We Met Our Sister From Another Mother!
Today at CivSource we were super excited to host Yvonne Moore. Yvonne is Founder and Principle Advisor at Moore Philanthropy and she is also the founder of the African Diaspora Philanthropic Advisory Network (ADPA Network).
Our journey to meeting Yvonne and being part of the network is one that highlights the power of connections.
In October 2018, while attending the Opportunity Collaboration in Cancun, Mexico, I met with and talked about CivSource to as many people as possible. One of the people I spoke to was a young gentleman who works with the Segal Family Foundation. He suggested I should link up with Yvonne and he gave me her email address. That night I reached out to her. Unbeknown to me, Mr. Maurice Makoloo, the head of Ford Foundation East Africa, had also spoken to Yvonne about CivSource and he has suggested that we should link up.
When Yvonne responded to my email, she told me she had just heard about CivSource from Maurice. Talk about the stars aligning in your favor! Yvonne and I set a date and time in December to speak by phone. When we finally spoke, sparks literally flew. I don’t know if you know what it feels like to speak to a person you’ve never met and yet connect at such a deep level. That’s what happened when I spoke to Yvonne. I literally got goosebumps at just how much we were in sync!
Yvonne is passionate about supporting African American giving. She is passionate that people of color support each other both in giving and philanthropy advising. She is passionate that African Diaspora givers connect with African philanthropy advisors so that together we can advance more thoughtful giving on the continent. Yvonne is passionate about changing the narrative on giving by Africans and people of color.
As we conversed, I realized that our passions and values are aligned. CivSource provides advice to philanthropists and being new to this trade, we really want to do it well. That’s why we joined ADPA Network, so that we could learn from and alongside others who have done philanthropy advising for much longer than we have. CivSource is also passionate about telling the stories of African giving as well as researching African philanthropy (beginning in Uganda).
After many online conversations, and one face to face meeting this year in May when Yvonne and I both attended a meeting hosted by the African Center on Philanthropy and Social Investment (ACPSI) in Johannesburg, today we had the distinct pleasure of hosting Yvonne at CivSource.
We had a great time catching up with news from our two organizations. We spoke at length about why the work we do is important especially in giving voice and agency to giving by black people and how key our role as philanthropy advisors is in advancing this cause. We spoke about opportunities for CivSource to amplify the work it’s doing both to research and tell the stories of giving in Uganda (as part of the narrative about African philanthropy).
We reiterated the importance of continuing to improve our craft as organizations doing philanthropic advising.
By Jacqueline Asiimwe
