moving beyond fragmented, sector or issue-specific interventions.’

Giacomo Pinaffo

Messina Foundation

April 2025

Giacomo Pinaffo holds a degree in Business Economics and a Master’s in Economics of Local Development. He has dedicated his entire academic and professional career to the social economy sector. For 10 years, he served as investment manager at the European Company for Ethical and Alternative Finance (SEFEA) and project manager at the European Federation of Ethical and Alternative Banks and Financiers (FEBEA). He also held the position of Impact Manager at SEFEA IMPACT, an Italian Asset Management Company specialized in impact investing strategies. Since the beginning of 2020, he joined the MeSSInA Foundation, where he coordinates its international projects and networks department

More information on the MeSSInA Foundation can be found here https://fdcmessina.org/