As part of a commitment to provide the necessary tools and advice for clients to use their wealth for positive social impact, and to mark ten years of philanthropy advisory, UBS shared its Philanthropy Compass handbook with a wider audience at the WINGS Forum1 in Istanbul. The UBS Philanthropy Compass is a guide to help philanthropists and social entrepreneurs structure their philanthropic journey. It was developed in partnership with the Cass Business School and FSG Social Impact Consultants.

Zurich/Basel, 1 April 2014 – The UBS Philanthropy Compass is designed to be a practical guide for philanthropists to bring about meaningful change through their philanthropic endeavors. The Compass discusses the key issues any philanthropist should consider when shaping his or her philanthropy and can be used as a working tool and a discussion starter. It guides the reader in a logical sequence through the building blocks of philanthropy. Developed in 2011, the Philanthropy Compass is a tool built on the experience gained over the many years UBS has been advising clients to successfully realize their philanthropic goals.

The Philanthropy Compass aims to structure an approach to philanthropy around the following four questions: How to create change? How to plan your philanthropy? How to implement your philanthropy? How to engage with others? Each section provides illustrative examples to explain the different approaches.

Silvia Bastante de Unverhau, Head of Philanthropy Advisory, explains the rationale behind sharing the Philanthropy Compass:

“We want to play an important role in developing best practice in the philanthropy sector, and it is in this spirit that we are sharing the Philanthropy Compass. We believe that it is a handbook that can be valuable to other advisors, philanthropists and other players in the philanthropy sector.”

After reviewing the publication Christine W. Letts, the Rita E. Hauser, Senior Lecturer in the Practice of Philanthropy and Nonprofit Leadership at the Harvard Kennedy School commented:

"The UBS Philanthropy Compass is truly an extraordinary resource. It raises the practical questions that philanthropists need to ask and prompts some of the less obvious considerations that they may encounter. The guide also helps them to come to conclusions relevant to their unique situation. It draws from and improves on many of the frameworks developed over the years. Having it all in one place as a handy reference is of great value to the philanthropy field and to individual philanthropists."

Dr. Peter Grant, Senior Fellow in Grantmaking, Philanthropy and Social Investment from the Cass Business School in London, added:
 
“The UBS Philanthropy Compass is an outstanding resource for all those with an interest in philanthropy or social investment. Philanthropy involves a series of choices – not just what or who to fund, but how to go about it. The inter-relation between these choices is complex and often not well understood either by potential philanthropists or their advisors. The UBS Philanthropy Compass has been devised not to be prescriptive about what choices a potential philanthropist should take but to clarify the outcomes each choice will have. It is designed as a practical tool for stimulating discussion on key issues.”

1) http://wingsforum.org/

 

Links
http://wingsforum.org/
http://www.fsg.org/
http://www.cass.city.ac.uk/
  

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