Segal Family Foundation sponsored #FutureSummit2020, “…a space where we invite our diverse global community of change leaders to deconstruct and reshape trends in Africa from all angles.” It was a great honor for me to join this panel with Degan Ali, African Development Solutions; Lori Adelman, Global Fund for Women; and Marie-Rose Romain Murphy, Economic Stimulus Projects for Work and Action in Haiti. It was recorded on October 1st. (It’s all good, but FYI I start around 34 minutes.)
“The Dissonance”
What an honor! Jennifer Lentfer and Joan Okitoi “perform” my chapter, “The Dissonance,” a (mis)communication between an international donor and a “local” grantee, from the book, Smart Risks: How Small Grants are Helping to Solve Some of the World’s Biggest Problems. It is their kick off to #GlobalDev Communicators Connect, a monthly meeting hosted by to support people responsible for external communications in international aid and philanthropy to connect to each other, and to reconnect to our sense of “play” and creativity within our work in the sector. Info here: https://collective.healingsolidarity.org/.
Smart Risks
When philanthropy heroines Jennifer Lentfer and Tanya Cothran invited me to submit chapters for their ground-breaking book about grassroots grantmaking, I was honored. I wrote a reflection about how the procedures of financial reporting can be transformational for communities and for grantmakers. I wrote a second short investigation into the challenges of communication between international NGOs and local NGOs. (I have a lot of experience with that problem.)
The just-published book is called Smart Risks: How Small Grants are Helping to Solve Some of the World’s Biggest Problems. Jennifer has already written about why she now feels that title doesn’t reflect the reality that people of color are less able to fail (and therefore to take risks) than white people.
I don’t love the title either, but for a different reason. It fails to highlight that the real cost of failed development grants is not born by grantmakers but by receiving communities.
These, and other important debates are IN the book. To read my chapters and others’, please buy it. You can read more about the book on the fantastic website: https://www.smartrisks.org/.