The INGO problem and why it’s time for radical reimagining
In the mid-2000s, international NGOs (INGOs) were some of the most trusted institutions in the global development landscape. 20 years later, this trust has eroded …
Power
Community Foundations in Australia: A question of legitimacy and power
When I started working with community foundations in Australia, I assumed these organisations were ‘born’ from the communities they serve. However, I soon realised this …
Strengthening civil society: The unseen battle for the future of NGOs and CBOs
For too long, the interaction between funders and grantees has been reduced to little more than a transactional exchange. Money flows one way, deliverables flow …
The best kept secret in international development, and why Global North CSOs will not talk about tied aid
The author is an Embassy Staff with a European country based in the Global South, and wishes to remain anonymous. Did you know that less …
How collective care and holding each other’s hands could change the global aid sector
Musimbi Epillose The concept of #ShiftThePower is rapidly taking over the old development approaches. For a long time, grassroots organizations were placed behind the scenes …
Leading, learning and letting go: PSJP’s journey
At Philanthropy for Social Justice and Peace (PSJP) our goal has been to centre the normative values of justice, solidarity and agency in the field …
Tied Aid: A development challenge that refuses to go away.
At this time, when governments of developing nations are increasingly skeptical of foreign funding, barriers imposed by the donor countries put grassroots CSOs at enormous risk. As powerful elites in the Global South continue to discredit CSOs in the name of ‘foreign agents’, tied aid contributes to this narrative, muddying the waters for activists.
To my feminist siblings, there is a funding crisis in feminist activism.
When the sector talks about donor fatigue or donors saying they don’t see where the money is going. Well, only less than 10% of your money comes directly to us. They should ask Northern CSOs about the other 90% – they shouldn’t ask us.
Evolving together: What caterpillars can teach us about transforming philanthropy
Have you heard of imaginal cells? This is what Amaha Selassie asked us as we sat in the jungle-themed hotel lobby. It was the night after the #ShiftThePower Summit in Bogotá, and 5 of us had come together seemingly by accident, talking for hours about the worlds of possibility and complexity that the Summit had unlocked. None of us knew about these cells, so Amaha explained
International philanthropy needs a strategy for human rights, well-being, justice and peace
Hope is a strategy, and we need to practice what we preach.