In the face of COVID-19, 17 community foundations from across Romania came together to raise funds for vital public health services and vulnerable groups. They helped to secure and direct more than €1.8 million in essential medical equipment and emergency aid to vulnerable groups. At the outset of the pandemic, none had previous experience in medical procurement or health infrastructure, nor in being part of such a large-scale response. What the Romanian experience demonstrates is that large-scale results are often best achieved through strong cross-sector coordination, rather than from the isolated intervention of individual organizations. The GFCF invited George Gurescu of...

If you are like me and work in the NGO space in Africa, you have probably heard it all. You have heard about the incompetence of African non-profits and how they fail to comply with the most basic and simplest of guidelines. You have also heard how they are challenged in accessing large pools of funding as a direct result of incompetence. If you are like me (which most people working in the space are) talk of ineptitude, lack of creativity and innovation in non-profits on the continent is more than water cooler talk. It is a narrative that defines...