Global Fund for Community Foundations

Building the new: Reimagining civil society resourcing in times of global transformation - GFCF : GFCF The GFCF is a grassroots grantmaker working to promote and support institutions of community philanthropy around the world.

What's possible when we stop seeing resources as charity & start seeing them as solidarity: grounded in dignity, local ties, collective imagination? Join us for a conversation on 30 Oct about alternative models of funding, organizing & mutual care.

globalfundcommunityfoundations.org/news/buildin...

The Butterfly Effect: Leaders inspiring change - GFCF : GFCF The GFCF is a grassroots grantmaker working to promote and support institutions of community philanthropy around the world.

As the Ikhala Trust winds up its more than two decades of work in South Africa's Eastern Cape, Bernie Dolley & Sarah Hugow reflect on how supporting the dreams/vision of individuals & small groups can lead to transformative change. #ShiftThePower

globalfundcommunityfoundations.org/blog/the-but...

A measurement tool not defined by targets With this method, there is never a final destination we seek to reach – but the journey is everything. We seek continuous improvement, and not a defined “perfect” target.

Feeling dissatisfied with a measurement tool that ignored the non-linear path of children learning art, FacesUp set out to create an alternative measurement tool to define success by the richness of learning art, and not a "defined set target." shiftthepower.org/2025/08/13/a...

#ShiftThePower

When Shila & Nish of Freedom Studio (Nepal) visited the Nebraska Community Foundation, they saw big differences & surprising similarities. Nebraska’s community philanthropy models offered new inspiration for Nepal, especially as global aid shrinks shiftthepower.org/2025/08/20/f...

#ShiftThePower

A case for movement building as community power Movements have existed and have been organising long before “funding” and will continue to do so.

Funders assume 💰 is what movements need most but movements have always found ways to self-resource. So how should funders engage with things that can exist with or without their support? Here is the case for messy/vital movement building as real power shiftthepower.org/2025/08/22/a... #ShiftThePower

Save the date for the next #ShiftThePower Summit! Kathmandu, December 2026 - GFCF : GFCF The GFCF is a grassroots grantmaker working to promote and support institutions of community philanthropy around the world.

Save the date for the next #ShiftThePower Summit!

Johannesburg in 2016, London in 2019 & Bogotá in 2023…#ShiftThePower is heading to Asia next! Mark your calendars for 2 - 4 December 2026 in Kathmandu, Nepal.

globalfundcommunityfoundations.org/news/save-th...

What Hungary's civil society funding crisis can teach us - GFCF : GFCF The GFCF is a grassroots grantmaker working to promote and support institutions of community philanthropy around the world.

For anyone working in shrinking civic space, navigating tensions between funding, power & place - what can be learned from Hungary?

“Those working every day for community, dignity & democracy deserve support systems that match their courage.”

globalfundcommunityfoundations.org/blog/hungary...

Official Launch of The Global South House Born from the collaboration between Alianza Socioambiental Fondos del Sur and Rede Comuá, the Global South House is a bold platform, created by and for the Global South. It is dedicated to political a...

Born out of a powerful weaving of Global South orgs, the #GlobalSouthHouse is a space by & for the South's political articulation, mobilization, & knowledge production for dev't

The weaving has already begun. Join us on 🗓️ 30th July to be part of it shiftthepower.org/event/offici...
#ShiftThePower

The balancing act of being “More than just a Grantmaker” - GFCF : GFCF The GFCF is a grassroots grantmaker working to promote and support institutions of community philanthropy around the world.

"We do not want to create a culture of fear or compliance over genuine commitment to the communities that are underserved."

Reflections on 25 years of the Neelan Tiruchelvam Trust & its ambition to be "more than just a grantmaker." #ShiftThePower

globalfundcommunityfoundations.org/blog/the-bal...

Colouring outside the colouring book: Seeing all the colours in enablement. Part 2 A funder recently told me how they do not work on ”identity politics.” I was confused by this because we both acknowledged that civil society is in crisis. Most especially, with the recent economic re...

