March 03, 2026
Dear readers,
Governance of the energy transition is one of the topics TAI members are following closely and has become a high stakes agenda amid heightened competition for transition minerals. So, we start this week with Touba Esfahani Nejad, writing for South Centre, interrogating the G20 critical minerals deal: does it represent a meaningful step toward equitable resource governance, or does it risk replicating the extractive logics of the past? The analysis is particularly relevant for those following the intersection of climate finance and sovereignty. Look for more on corruption risks and political capture related to the transition in the What’s New section and much else besides.
And don’t forget the jobs, opportunities and calendar of events.
Happy reading!
TAI team
What's New
The inaugural Anti-Crime and Corruption Hero Award honours individuals confronting organized crime and corruption head-on, often at great personal risk. The Organized Crime and Corruption Reporting Project brings this recognition to those working in some of the world's most dangerous environments to hold power to account.
Radhakishan Rawal, writing for South Centre, examines how countries can design domestic law solutions to effectively tax digital services without running into international tax treaty barriers. A critical issue for revenue mobilization, particularly across the Global South.
Tim Harford explores in the Financial Times the latest evidence on the links between people's lived experience of economic growth and their commitment to fairness and democratic values. Those who live through periods of GDP growth are more likely to trust in government, a finding with important implications for democratic consolidation.
Breaking free from international civil society organizations' inertia requires bold imagination to reimagine power, purpose and possibility. This piece from the International Civil Society Centre makes the case for a more transformative approach to the sector's future.
Professor Alberto Alemanno contends that fossil fuel interests now drive political capture, shaping debates before policy begins. He urges speeding up the energy transition using legal and local avenues, and mobilising new business coalitions to challenge their grip.
A 1,400-page leak has revealed Russia's global disinformation machine, spanning at least 60 agents, a $7.3 million budget and operations across three continents. The leak offers an unprecedented look into coordinated influence operations and their geographic reach.
Recent elections marked further erosion of freedom of speech in Costa Rica. A piece in Derechos Digitales mentions how this continues a troubling regional trend that demands attention from funders and civil society alike.
A new study from The Possibilists captures the perspectives, practices and challenges of Europe-based young changemakers as they work toward a sustainable and inclusive economic future.
In Vanity Fair, Nicholas Niarchos traces the history of Dan Gertler’s controversial career in mining, tied to corruption and the geopolitics surrounding transition minerals. Niarchos examines how the race for cobalt and other critical resources is reshaping power and accountability.
Nearly one in four adults worldwide, 1.1 billion people, fear they could lose their land or housing rights within the next five years. These are key findings from the “Status of Land Tenure and Governance” report that highlights the urgent need for land governance reform as a cornerstone of justice and stability.
The Social Change Initiative offers funders a strategic framework for addressing the rise of hate and extremism. The note outlines priority areas for philanthropic investment and the kinds of approaches most likely to produce durable impact in shrinking civic space contexts.
What would it take to rebuild the social contract in an age of climate crisis, inequality, and eroding trust? This open-access volume published by United Nations agencies and Springer Nature brings together scholars, practitioners, artists and activists to offer grounded pathways for regenerative, inclusive and just futures.
The Centre for Law and Democracy has provided a comprehensive review of the draft Philippine access to information bill, and offers useful insights for experts tracking right to information reforms in Southeast Asia.
Transparency International U.S. and Transparencia Venezuela have released a factsheet outlining the current challenges facing Venezuela and offering recommendations to ensure economic and political stability during the transition period. The piece is timely given heightened international attention on Venezuelan governance.
ESSENTIAL LISTENING:
In this episode of Financial Crime Matters, Kieran speaks with former South African jurist Richard Goldstone about his work as a board member at Integrity Initiatives International and the push to establish an International Anti-Corruption Court. Essential listening for those following global anti-corruption architecture.
From Our Members
HUMANITY UNITED: Ayla Francis Foster, Director for Policy and Government Relations at HU, will speak at the African Diaspora Network Investment Symposium on 27 March 2026 at Santa Clara University, California. Her panel will explore how diaspora-led action, in partnership with African governments and local partners, can drive structural reforms.
HILTON FOUNDATION: Their Refugees initiative has partnered with the Asia Pacific Network of Refugees (APNOR) to pilot the Meaningful Refugee Participation Index (MRPI), a self-assessment tool designed to evaluate how organisations are advancing the inclusion of refugees and displaced people in their policies and programmes. The Foundation is encouraging donors and funders across the sector to adopt the MRPI as a new standard for refugee inclusion.
