Blog
The limits of resilience
Sometime during a recent PEXForum conference, I wrote on my notepad that resilience has become the development sector’s new buzzword. Others have made the same discovery. PSJP’s new paper, Building Resilience in International Development lists a raft of references to the term in the later literature of development and it seems that multilateral organisations, foundations,…
Beyond Us and Them
This blog post is prompted by the provocative article entitled Institutional Philanthropy and Popular Organising in Africa: Some Initial Reflections from Social Movement Activists by Halima Mohamed which draws on the experiences of activists from 13 different movements across Africa. I am part of one of those movements. Social movements are proof of ordinary people’s…
Making markets work for the common good
By Andrew Milner, Lisa Jordan and Stef van Dongen As the pandemic has stood the world on its head, one of the debates which has been thrown wide open is that of the future of the economy. PSJP has therefore launched an inquiry into how markets can be made to work for the common good…
Unearthing secret excel spreadsheets – why measuring what matters, matters
“What’s on your secret excel spreadsheet?” This was the question posed to a room of Brazilian civil society practitioners, who had been convened by Candid in 2019 to discuss the topic of measurement in their work. Over 2018 and 2019, the GFCF had similarly coordinated a separate learning group of 15 community philanthropy partners to explore the…
Resources

Building resilience in international development
This paper considers what resilience looks like in practice. It is based on the work of three organizations – Tewa, Global Greengrants Fund and Harvard Humanitarian Initiative. It is far from a complete account of resilience and that more work is needed. We hope that you will join us in this learning journey and share your stories.
Beyond us and them
Social movements are increasingly important to the process of change, but their relationship with institutional philanthropy has often proven a difficult one. What are these difficulties and how can they be resolved? Drawing on a recent paper by Halima Mahomed, Institutional philanthropy and popular organising in Africa : some initial reflections from social movement activists,…
News
New conversation series: ‘Let’s build peace, here and now’
Episode 1: Martin Macwan and Stephen Pittam About this Event You are invited to participate in a conversation between Martin Macwan and Stephen Pittam, two seasoned activists from two different countries but united in their commitment to social justice, human rights and peacebuilding work. This will be a candid conversation in which drawing on his…
New Study Provides Insight About How Philanthropy Can Make Peacebuilding a Priority
On 14 July 2020 CANDID released Philanthropy for a Safe, Healthy, and Just World, a first-of-its-kind study that identifies clear opportunities and challenges in supporting peacebuilding activities. Currently, less than 1% of philanthropic funding supports peace and security. 823 organizations worldwide responded to a survey, conducted by Candid and CENTRIS and funded by PeaceNexus, which…
Lambent Foundation is recruiting
Lambent Foundation is recruiting a deputy director, director of communications and a partner network manager.
The Dignity Project, a campaign for more respectful development
Is your program respectful? How, exactly, do you know that? Did you ask people? Development is frequently disrespectful. We all want to do better. But right now we don’t have the tools to do so. The Dignity Project creates open access, ready-translated tools to properly measure respect. There is public support for more respectful development.…