This piece originally appeared on the Alliance magazine website as part of its 100th issue.    A confluence of forces in 2016 brought together one of philanthropy’s most inspiring and dynamic movements for change. It started with a hashtag to promote an event. It was 2016 and the Global Fund for Community Foundations (GFCF) was organising the first Global Summit on Community Philanthropy in Johannesburg. We were looking for a catchy hashtag that would convey the idea that this event was going to be a bit different from the run-of-the-mill philanthropy conference, and that would appeal to a broad audience of changemakers around...

In the wake of the first COVID-19 lockdown in Uganda, CivSource Africa documented a trend that we were suddenly awake to. Ugandans were giving in droves, to support the effort to stem the pandemic. Not only that, in his weekly televised addresses to the nation during that period, President Museveni read out list upon list, of the donations for the COVID relief effort ranging from giving by corporate companies, all the way to everyday Ugandans. What became a collection of a few stories, quickly morphed into four volumes titled “Generosity During the Time of COVID” (the four volumes are available on...