Highlights
African philanthropy is strongest when its bridges are rooted in local realities and connected to global networks, and that is exactly what the newly launched WINGS Africa Working Group is designed to do. In November 2025, 29 members from nine countries met in Nairobi to co-create a shared roadmap for African philanthropy, exploring how to strengthen community philanthropy, local giving ecosystems, enabling environments, knowledge sharing, and strategic capital flows. Through its thematic Circles of Collaboration, the working group is building “living networks” where members can think, build, and experiment together, ensuring that African models of generosity, resilience, and innovation shape global conversations on giving.
Shrinking donor funding, tougher operating environments, and overreliance on external support are pushing many civil society organizations to the edge. Recent sector reflections showed a sobering reality: a significant number of CSOs would not survive for long if foreign funding stopped. This isn’t just an institutional crisis, it risks silencing the very voices that hold power to account, mobilize communities, and advance social justice. Conversations within the African Philanthropy Network have therefore called for a radical shift toward alternative financing, local resource mobilization, and community-led philanthropy so that African CSOs can adapt, not disappear.
Read more about the call to diversify funding and rebuild civil society resilience.
In Mbale City, CivLegacy Foundation, in partnership with the Bugisu NGO Forum, convened CSOs and private sector actors from across the region to explore how the two sectors can work together for inclusive, locally driven development. The meeting surfaced a shared concern: despite Uganda’s policy direction under NDP IV and the Local Economic Development (LED) framework, engagement between CSOs and businesses remains limited, leading to missed opportunities for joint action. Participants called for trust-building, recognition of each sector’s unique strengths, and a shift from ad hoc, transactional collaboration to long-term, values-based partnerships. Local government officials welcomed the initiative and encouraged non-state actors to use existing government platforms to institutionalize these dialogues.
Read more about the outcomes and next steps for CSO–private sector collaboration in the region.
In July 2025, CivLegacy Foundation and Peace Direct convened the second conversation in the six-part series, Reclaiming the Frame: Conversations on Decolonization in East Africa. This session examined how colonial-era power dynamics still shape who sets priorities in the aid system, who controls resources, and how success is defined. Participants from across the region shared lived experiences of Northern-driven agendas, funding tied to external criteria, and the persistent framing of African actors as beneficiaries rather than leaders.
CivSource Africa has been elected to the Board of the African Philanthropy Network (APN) following an extraordinary members’ meeting held on 4 July 2025 in Arusha, Tanzania. This two-year mandate affirms our role in advancing African-led, locally rooted philanthropy and places us alongside leading institutions such as STAR Ghana Foundation, African Women’s Development Fund, East African Philanthropy Network, TrustAfrica, and others to shape a more responsive, collaborative, and just philanthropic ecosystem on the continent. Read more →
Philanthropy Week 2025 celebrated generosity in all its forms, spoken, danced, debated, played, and lived. From Kampala’s boardrooms to Kibuye’s roundabout, from Adjumani’s playing fields to the Ndere Cultural Centre stage, we witnessed giving that serves, stays, and sustains. This special edition of the CivSource Africa Galaxy Newsletter captures the moments that mattered: conversations that challenged us, performances that moved us, street activations that energized us, and symposium reflections that dared us to reimagine the future of African giving.
Should we start preparing “mass graves” for CSOs? Funding is drying up, policy space is tightening, and too many organizations in the Global South are being pushed to downsize or shut down. This isn’t just institutional loss, it’s the erosion of civic voice and agency. As APN’s Dr. Stigmata Tenga warns, “It’s not just the organizations that die, it’s the voice, the dignity, and the agency of the people they served.” Recent APN trainings revealed a stark reality: many CSOs wouldn’t survive beyond five years without foreign funding.