(by Leonie Taylor and Flaviano Bianchini)What is the point of philanthropy conferences?A Tale of Two ConferencesEarlier in 2026, Leap travelled to two conferences on the philanthropy circuit - PEX Fest in Bucharest, Romania, and Ariadne Reconnect in Bologna, Italy. We discovered a few key factors that influence the experience of philanthropy conferences for participants. We decided to put these down in order to share our thoughts and even offer guidance to future conferences. Space, Facilitation, Power Dynamics, and Number of Participants are, among others, key factors of the…

(by Hadiel Hodail Mohamed and Ann Marie Utratel)Key Learning: Learnings Can Be Difficult To Grasp.  Philanthropy as a sector wouldn’t exist in an equitable world where society is no longer built on extractivism, colonialism, separation, patriarchy, and the many other factors that divide our societies into the more and less powerful and privileged. Our group, Leap, is a collective of activists, philanthropists and foundation staff that wants to radically transform philanthropy. We work towards this aim by setting up experiments in collaboration with members of what we consider the…