Highlights
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.
Community foundations are powerful engines for local giving and social change, but in today’s fast-changing environment, goodwill alone is not enough. That’s why CivLegacy Foundation convened a strategy development masterclass, led by Dr. Joyce Tamale, to help community foundation leaders clarify their purpose, focus their limited resources, and build resilience. The session underscored that a clear strategy brings direction, strengthens credibility with donors and boards, unites stakeholders around shared goals, and enables foundations to stay agile in volatile contexts. As CivLegacy’s Programs Manager, Catherine Mutesi Mugabo, noted, strategy becomes truly impactful when stakeholders own the process.
As part of the GROW Program for Community Foundations, participants recently had the rare opportunity to learn from Hon. Dr. Miria Matembe, affectionately called “Mama Miria.” What was planned as a leadership session became a living masterclass on legacy. She reminded us that leadership is not about titles, but about the footprints we leave in people’s lives through consistency, service, and courage. For some in the room, her words evoked memories of meeting her as schoolgirls; for others, it was a first encounter with a woman whose voice has shaped Uganda’s women’s movement for decades. The session affirmed a powerful truth: movements don’t die, they evolve, and our task is to keep pouring into the next generation.
Read more about how the GROW Program is centering legacy in leadership development.
Over six weeks, CivLegacy Foundation guided ten community foundations in Uganda through the GROW¡ Phase of the Community Foundations Incubation Program, a leadership, mentorship, and coaching journey designed to strengthen community-rooted institutions. The cohort engaged six interconnected modules on self-awareness, institutional identity, community-centered programming, financial stewardship, and legacy planning, all aimed at helping leaders align personal purpose with organizational vision.
Read more about how GROW¡ is nurturing sustainable, locally led development.
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 →