CivSource South Africa

The Rhythm of African Giving African giving has a rhythm of its own. It changes with the times, takes different forms across communities, and carries the echoes of generations before us. Participating in the #GhanaPhilanthropyWeek made me ponder this rhythm. African giving is familiar to many of us. We have grown up experiencing it in our families and communities. But familiarity does not necessarily mean we fully know or understand it. Indeed, many forms of African giving remain unnoticed and unrecognised. At the #4thWomenInPhilanthropy Conference, we explored some of these less visible dimensions of women’s giving, and how we might better recognise and amplify them. At a high-level consultation, we discussed Ghana’s efforts to develop a national philanthropy and social investment policy. My participation in Ghana was an opportunity to share experiences from Uganda, learn from others and explore ways of working together. And just as music invites us to listen, so does African giving. The more we listen to one another, the more we discover about the many ways Africans give, and the more possibilities we find for working together. #AfricanPhilanthropy #LocalGiving #GhanaPhilanthropyWeek @CivLegacy_F @wacsi @UnitedWay

You Don’t Flip a Switch “You need to start making your own money!” Nonprofit leaders hear this advice everywhere. Sometimes it even comes with an even starker warning: Diversify or die! It’s sound advice - yes. But there is something we don’t talk about enough: The journey from knowing what needs to change to actually making that change. Many nonprofit organizations have spent decades relying on donor funding. We’ve built our systems, developed our skills, hired our people and shaped our thinking around this model. Changing that doesn’t happen overnight. And resilience is about much more than money. It requires us to rethink and reshape our organizations. How we govern. How we use data. How we tell our stories. The policies we develop that support this transformation. How we prepare for leadership transitions. How we understand and mobilize the resources already available to us. It’s a whole organizational shift. At the recent NGO Risk, Compliance and Resilience Conference organized by Onyango and Company Advocates and @civicadvisory, I had the privilege of sharing @CivsourceAfrica’s own journey. Ours is far from a perfect story. Sometimes I feel like we’ve only taken two steps in nine years! We’ve had people ask us hard questions. We’ve had coaches and mentors challenge our assumptions. We’ve had to unlearn, experiment, make mistakes and try again. And we’re still learning. One thing I’ve come to appreciate is that changing an organization means changing the thinking of the people within it. And people don’t all change at the same pace. Leaders must bring their staff, boards and sometimes members along on this journey. That takes time, intentionality, patience and sometimes difficult conversations. I’m not making excuses for nonprofit leaders. I’m simply saying that building resilience is not like flipping a switch. It’s a process. It’s rarely linear. And because the nonprofit sector is not homogeneous, there is no single pathway that will work for everyone. I also reminded my fellow leaders at the conference that ours is a sector that knows change. We are constantly navigating changing circumstances, shifting priorities, new challenges and uncertain environments. We’ve learned to adapt, to adjust and to keep going. We are not starting from zero. We can draw on what we already know about managing change. The tools, the lessons, the experience of bringing people along, managing resistance and navigating uncertainty. All of these can serve us as we build more resilient organizations. So yes, let’s keep challenging nonprofit leaders to build resilience. Let’s also appreciate what it takes. The learning. The unlearning. The experimentation. The mistakes. The small steps that sometimes feel painfully slow. Knowing that we must change is one thing. Learning how to change is another. #OrganizationalResilience #ChangeManagement #NonProfitLeadership

Ukarimu: Memory and Curiosity The night before the Ukarimu Centre launch, I was unsettled. The launch was a big deal for us, but I couldn’t quite figure out what I wanted to say in my remarks. My mind kept going back to my maternal grandmother, Justina Turahi. She’s been gone for quite a while now, but I think she came to mind because she embodies one of my earliest experiences of generosity. When I was a toddler, my parents were working far away from home, and my grandparents took me in. My grandmother fed me, bathed me, cared for me when I was unwell. I slept in her bed. I’m pretty sure she had to wake up in the middle of the night to take me to the bathroom. She did all this for me. The morning of October 8th, I woke up early, still unsure what I would say. And again, my mind went back to my grandmother. Then I knew. I wanted to say her name. To honour her generosity. To honour her memory. In many ways, my grandmother embodies part of what Ukarimu Center is about. As we research, teach, document and innovate in African philanthropy, we must also remember. Remember the people whose generosity shaped our lives, our families and our communities. Remember the acts of giving that appear so ordinary, we may never even have thought to call them philanthropy. Ukarimu is also about curiosity. Our giving is so deeply woven into our lives that it’s easy to take it for granted. It’s always been there. And yet, there is so much we don’t know. Why do we give? How do we give? To whom? What cultural, social and political forces shape our giving? What else is possible? What remains untapped? What could we unlock? These are the questions that will fuel our curiosity and underpin our research, teaching and innovation. Memory and curiosity. Remembering what has been. Being curious about what is, and what could be. Both are deeply embedded in Ukarimu. And that’s part of what we’re bringing to the world. #UkarimuCenter #AfricanPhilanthropy #MemoryAndCuriosity @CivsourceAfrica @CivLegacy_F @Makerere @EAPhilanthropy

I See You Today is our 9th birthday! 🎉 As @CivsourceAfrica turns 9, I wanted to mark the moment in a way that was simple, meaningful and memorable. So, I wrote letters to nine leaders. These nine years of CivSource have also been nine years of leadership for me. Nine years of wins and mistakes. Of learning and unlearning. Of understanding leadership differently. And one thing I know now: leaders need to be seen too. We see what they build. We see what they achieve. We see the milestones. But do we see them? The doubts. The difficult decisions. The sacrifices. What it takes to keep showing up. So I wanted to tell these leaders what I see: I see your courage. I see what you are building. I see the people you are lifting. I see your sacrifice. I see you. Some have helped build CivSource. Some are building organizations and communities I admire. Some have unknowingly taught me how to keep going. It reminded me that part of leadership is noticing other leaders while they are still in the middle of the work. Leadership asks a lot from people. A little encouragement along the way costs us almost nothing. But it may arrive on the very day someone needs it most. #Leadership #CivSourceAt9 #ISeeYou