TOOLS AND TRENDS FOR FUNDERS
In this instalment of Alliance Magazine's series on collective and collaborative giving, Andrew Milner speaks with Harriet McCallum, executive officer of Mannifera, an Australian collaborative fund promoting greater democracy and economic inclusion. An insightful look at how principle-driven collaboration can reshape philanthropic practice.
Philanthropy Women reflects on the moment when a philanthropic leader as prominent as Bill Gates publicly apologizes to his own foundation staff. It is more than a personal moment: it is a governance moment, a power moment, and a signal for the broader field of philanthropy.
Inside Philanthropy takes a closer look at family offices, one of the fastest-growing and least transparent vehicles for concentrated wealth. As their influence on social and political issues grows, the piece raises important questions about accountability and power in private philanthropy.
For foundations, NGOs and donors, data now plays a central role in demonstrating results. But an important question is often left unasked: what if the way we measure impact is rooted in the same systems of inequality we are trying to change? This piece from WINGS makes the case for fundamentally rethinking measurement frameworks in philanthropy.
ESSENTIAL WATCHING:
Watch the Open Government Partnership webinar with Jonathan Macdonald from the Treasury Board of Canada and Marlena Wisniak from ECNL on the state of algorithmic impact assessments. The session offers practical tips on making AI processes as transparent, participatory and accountable as possible. Pair with this blog outlining concrete steps for embedding transparency, participation, and oversight into public-sector AI deployment.
Focused Topic of the Week
When the Ground Shifts: Philanthropy's Reckoning with Power, Purpose, and Scale
What does it mean to be a funder right now? Not in the abstract, but in this specific moment, when democratic foundations are under pressure, when the architecture of global giving is shifting, and when some of the largest philanthropic transfers in history are on the horizon?
Nancy Lindborg opens the conversation with a clarion call. Writing in Stanford PACS, the Packard Foundation's President and CEO argues that investing in civil society is not a philanthropic preference — it is an act of democratic stewardship. This is a meaningful reframe. It asks funders to stop treating civil society as one bucket among many and start recognizing it as the connective tissue that makes all other change possible. At a moment when civic space is contracting globally, that argument carries real weight.
The Joffe Charitable Trust brings a candid reflection on working alongside other funders on countering corruption and illicit flows. Alex Jacobs is honest about the friction, the power asymmetries, and the gap between partnership as aspiration and partnership as lived experience. It is an invitation to listen differently, to share power more deliberately, and to ask what collaboration actually requires of the stronger party in the room.
Craig Newmark's story adds a different register — the funder as learner. After years of giving and some gifts that did not land as intended, the Craigslist founder has signed the Giving Pledge and made a deliberate choice to narrow the focus of his giving. Philanthropic focus is often framed as a strategic virtue, but Newmark's account suggests it can also be the hard-won result of honest reckoning with what hasn't worked.
What of collective approaches? The Philanthropic Foundations Canada network asked what it means for Canadian philanthropy to meet this moment. What emerged is a set of three commitments that try to hold both hope and harsh reality at once. The framing itself is telling: Canadian funders are not pretending the terrain is stable, and they are not retreating into incrementalism either. They are trying to name what this moment asks of them.
And then there is the scale question. Howard Buffett is preparing to move $150 billion — a figure so large it bends the imagination. The details of how, where, and with whom that capital will be deployed remain to be seen. But the signal alone reshapes the landscape. It raises questions about concentration and accountability in philanthropy, about who gets to set the agenda when giving operates at this magnitude, and about whether the sector's existing infrastructure — its norms, its relationships, its reform conversations — is ready for what is coming.
ESSENTIAL WATCHING:
Tanja Leikas-Botta explores why human rights are foundational to the international rules-based order and why protecting them requires coordinated action across governments, multilateral institutions, and civil society.
JOBS
Multiple openings - Hewlett Foundation
Multiple openings - MacArthur Foundation
Multiple Openings - Ford Foundation
Multiple Openings - Hilton Foundation
Multiple Openings - Gates Foundation
Multiple Openings - Transparency International
Multiple Openings - Social Action, Development Cooperation, Culture, Disability, and Health Sectors in Spain
Multiple Openings - National Endowment for Democracy (NED)
Director of Advocacy and Communications - Prospera.
