Capacity

Funding can come in all sorts of forms, be it financial, cost-matching, in-kind, or other. But funding sources are often hard to find, processes are competitive, you need to master the art of the ask, and ideally to build a long-term relationship with those who entrust you with their support. In this section, you will find practical tools and resources to increase your funding stream.

The world of fundraising can often seem inaccessible and overwhelming  - but it does not have to be! If you are just starting to raise money  for your organization or know that you will be soon, this course will  help you get started. You will learn crucial fundraising terms and, most  importantly, their implications for your organization. You will create a  map of your personal and professional networks to help identify  potential donors. This course will also help you understand what donors  look for when deciding whether to fund a program or organization so that  you can plan to strengthen those areas if needed.

• Module 1: The Seven Myths of Fundraising
  Leverage the people and resources in your community effectively for your organization.
• Module 2: Words Every Fundraiser Should Know
  Understand the basics of the fundraising world, including common terms and rules.

• The True Heroes Awards Digest is an interactive database of Human Rights Awards and their laureates, and an excellent tool to single out awards that come with price money.

• Learn from your peers: 

Dance Into Space Foundation (DISF) has successfully explored this alternative way of fundraising in Kenya.

Membership programs can play an important role in fundraising. While they are usually designed to  provide exclusive benefits, opportunities, and experiences for participants that are not available for the wider public, membership fees can easily sum up and provide organizations with valuable unrestricted funding. 

• Learn from your peers:

This peer experience shows how this has been done in Nigeria:

• Learn from your peers:

This peer experience shows how this has been done the Democratic Republic of Congo:

• Learn from your peers:

The Deaf Outreach Program (DEAFOP) is a young grassroots disability organization working toward mainstreaming deaf and disability rights into development. Learn how they have used crowdfunding for more financial sustainability:

• Learn from your peers:

How an organisation in Ethiopia has successfully managed to used income generation activities for fundraising:

• Online learning

Designed as a 10-minute miniature lesson, this experience by Philanthropy U aims to teach nonprofits three ways they can earn revenue by selling a product or service. In addition to learning new ways to earn revenue, readers will  explore three case studies of organizations who have used these  techniques. Finally, this experience includes industry best practices  and tips to help nonprofits apply these techniques to their own  practice.

• Learn from your peers:

How to use community donations to complement grant funding

Tech to Rescue unites visionary nonprofits with tech leaders passionate about driving change and ready to match the nonprofit with pro-bono tech expertise to bring it to life.

Google for Nonprofits offers eligible organizations access to Google products and discounts that can help solve the challenges nonprofits face:  finding new donors and volunteers, working more efficiently, and getting  supporters to take action. Google for Nonprofits is currently available  in 65+ countries.

• Learn from your peers: 

When the majority of their proposals got rejected, the woman-led and centered grassroots organization TAWINA started a more strategic approach to raise its chances for grant success. 

• Learn from your peers: 

COFGIRLS started as a community-based girls’ movement. Read how they gradually improved their proposal writing to receive grant support.

• Learn from your peers:

To ensure the long-term sustainability of an organization and its  programs, it is important that you diversify your sources of funding.

• Sub-Saharan Africa funder directory:

The Segal Family Foundation has published a free directory that contains links to corporations, foundations, governments, impact  investors, intermediaries, and x-laterals who are funding in Sub-Saharan Africa. The directory can be search by UN Sustainable Development Goals. 

• TripleFunds:

TripleFunds is a paid support platform for international development projects that includes a funder database. While the main focus is on development work, the database is also searchable for human rights and democracy funders. 

Private philanthropic foundations—nongovernmental, nonprofit organizations with assets provided by donors for socially useful purposes—have become key political actors in global sustainability governance. Many of these foundations implicitly or explicitly aim to foster global justice, through, for example, empowering women, reducing inequalities, and promoting democracy. They thus act as justice agents shaping the substance and practice of justice in global sustainability governance. But what does this direction of private money into supporting global justice norms really mean? This question deserves scrutiny, especially against a context of diverse and contested meanings of justice and because philanthropy—beyond an act of giving—is often an exercise of power. Using critical discourse analysis of texts produced by selected foundations that are key funders of the UN Sustainable Development Agenda, this paper examines how private foundations frame global justice and with what implications for sustainability governance.

As philanthropy has emerged to play a prominent role in supporting community well-being efforts, important critiques have been raised about the undemocratic nature of philanthropy that appears to privilege private interests over community needs. In response to these concerns, Community Philanthropy (CP) has emerged as a philanthropic model that prioritizes community asset-building, agency, and trust in order to “shift power” to beneficiary communities. Despite its promise, questions remain about how CP can practically achieve the goals of sharing power, building trust, and showing solidarity toward community self-determination for well-being. To address these gaps, the following case study of the Thousand Currents, a public foundation that has pioneered a CP inspired grantmak-

ing model, shall serve as inspiration and example for advancing CP in social justice.