Conference
DEMOS 2026with Spanish Association of Foundations and Coordinadora Catalana de Fundacions
The tenth edition of the foundations forum came to Barcelona for the first time to talk about social vulnerability, with captions in Spanish and Catalan on the screen of the CosmoCaixa auditorium.
Ten years, first time in Barcelona
DEMOS, the Forum of Foundations and Civil Society, held its tenth edition on 30 September and 1 October 2026, for the first time in Barcelona. It was organised jointly by the Spanish Association of Foundations (AEF) and the Coordinadora Catalana de Fundacions (CCF), and it brought together foundations, social organisations and representatives of civil society.
Its motto, “Vulnerabilities and philanthropy: foundations as a response”, started from an observation: today vulnerabilities overlap, are more complex and do not hit every person or every territory in the same way. On the first day, at the Auditorio ONCE Cataluña, the ONCE lottery coupon dedicated to the European Day of Foundations and Donors was presented, and there were visits to foundations around the city.
A Thursday at CosmoCaixa
On 1 October, the forum moved to the CosmoCaixa Science Museum. Cellist Hugo Herraiz opened with a tribute to Pau Casals, and the speakers at the opening included the Catalan Minister of Justice and Democratic Quality, Ramon Espadaler, and the presidents of the two organising bodies, Pilar García Ceballos-Zúñiga and Eugènia Bieto.
The “la Caixa” Foundation presented “Cartografías de la vulnerabilidad social”, seven booklets on new forms of exclusion. The debate that followed brought together, among others, the president of Cáritas Española, Luis Ayala, and the president of the Spanish Red Cross, María del Mar Pageo, and six organisations presented a joint declaration in defence of the European Social Fund. In the afternoon, the Ágora DEMOS, this edition’s new feature, gave a voice to some twenty organisations; the day closed with “El paciente invisible” (The Invisible Patient), a play against ageism.
What we set up
In the CosmoCaixa auditorium we put Captions on the stage screen: two bands along the top, one in Spanish and the other in Catalan, showing what was being said. While the declaration on the European Social Fund was being presented, what was said in Spanish also appeared in Catalan in the band next to it. Both were controlled with Backstage from a laptop in the room.
