With an emphasis on local assets, local decision-making and a long-term view, community philanthropy is a strategy to achieve durable development. We use the word “durable” because it suggests the ability of something to be strong and robust and to withstand pressure. Civil society organizations and non-profits that rely on external funding are often not durable: their work can be overly shaped by the priorities of their donors rather than those of local communities and, if they have not invested in building a local support base, they are often vulnerable to sudden changes or reductions in aid and philanthropic flows.

For the GFCF, durable development means resilient systems (networks that include people, communities and organizations) and strong organizations that are rooted in their constituencies, that share and devolve power and whose legitimacy rests on their ability to mobilize local participation, including local giving.