Global Philanthropy Partnership

The Global Philanthropy Partnership (GPP), founded in 2003 and based in Chicago, IL, promotes strategic global philanthropy and solutions to address development and environmental issues. The Simmons Center for Global Chicago is a project of GPP working to connect and engage the international nonprofit community in Chicago for greater global development impact. Its vision is to amplify the role of Chicago as a hub for internationally focused nonprofit organizations, partners, and supporters collaborating to realize positive change in the world. This grant provides flexible support to the Simmons Center for Global Chicago for its core activities.

Founded in 2003, the Global Philanthropy Partnership (GPP) serves as a strategic resource to promote international giving and raise awareness of global development issues. With this award, GPP explores the value of creating a new organization, the Global Center, to support the community of organizations, businesses, and individuals in Chicago that work at a global level, creating opportunities to collaborate, co-develop strategies, learn from one another, and expand networks.

Established at an inaugural meeting in Copenhagen in June 2014, the Carbon Neutral Cities Alliance (the Alliance) is a peer-to-peer network of local government professionals from 17 cities across four continents that have signed on to a target of 80 percent reductions in carbon emissions by 2050. Managed by the Urban Sustainability Directors Network (USDN), a project of the Global Philanthropy Partnership, and operated in partnership with the Innovation Network for Communities, Climate Nexus and C40 Cities Climate Leadership Group, the Alliance seeks to create models for how urban areas can contribute to keeping temperature increases from disrupting the global ecosystem. This grant will support an Innovation Fund managed by the USDN that will invest in high potential, city-led projects that develop, test and implement deep de-carbonization strategies and practices among members of the Alliance in partnership with other cities.

Over the past decade, a new type of municipal leader charged with balancing efforts to create a healthier environment and promote economic prosperity has emerged: the urban sustainability director. The Urban Sustainability Directors Network comprises 120 U.S. city sustainability directors who exchange information, collaborate to enhance individual practice, and work together to advance the field of urban sustainability. With this grant, the Global Philanthropy Project will support the Network’s efforts to identify federal policies with potential to affect local climate strategies and articulate a shared policy agenda to support the role of cities in developing and implementing urban sustainability innovations.