Dear funders, not everything needs your ruler, highlighter or template. Movements are colouring outside the colouring book & making magic, & doing the work they need to do in complexity & messy organising. They are only be supported, not controlled shiftthepower.org/2025/07/03/c...
#ShiftThePower

We need a funding revolution: Can philanthropy step up? - Alliance magazine As the aid system crashes, a strand of opinion has suggested that philanthropy could step in to compensate for the cuts to funding that this has caused.  It is finally dawning on the sector that …

"Philanthropy’s most important contribution is not to patch holes – but to support those who are imagining what a better system could look like." #ShiftThePower #PossibleNow

www.alliancemagazine.org/blog/we-need...

Colouring outside the colouring book: Seeking out the alternative systems for movement organizing. No one ever claims to hold power within philanthropy. I have met countless people who are well paid, who hold positions of power and/or are backed by endowments. Many of these always refer to another ...

Dumi Gatsha (they/them) is the first ever gender diverse parliamentary candidate in Botswana, a former facilitator of the #ShiftThePower UK Funders Collective and founder of Success Capital. Their new piece in @shiftthepower.bsky.social reckons with the future of philanthropy.

🚨 Gov'ts are weaponizing climate crises to ban protests, militarize resources, & criminalizing environmental defenders, but communities are pushing back with the local resources they have. 🌍 Join us for a critical 3-part series👇
🗓 June 9, 18 & 25.
🔗: climasolutions.org/climate-auth... #ShiftThePower

Resist, reform or revolution? - Alliance magazine As the shock of the USAID cuts begins to subside, discussions about how to address international development have intensified. WhatsApp groups are buzzing, webinars are everywhere, and blogs are abund...

Writing in Alliance, Rebecca Hanshaw & Barry Knight make the case for supporting grassroots people power:

"If social change is the goal, answers will not be found in a professionalized body that seeks permission to act from its donors." #ShiftThePower

www.alliancemagazine.org/blog/resist-...

Numbers or meanings? How the logic of measuring results in donor relations is changing - GFCF : GFCF The GFCF is a grassroots grantmaker working to promote and support institutions of community philanthropy around the world.

Great piece from Daria Rybalchenko of the National Network of Local Philanthropy Development on why we need to #MeasureWhatMatters locally, rather than simply measuring to meet the requirements of international donors. #ShiftThePower

globalfundcommunityfoundations.org/blog/numbers...

Upcoming online conference “Citizen capital: Solutions from within” - GFCF : GFCF The GFCF is a grassroots grantmaker working to promote and support institutions of community philanthropy around the world.

How are communities in #Ukraine moving beyond aid & co-governing shared resources? Join us on 12 June to hear of the creative models developed by the Moloda Gromada Foundation, even amidst disruption & war. #ShiftThePower

globalfundcommunityfoundations.org/news/upcomin...

"Despite the uncertainty, Mic remains grounded in something deeper than funding cycles: community, creativity & a belief in people’s ability to rebuild from w/in."

Spot on from Mic (Center for Disaster Preparedness) speaking w/ @globalgiving.bsky.social.

www.globalgiving.org/learn/storie...

Light in times of darkness: Community philanthropy offers a way forward - GFCF : GFCF The GFCF is a grassroots grantmaker working to promote and support institutions of community philanthropy around the world.

Writing in Humentum's "A bridge to the future: Essays on a new era for global development" the GFCF's Jenny Hodgson and @eshbankwesiga.bsky.social point to community philanthropy as the way forward. #ShiftThePower

globalfundcommunityfoundations.org/blog/light-i...

Civil society around the world is reimagining & building new systems. It's also saying "we don’t want to go back to what we had before the cuts, because that wasn’t a system designed by us or for us." Sign this to stand with CSOs www.standwithcivilsociety.org
#ShiftThePower @peacedirect.bsky.social

🌍 Funding cuts are hitting hard, but local orgs are also building a new system rooted in mutual aid, community philanthropy and solidarity saying, "what we need now is not rescue, but recognition."

