FCS hosts Directors from 15 countries under the Change the Game Academy initiative.

*CSO Directors changing Communities across the globe meet to strategize for greater community impact.

6 February 2023. Foundation for Civil Society (FCS) in collaboration with Change the Game Academy (CtGA) initiative under Wilde Ganzen Foundation, hosted the Directors’ Meeting- an annual or biannual meeting of CtGA National partner organizations (NPOs) representing various countries from across the globe in Zanzibar. The meeting aimed to discuss the CtGA programme initiative’s progress at the global and country-level and set a roadmap for the future of the programme.

Speaking during the meeting, Kees de Jong, Director of Wilde Ganzen Foundation said that worldwide funding for CSOs is decreasing and CSOs especially at the grassroots are more impacted by funding challenges. CtGA is an innovative blended learning initiative implemented in 15 countries that supports grassroots social changemakers, community-based Organisations and small CSOs learn to effectively fundraise and mobilize domestic and international stakeholders to achieve programme sustainability, effectively and community impact. CtGA works directly with the grassroots CSOs, through partnerships with NPOs to train CSOs in their constituencies

 

‘’CtGA aims to reduce poverty, inequality and dependency on foreign funding in low-and middle-income countries by strengthening fundraising capacity so that CSOs achieve a better future and enable communities to have control over their future and development.’’, he said.

Mr Kees de Jong said more than 1,000 organisations have been trained through the CtGA initiative. The training on resource mobilization and fundraising empowers CSOs to tap into local resources to get local impactful solutions to community challenges.

‘’There is enormous potential for local fundraising in low- and middle-income countries as every community have resources available to drive the change they want to see. It is from that belief the Change the Game Academy was created’’, he added.

Speaking about FCS’ experience as a NPO in Tanzania, Mr Franics Kiwanga, FCS Executive Director said that they have been CtGA partners for six years supporting, coaching and mentoring CSOs, especially grassroots on how to mobilize support from stakeholders in their communities and raise funds locally, to ensure communities are well organised, resilient, have a voice to bring change and development in their communities.

‘’FCS became a NPO in 2018 and is working with grassroots organizations in Tanzania. Since 2018 to date FCS has trained 225 organizations on local fundraising and 205 organisations on mobilizing support’’, he said.

He added that CSOs play a critical role in furthering social development, tackling socio-environmental challenges and complementing governmental efforts in bringing change at the grassroots levels. CSOs are also in close contact with communities, serving them and working with them to solve community challenges, hence CtGA training is important for the growth of CSOs.

“Our collaboration with Wilde Ganzen Foundation under CtGA has enabled us to support local community-based organizations to grow and achieve impactful results in their communities.  We believe that Communities have the power to solve their problems hence when CSOs engage with communities, communities have a stronger voice and participate fully in development initiatives. This takes both time and commitment. Through capacity training we bring CSOs into contact with each other, to facilitate knowledge exchange so that they can better engage with communities for impact’, he said.

 

Organizations that participated in the meeting included Association Burkinabè de Fundraising from Burkina Faso, Uganda National NGO Forum From Uganda, Rhiza Babuyile from South Africa, SATUNAMA Foundation From Indonesia, Community Action Support Association (CASA-Gambia) from Gambia, Corporació3n PODION From Colombia, Cordaid From Nepal, West Africa Civil Society Institute From Ghana, Development Expertise Center Ethiopia, The Institute for Monitoring and Evaluation (TiME) from Sri Lanka, CESE – COORDENADORIA ECUMENICA DE SERVIÃIO from Brazil, Advocacy and Policy Institute From Cambodia, , Kenya Community Development Foundation (KCDF) from Kenya, Assembly of Social Mobilization From Sri Lanka, Smile Foundation from India, Assembly of social mobilization From Sri Lanka, Foundation for Civil Society (FCS) from Tanzania.

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