The Global Foundation is a not-for-profit and non-partisan international member organisation supported by influential people around the world. Originating in Australia, the Global Foundation has become a trusted global network organisation, enabling a relatively small but growing group of prominent citizens from many walks of life and many parts of the world to align and work together to foster dialogue, seek consensus, and strive towards the global common good.
The Foundation convenes global dialogue in various formats, from high-level roundtables to more intimate sessions around specific issues. Our cumulative discussions focus on securing agreement and pathways to enduring solutions to pressing global challenges such as climate change, geopolitical fracturing, and economic inequality.
As an independent organisation, we are sustained solely by private sponsorships and philanthropic contributions from our members, who extend from individuals to corporations and universities.
The Global Foundation is led by Secretary General, Steve Howard, and guided by a Global Board. Our small secretariat is based in Australia.
Our Philosophy
The Foundation’s mission statement is ‘Together, we strive for the global common good’.
This involves creating a sustainable and secure future for the global commons, where we all can share the air that we breathe, where people can live or aspire to live with dignity and a shared sense of belonging and commitment to humanity.
The Foundation’s work is driven by the practice of cooperative globalisation, which seeks consensus over conflict and win-win outcomes for all. Cooperative globalisation is grounded in four principles: transformation, inclusiveness, fairness, and prosperity.
What we do
Our Global Alliance is helping to shape global governance, climate and nature
Video: Participants in the Foundation’s Rome Roundtable 2024 give their insights and perspectives.
Video: Live recording the State of the World Roundtable2024.
Testimonials
I am pleased to join you for this new edition of the Rome Roundtable of the Global Foundation. Inspired by the Foundation’s motto – “Together we strive for the common good” – you have gathered to discern just ways of attaining a globalisation that is “cooperative”, and thus positive, as opposed to the globalisation of indifference. You seek to ensure that the global community, shaped by institutions, agencies, and representatives of civil society, can effectively achieve international goals and obligations that have been solemnly declared and assumed, such as those of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development and the Sustainable Development Goals.
His Holiness, The Late Pope FrancisThe Holy See
The Global Foundation clearly helps to stir the debate, to propose ideas, to catalyse proposals, and to help in the process of all our debates across global institutions. I know that I can call on [you], my Australian colleagues, when we need new ideas, when we need energy, and when we need a bit of that sun, which helps you see the light, perhaps a little better than most…
Madame Christine LagardePresident, European Central Bank
I have been acquainted with the Global Foundation for some time and am happy to see that they are still driving the idea that global problems, including global governance, can be talked about and solved. Organisations like the Global Foundation have a mission that is clearer today than a decade ago. They are the translators of global problems into something citizens understand. This knowledge brings about awareness which inspires mobilisation and ultimately, political action. Greater awareness and greater mobility require civil society, which is better equipped at bridging the gap between knowledge and action.
Mr Pascal LamyFormer Director General of the World Trade Organisation, France, Chair, Mission Board for Healthy Oceans, Seas, Coastal and Inland Waters at International Science Council & Coordinator
Thanks for your great contribution. I would like to say that you are the first to support the establishment of this Bank with your foresight and insight. Looking forward to working with you in the days and years to come.
President Jin LiqunFounding President, AIIB
Thank you for making this space available for many leaders that I can see on screen and that I have great respect for… The assessment of the State of the World Report by the Global Foundation was really spot on – it was a world that for all of us was filled with our inability to respond to major catastrophes.
Ms Amina MohammedDeputy Secretary-General, the United Nations
I warmly remember my participation in the Foundation’s inaugural Rome Roundtable meeting, in 2016. It is great to hear about the work you have been doing on global sustainability issues, which is a true challenge of our times. I wish you and the Foundation all the best for your fifth Rome Roundtable taking place in June and applaud your plans for further collaborative work in this area. These kind of dialogues, reaching across countries and drawing in perspectives from many walks of life, are increasingly important if we are to deal with the complex global challenges facing us as a global community.
Hon Anthony Albanese MPPrime Minister of Australia
What the Global Foundation is delivering is outstanding. It’s a space where different angles, different views, different journeys, different experiences meet to discuss in a safe place.
Ms Cristina DuarteUnder Secretary-General & Special Advisor on Africa to the United Nations Secretary-General, United Nations
