Foundations from all over the world unite to better support social innovation

MONTREAL, Oct. 18 /CNW Telbec/ - Gathered in Montreal from October 13th to 15th for the International Meeting of Foundations for Social Innovation, representatives from Europe, northern Africa and the Americas  decided to meet in order to create an international network. During the meeting, different ways of foundations practices were examined along with establishing strategic alliances and thus strengthen the capacity of their respective foundations to respond to unmet social needs.

During this Montreal meeting, foundations representatives took the decision  to meet every two years to concentrate more on the continuation of  the development of geographical poles outside Europe, Quebec and the Americas.

About one hundred foundations representatives engaged socially, economically, culurally and environmentally participated to this meeting under the theme Social and Innovative Foundations. The goal was to internationalize relations, exchanges, programs, experiences and good practices in social innovation.

In the name of the organization commitee of this international meeting, the Quebec president of the Foundation for education to cooperation and mutuality M. Alain Fortier, considered that this event layed the foundations for the different chapters engaged in innovation and social transformation to work in collaboration internationally.

Besides the reconciliation of different structures, the Montreal meeting permitted the re-enforcement of friendly and inter-personal links between participants. These links will prove promising for future collaborations.

This meeting was initiated in 2004 by Alain Philippe, president of the Fondation du groupe Macif in France. His objective was to start an international network of Foundations dedicated to innovation and social transformation by intergrating different countries from the five continents.

For further information:

Source: International Meeting of Foundations for Social Innovation
Information: Roch Bilodeau
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