Stories for Change Online Festival – live on 15 January 2026!
If you believe that this is community philanthropy’s moment, don’t miss the Stories for Change Online Festival on 15 January 2026! Stories for Change is …
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Climate change isn’t someone else’s problem, it’s ours – but the language is confusing
Expressions such as the need to “limit global warming to 1.5 degrees Celsius” leave us feeling confused and inadequate. The same goes for other terms such as “mitigation pathways, NDCs and Paris alignment.”
Turning power on its head, a reverse call for applications
In November of 2010 eight young feminists from Africa, Asia, The Middle East, Latin America, the Caribbean, The United States, and Eastern Europe gathered in Beirut, Lebanon to envision what would become FRIDA | The Young Feminist Fund.
The battle for democracy has intensified online
After two weeks of massive Gen Z-led protests that toppled Nepal’s government, a right-wing political activist Durga Parsai released a video accusing Civil Society Organizations (CSOs) of orchestrating …
When the well runs dry: Rethinking development in the wake of donor withdrawal
In recent years, Africa has witnessed a quiet but significant shift in the development landscape. The gradual withdrawal of traditional donors, due to shifting geopolitical priorities, domestic pressures in donor countries, or the growing critique of aid dependency, has led to many African civil society organizations confronting a stark reality, donor support is no longer guaranteed.
Beyond NGOs: Why civil society will survive and thrive
What happens when the NGO offices shut down, the donors walk away and the annual reports stop printing? If history and current events are any guide, civil society does not die. It simply changes form.
Philanthropy didn’t understand what it was trying to fix
Here’s what I’ve observed: the things we try to reform are rarely the ones that matter most. Reform tends to fixate on what can be measured, managed, and credited—where reformers still believe control is within reach—while quietly avoiding what they don’t understand, where control is harder to find. And nothing, I’d argue, is more misunderstood—or more resistant to control—than the gift.
A poem: This is a no solicitation space
I went to a funder space and those words had been subtly printed at me / “This is a no solicitation space.” / My mind translated them from the English in my head to the English in my heart / The funders meant to say, “even though I am here, I am still inaccessible to you.”
These cannibalistic men
The United States Agency for International Development (USAID) and the Inter-American Foundation (IAF) are corpses. They have been devoured and buried alive while they were still throbbing. They are the first missing persons of a very quickly orchestrated system of mass destruction. Nobody knows where they are or what has happened.
Facing the aid freeze: What we must do now and tomorrow
Coming to Terms with the AID Freeze On 6 February 2025, at the invitation of the National Association for Non-Governmental (NANGO), I participated in the …