Philos – Anthropos: The love for humankind

During a keynote at the Philea Forum in Lisbon, I shared the story of Alwaleed, a young entrepreneur and activist. He dedicated his life to building a peaceful and prosperous Sudan at a time when the region is experiencing one of the largest humanitarian crises ever recorded, and shamefully neglected, with over 30 million people in urgent need. In April this year Alwaleed got abducted, tortured and killed by the Rapid Support Forces.

Through our work at ChangemakerXchange, a global support network for social entrepreneurs, we unfortunately have more such stories to tell. Mohammed comes to mind, the founder of multiple tech accelerators in Gaza, who was killed in an IDF airstrike last year. I vividly remember the last time I checked in with him a few weeks earlier: He was busy setting up tents and organising emergency support for his community. I also think of Fabrice a lot these days, a peace builder from the DRC who had to leave the country and his family. When we chatted last week, he was scoping a pan-African peace initiative. Or Harun, a grassroots activist from Kenya who got robbed multiple times and ended up homeless for weeks. Yet only days after he found shelter, I saw him offering coaching and consulting sessions to fellow youth.

There are countless changemakers out there – often directly affected by the very issues they are trying to solve. They are experts at what they do, and despite setbacks, they relentlessly believe in and work towards a better world. And yet, so often, they are the ones struggling the most. The Possibilists, an alliance of over 200 support networks, recently ran a study among 1,000 young social entrepreneurs worldwide. The results are striking: Less than one in ten can cover all their necessary income through their ventures. Nearly one in three experience burnouts. One in four receive threats online. And if that wasn’t enough, some of them face severe repressions including imprisonment, physical injury or political prosecution due to their work.

Despite creating impact for the benefit of all of us, their lives are made incredibly hard. It often drives me mad to think of their hardship… and of the potential in all their brilliant ideas that we willingly waste!

After nearly two decades of working with, supporting and funding social entrepreneurs across the world, I keep landing on a simple truth. For philanthropy to best support the people, organisations and movements working towards positive change in the world, this is what I believe counts: First, find the groups and people inside a community who are affected by an issue and work towards addressing it. Then, once identified:

• Genuinely listen to their ideas, their needs and build trust
• Give significant long-term unrestricted resources towards their purpose and organisation (not just their projects)
• Let them make the key decisions
• Generously share your platform, power and your privileges
• Then… get out of their way (but stay by their side)

They are the experts and leaders – let us be their followers.

To bring these principles to life, I’ve reached out to three people at the intersection of grantmaking, activism and social change whose work I admire. I asked them to share their opinions on what we can all do to bring more equality to philanthropy:

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“I organise people with access to wealth to give to organisations defending democracy. I do this because I hold financial privilege myself and know my understanding of today’s crises is limited by that. The expertise lies with those most directly affected by, and actively addressing, these crises. Yet too often, philanthropic decision-makers linger in analysis, leaving the risky, urgent work on the frontline underfunded and unsupported. The role of philanthropy is to […] invest in spaces for civil society actors to meet and strategise, secure their sustainability with multi-year, unrestricted commitments, fundraise among your peers, and if you can, spend down. And when they are attacked for speaking out, stand with them in solidarity.”

– Renée Paula Horster, Development Manager Major Donations at CORRECTIV and Co-Founder at Resource Transformation 

“My first role in philanthropy […] taught me that philanthropy functions best when we listen and act on what communities need. Distributing grants via a rigid funding call, with parameters that had no community input, led to frustrated applicants, low success rates, and trust lost with the communities we were meant to serve ultimately little to no impact. […] Equity requires urgency. We should take the time to engage, build relationships and understand how best to show up, trusting that communities know best. While being fast enough to respond to crises, build restorative and reparative spaces for communities to engage in and ensure that the power of philanthropy shifts from stalling progress to creating it.“

– Mercy Shibemba, Grantmaker & Project Direct at BBC Children in Need

“Philanthropy must take responsibility for the side effects its funding creates. In Poland for example, the way INGO funding for the Ukrainian response was designed meant only Ukrainian nationals could access key humanitarian services. This embedded a double standard: a woman refugee from Yemen or Sudan was denied support simply because donors restricted funding categories. Local civil society, despite leading the response, had no influence over these decisions. If philanthropy is serious about equality, it must enable the meaningful participation of women’s and youth groups – including marginalised communities – in all decision-making. That requires unrestricted, long-term funding, co-designed with local actors, and dismantling barriers. Otherwise, philanthropy risks reinforcing the very inequalities it claims to fight. “

– Jarmiła Rybicka, CEO of Conflict Kitchen, a grassroots organisation supporting refugees in Poland.

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To end I’d like to say that in the world of philanthropy we often speak of theories of change, governance and regulations, board rooms, grant cycles or 5-year strategies. While these are important, let the people we serve be a constant reminder though that philanthropy is about something far more profound: truly caring, trusting, and generously sharing, and ultimately, a deep love for humankind.