Community Philanthropy: The Agency Africa Already Has
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If shifting power means giving communities greater control over their futures, then perhaps the first step is recognising something that has been there all along: African communities already possess agency. Long before these practices received the language of “development” or “philanthropy”, communities contributed time, labour, knowledge and skills to build robust systems of mutual support by giving, organising, mobilising, caring for one another and sharing resources.
This foundational truth emerged as a central insight from the thematic lab on “Community Philanthropy and Agency” at the Africa at the Centre: Leading Change, Shifting Power convening, organised between 1 – 3 September 2026 by the West Africa Civil Society Institute (WACSI), Reos Partners, EPIC Africa, AFFORD UK and the reimagining international non-governmental organisation (RINGO).
The conversation moved beyond the traditional understanding of philanthropy as financial giving, inviting participants to see community philanthropy as a powerful expression of ownership, resilience and local agency.
The Philanthropy We Fail to See
Across African communities, women’s markets, burial societies and other community-based systems have long served as mechanisms for pooling resources, supporting families and responding collectively to hardship. Yet many of these contributions remain largely invisible within conventional development systems. The same is true of time, unpaid labour, care, indigenous knowledge, relationships and local skills; though they may not appear in GDP, in a donor report or fit neatly into a project indicator, they matter immensely.
This reality connects directly with the provocation from philanthropy advisor Mrs Eseroghene Emerhi during the wider reimagining development conversation: “Africa’s own resources are not a footnote to development; they are part of how Africans reclaim power.” Taking that idea seriously, the lab explored what happens when local giving is viewed not as an informal substitute for “real” philanthropy, but as the very foundation for African-led development.
From Asking What Communities Lack to Asking What They Have
One of the practical approaches explored during the lab was community asset mapping. Instead of beginning development conversations with a list of deficiencies, asset mapping begins with the capabilities already present. Participants identified categories including people and skills, trusted connectors and mobilisers, existing contribution systems, institutional and business assets, diaspora resources and physical infrastructure.
This exercise offered a simple but profound shift in narrative: a community is no longer seen primarily through what it lacks, but becomes visible through what it possesses. While refusing to allow need to become the only story we tell about communities, this approach does not mean ignoring genuine needs or structural inequalities.
The women organising markets, the elderly mobilising people around a shared concern, the young person with digital skills, the local business contributing resources, the community knowledge passed between generations and the relationships that foster trust are all vital assets that must be made visible, protected and resourced appropriately.
Trust Changes the Relationship
The Kiisi Trust Fund provided another practical illustration by supporting more than 30 grassroots organisations while creating mechanisms through which communities could exercise meaningful decision-making power in priorities such as dignity, education and connection to land.
Most importantly, the presentation noted that communities want to be trusted with decisions. Nonetheless, there is a key and critical distinction between consultation and trust: a community can be consulted, invited to meetings, asked for its opinion and included in project design without being trusted with power, ensuring that fundamental decisions remain elsewhere rather than with community members.
Trust requires sharing governance, accepting that local priorities may differ from external expectations and recognising that the process may be slower and sometimes uncomfortable. It was acknowledged that genuine power shifting can produce tension within existing governance structures; however, if shifting power never disrupts existing power arrangements, we have not truly shifted power.
What Counts as a Contribution?
The discussion also challenged conventional approaches to measuring philanthropy, indicating that about 65% of organisations give directly to community organisations. Rather than dismissing such giving as informal or sporadic charity, participants reflected on what it reveals about existing systems of resilience and accountability, raising the critical question of how we make these contributions visible.
A toolkit developed through work with the East Africa Philanthropy Network was presented as one attempt to track contributions that conventional systems often overlook, including time, skills, care, labour, land and indigenous knowledge. This matters because what gets measured is often what gets recognised and what gets recognised is more likely to receive resources and protection.
If local giving remains invisible, it remains undervalued; if indigenous knowledge is undocumented, it remains vulnerable; if community skills are not recognised, development actors will continue importing expertise that already exists locally; and lastly, if trust and dignity cannot be measured, they risk being treated as secondary to more convenient indicators.
Beyond the Development Era: Systemic Shifts
The most important question from the discussions was not how much a community receives, but “what remains after the funding ends?” Evaluating whether the community retains stronger institutions, stronger relationships, greater confidence, more resources, local leadership and enhanced capacity to sustain its own priorities redefines the purpose of philanthropy. The objective is no longer simply to deliver projects, but to strengthen the conditions under which communities can sustain their futures. Consequently, the lab called for a move from short-term aid towards sustained support that follows community-defined priorities, along with greater recognition of overlooked actors such as market women, women champions and elders who form the essential infrastructure of community life.
For African leadership to move from aspiration to practice, the broader development system must confront several systemic gaps and critical shifts. Current structures are constrained by measurement limitations that fail to perceive local capacity and overlook mechanisms like burial societies.
Furthermore, deep power imbalances persist when communities are consulted rather than entrusted with governance authority, while internal structural weaknesses and heavy dependency on external funding cycles leave civil society organisations vulnerable to competing for scarce external grants. Addressing these collaboration gaps requires transitioning from short-term interventions to building resilient, locally rooted resource ecosystems.
The Work Ahead
Community philanthropy offers more than an alternative way of raising money; it offers a different way of understanding power. It asks us to recognise that communities are not empty vessels waiting for development interventions, as they are already giving, organising, solving problems, carrying knowledge and investing in one another. The work ahead is to recognise, document, measure, protect and resource that agency without taking it over.
This transition requires philanthropy to become more patient, funders to tolerate uncertainty, development actors to surrender control and the sector to rethink metrics of impact. As highlighted at the Africa at the Centre convening, if the power to define success belongs to communities, resources and relationships must respond to those definitions. The task is not to invent community agency, but to stop overlooking it; the future of African philanthropy does not begin with teaching communities how to give, but by recognising that they have been giving all along.
In the final analysis, African community philanthropy is not merely an informal practice to be passively supported or studied, but the foundational agency upon which sustainable, African-led development rests. True progress depends on moving beyond observation to forming active, respectful partnerships with deeply embedded local systems, demanding a fundamental shift in how power, trust and leadership are understood and exercised across the development landscape.
About the author
Justice Paa Kwesi Junior Abban Abban
JusticePaa Kwesi Abban is a purpose-driven young African leader focused on building people, empowering young people, strengthening communities and turning ideas into meaningful social impact.
