“You see, where we come from, we know that a finger cannot push a stone, so we come together as a clenched fist.”   These words from Wana Udobang, a writer, poet, performer and story-teller, captured the spirit of the Stories for Change Festival. This was a celebration. A global online gathering of just under 300 community leaders, activists, filmmakers and human rights defenders who came together to celebrate the transformative power of community philanthropy, to watch and engage with short documentaries and trailers produced by partners of the Giving for Change programme over the last six months, and to hear practical learnings from community philanthropy...

  In the development sector, we talk about the need to bust silos so often that it has almost become a platitude, in danger of becoming neither interesting nor thoughtful. I often think about this when attending in-person conferences, where we tend to stick with who we already know or – at most – attempt to approach the funders in the room. It’s a very human thing to stick with “our tribe.” However, instead of busting silos, aren’t these (perhaps unintentional) “conference behaviours” reinforcing them? With that in mind, it’s good to be able to recognize when real “silo-busting” is happening. Back...