FCS hosts ‘Change the Game Academy’ initiative meeting

Zanzibar. The Foundation for Civil Society (FCS) has hosted this year’s Change the Game Academy (CtGA) Directors’ Meeting in Zanzibar.

The CtGA is an initiative under the Wilde Ganzen Foundation, and this year’s gathering brought together 15 national partner organisations (NPOs) from across the globe.

The meeting discussed the CtGA initiative’s progress at the global and country levels, and set a roadmap for the future of the programme.

Wilde Ganzen Foundation director Kees de Jong said worldwide funding for civil society organisations (CSOs) was decreasing, with grassroots CSOs bearing the brunt of funding challenges.

CtGA is an innovative, blended learning initiative implemented in 15 countries, which supports grassroots social changemakers, community-based organisations and small CSOs, and enable them to learn to effectively fundraise and mobilise domestic and international stakeholders to achieve programme sustainability and community impact. CtGA works directly with 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,” Mr de Jong said.

He added that more than 1,000 organisations had been trained through the CtGA initiative. Training on resource mobilisation 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 said.

Speaking about the FCS’ experience as an NPO in Tanzania, FCS executive director Francis Kiwanga said the organisation has been a CtGA partner for six years, supporting, coaching and mentoring CSOs, especially at the grassroots, on how to mobilise support from stakeholders in their communities and raise funds locally to ensure communities are well organised, resilient, and have a voice to bring about positive change and development in their communities.

“FCS became an NPO in 2018, and is working with grassroots organisations in Tanzania. Since 2018 to date, FCS has trained 225 organisations on local fundraising, and 205 organisations on mobilising support,” he said.

Mr Kiwanga added that CSOs played a critical role in furthering social development, tackling sociol environmental challenges, and complementing governmental efforts in bringing about positive change at the grassroots. 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 the Wilde Ganzen Foundation under CtGA has enabled us to support local community-based organisations 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 in contact with each other to facilitate knowledge exchange so that they can better engage with communities for the desired impact,” he said.

Organisations that participated in the meeting included Association Burkinabè de Fundraising from Burkina Faso; the Uganda National NGO Forum from Uganda; Rhiza Babuyile from South Africa; SATUNAMA Foundation from Indonesia; the Community Action Support Association (CASA-Gambia) from Gambia; Corporación PODION from Colombia; Cordaid From Nepal, and the West Africa Civil Society Institute from Ghana.

Others were the Development Expertise Center from Ethiopia; the Institute for Monitoring and Evaluation (TiME) from Sri Lanka; CESE - Coordenadoria Ecumênica de Serviço from Brazil; the Advocacy and Policy Institute from Cambodia; the Kenya Community Development Foundation (KCDF) from Kenya; the Assembly of Social Mobilization from Sri Lanka; the Smile Foundation from India; the Assembly of Social Mobilization from Sri Lanka, and the Foundation for Civil Society (FCS) from Tanzania.