During the first EDGE Conference, over 250 globally-minded local and international foundations, donors and allies gathered at Just Giving 2012 to help launch the new EDGE Funders Alliance.  Plenaries, workshop sessions and funder-led “engagement labs” advanced a social change philanthropy committed to community empowerment and advocacy, within an analysis of global systemic challenges facing grantmakers and our grantees worldwide. Just Giving 2013 provided an equally unique space for us to deepen our understanding of the current landscape of grassroots and transnational initiatives addressing structural injustice in key areas. The conference highlighted ways in which global social change philanthropy can – and should – make a difference.

Plenaries and workshop sessions focused on strategies making significant and actual change happen, and caucuses and working groups prioritized ways of increasing funder involvement and collaboration by expanding opportunities for networking, sharing and building relationships among grantmakers around the world.