Firelight featured in Alliance magazine’s issue on community philanthropy
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This month, Firelight was deeply honored to be included in Alliance magazine’s special edition issue on community philanthropy - #ShiftThePower: The Rise of Community Philanthropy - published on the heels of the Global Summit on Community Philanthropy held in South Africa. This special issue of Alliance examines the rise of community philanthropy - the practice of empowering communities to achieve the outcomes they believe are important - through the lens of numerous respected voices in the field. In Executive Director Nina Blackwell’s article in the magazine, she notes Firelight’s continued commitment to community philanthropy in Africa as an essential part of our commitment to sustainable community-based solutions for children and youth.
“We have seen the incredible power of community philanthropy over and over again and in a number of ways: contributions from community members to a CBO not only reduce dependency on outside help, but are the ultimate manifestations of local buy-in and involvement. Individuals and groups who help shape, and in other ways contribute to, programmes feel a greater sense of identity and power. Their voice and agency is increased many times when they are able to fund and drive social change in their own community.”
Firelight supports community philanthropy across eastern and southern Africa as part of our everyday work to support community-based organizations working with children and youth. We work with our CBO partners to include community-based contributions in their programs but we also separately support community grantmakers as part of our commitment to building the indigenous infrastructure for change that will survive long after we have gone. To date, Firelight has supported 12 community grantmakers in eight countries: Ethiopia, Kenya, Rwanda, South Africa, Lesotho, Malawi, Tanzania, and Zimbabwe.