✍🏽 Sign this open letter to #StandWithCivilSociety
#ShiftThePower standwithcivilsociety.org

Alternatives to global development and humanitarianism – approach with caution - GFCF : GFCF The GFCF is a grassroots grantmaker working to promote and support institutions of community philanthropy around the world.

After attending the recent Humanitarian Leadership Conference in Doha, @themrise.bsky.social lays out a set of core principles that could ground the quest of working towards a more equitable system of development and humanitarianism.

globalfundcommunityfoundations.org/blog/alterna...

Colouring outside the colouring book: Seeking out the alternative systems for movement organizing. No one ever claims to hold power within philanthropy. I have met countless people who are well paid, who hold positions of power and/or are backed by endowments. Many of these always refer to another ...

"No one ever claims to hold power within philanthropy...From directors to project officers, trustees to backdoor funders: all of them refer to some other power over and above them. This is how systems work."

A powerful read from Dumi Gatsha. #ShiftThePower

shiftthepower.org/2025/04/28/c...

Upcoming Alliance Magazine event: Building back power - community philanthropy as a radical force beyond aid - GFCF : GFCF The GFCF is a grassroots grantmaker working to promote and support institutions of community philanthropy around the world.

What if the future of civil society lies not in aid but in solidarity? Join the #GivingForChange alliance & Alliance Magazine on 13 May for a conversation on rebuilding civil society resilience through community philanthropy. #ShiftThePower

globalfundcommunityfoundations.org/news/allianc...

Rethinking the Logframe: A Reflection on Power, Purpose, and Measurement It’s striking how enduring the logframe has been. Perhaps because many organisations were smaller and more centralised then, adoption was easier. Or perhaps once embedded in donor systems, it was too ...

This reflection on alternative measurement gets into why the log frame often feels like an attempt to nail spaghetti to a wall — to force complex, relational, adaptive work into a linear accountability framework shiftthepower.org/2025/04/14/r... #ShiftThePower #MeasuringWhatMatters

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.

Philanthropy didn’t understand what it was trying to fix shiftthepower.org/2025/04/02/p... They mistook what was unfamiliar for something broken... they encountered something mess and unpredictable, they assumed managing it was the same as improving it. So they built bureaucracies.

#ShiftThePower

The Problems and the Beauty of Community-Led Development

"Community-led development and the values of solidarity, equity, inclusion, justice, mutual aid and collective action that it promotes is the antidote to this toxic culture."

A must read for the times we're living in, from @romainmurphy.bsky.social. #ShiftThePower

kuja.org/blog/aid-ins...

Ukrainian philanthropy and community foundations under fire: Lessons for the world - GFCF : GFCF The GFCF is a grassroots grantmaker working to promote and support institutions of community philanthropy around the world.

Later today...join us to hear about the remarkable work of community foundations in #Ukraine - an important and inspiring story of hope and resilience we can all learn from. #Localization #ShiftThePower

globalfundcommunityfoundations.org/news/ukraini...

A Poem: This is a no solicitation space.

"...The funders meant to say, “even though I am here, I am still inaccessible to you...”

Anonymously published under the Unmute Yourself Series shiftthepower.org/unmute-yours...

#ShiftThePower

Amidst the rise of fascism, we need to stop catering to donors’ passions and preferences Hi everyone, happy Spring in the Northern Hemisphere. This post may be short and incoherent, because I’m supposed to be...

“It is not surprising, but it continues to be disappointing how entrenched this idea has been that fundraisers’ job is to cater to the whims and passions of donors.”

Why Weave Networks Now? - Interaction Institute for Social Change “Connections create value. The social era will reward those organizations that realize they don’t create value all by  themselves. If the industrial era was about building things, the social era is ab...

Why weaving our networks is now more important than ever as "the forces that are consolidating wealth and power attempt to disrupt attempts to build solidarity across movements for justice, fairness and equity." #ShiftThePower

interactioninstitute.org/why-weave-ne...