Expert on public debt management in Senegal - Westminster Foundation for Democracy. Deadline: March 5, 2026.
Communications and Media Specialist - Transparency International. Deadline: March 16, 2026.
Chief of Staff - Luminate. Deadline: April 03, 2026.
CALLS
The European Endowment for Democracy provides rolling funding for local democracy organizations in the Eastern Partnership, Middle East and North Africa, and Western Balkans & Turkey.
The Creative Organising Lab is a one-day online workshop co-led by creative agencies across West Africa, Europe, India, and South America, designed to help organizations working in shrinking civic space turn ideas into action.
The UN Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) invites NGOs to complete an online survey informing recommendations on creating and maintaining a safe and enabling environment for civil society. Available in English, French, and Spanish. Deadline: 6 March 2026, 18:00 CET.
La Sobremesa announces its Curso de Sostenibilidad Financiera for civil society organisations in Latin America, a practical space to design a financial sustainability plan step by step. (In Spanish.) Deadline: 27 March 2026.
Two ScaleDem open calls are now live through 31 March 2026, offering eligible organizations across Europe and beyond funding, mentorship and peer learning to scale democratic innovations. The Piloting Programme supports bold new ideas with up to €100,000, and the Twinning Programme offers up to €65,500 for mentor–mentee communities adapting proven approaches.
The Open Government Partnership Transparency Fellowship is a fully-funded, five-day immersive experience for mid- to senior-level professionals in government, civil society or media from Georgia, Armenia, Moldova and Ukraine. It will take place 13-17 July 2026 in Lithuania and Latvia. Deadline: 31 March 2026.
The National Endowment for Democracy offers grants to advance democratic goals and strengthen democratic institutions. Deadline: June 6, 2026.
Thousand Currents will host its first Academy in the Global South this August in Brazil, focused on internationalism and global solidarity, including immersive engagement with social movements shaping transformative change. August 2-7, 2026 | São Paulo, Brazil.
CALENDAR
People Powered 2026 Convening - A global gathering on participatory democracy. Nairobi, Kenya. March 2–5, 2026.
Funder learning series "Rooting in Global Solidarity and Transnational Organizing," hosted by Thousand Currents and co-sponsored by EDGE Funders Alliance. March 3–12, 2026.
Global Democracy Coalition (GDC) Africa Pre-Forum Webinar: Elections, Youth Participation, and Democratic Accountability, March 4 | 14:00 CET / 16:00 EAT.
Addressing gender gaps in tax systems: fairness and equitability in ATI partner countries, online, March 10 | 14:00–15:30 CET.
EU Tax Symposium 2026 on "The future of taxation: inequality and growth in the global economy" (Brussels). March 16-17.
2026 Global Philanthropy Leadership Summit. March 18-20, 2026 | San Francisco, CA.
Report Launch: Freedom in the World 2026, Freedom House, March 19 | 10:30 AM ET.
Committee of Experts on International Cooperation in Tax Matters (32nd session, UN HQ NYC). March 23-26.
2026 OECD Global Anti-Corruption & Integrity Forum (GACIF). March 23-27, 2026 | Paris, France.
Reimagining Nonprofits and Philanthropy - Virtual book launch with Vu Le from Nonprofit AF, celebrating the vital nonprofit sector. February 25, 2026 | 10:00 AM PST / 1:00 PM EST / 6:00 PM GMT.
Special Meeting of ECOSOC on International Cooperation in Tax Matters (UN HQ NYC). March 27.
Igniting Hope: The Inaugural Ottawa Civic Space Summit. Registration closes April 10, 2026. Event from April 21-23, 2026.
Ottawa Civic Space Summit. Registration closes April 10, 2026. April 21–23.
Othering & Belonging Conference, Louisville, Kentucky, March 31-April 1, 2026.
UNESCO World Press Freedom Day 2026, Lusaka, Zambia. May 4-5.
RightsCon 2026, Lusaka, Zambia. May 5-8.
Rabat, Morocco: On Think Tanks Conference, focusing on "Think Tanks and Trust." 19–21 May 2026.
WINGSForum 2026 in Montreal under the theme "ACT – Activate, Collaborate, Transcend." Save the date, more details to follow in early 2026. September 28-30, 2026.
International Anti-Corruption Conference (IACC) in Punta Cana, Dominican Republic. December 1-4, 2026.
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