Opportunity 1: Resources and Toolboxes
Good reads to inspire thinking about change
We spend a lot of time thinking about change – change that would allow every person in South Africa to have the opportunity to fufill their life potential. We think about what is at the heart of situations -what drives a detremental situation to exist and to persist? We ponder how to activate change – […]
Tags: Books, Civil Society, Reading list, Social Change
Posted on 5 May 2018
How to communicate your work and achievements to funders
Writing proposals and reports to funders can be one of the most stressful parts of working in the social change sector. To make it less nerve wracking, it can be helpful to remember that funders are just people. Many of them have also worked for non-profit organisations, social movements or government departments, and understand the […]
Tags: Communicating to funders about your work, Tips and resources
Posted on 29 January 2018
Your Mandela Day to-do list: Grow empathy, connect to others, take action – but choose wisely
The message behind Mandela Day is that we all have the ability and responsibility to change the world for the better. In theory many people agree with this sentiment, judging from the 2.8K likes that a Nelson Mandela quote like “our society needs to re-establish a culture of caring” can garner on the Nelson Mandela […]
Tags: Mandela Day, Resourceful Young Children
Posted on 18 July 2016
Clever hacks, sound advice and nifty tools to excite NGOs in 2016
There is some disagreement about what the word “hack” refers to outside of programming contexts. We see it as a way of doing something that may not provide the most straightforward or expected solution, and yet it presents a clever way to satisfactorily solve a meaningful problem. Here are a few good examples that can […]
Tags: Online resources, Tools
Posted on 1 February 2016
The Karnataka Learning Partnership: what data can do
Imagine: A parent is trying to decide whether to send her child to the preschool at the end of her street, or the one in a nearby neighbourhood. She’s heard the faraway preschool is better, but it also has higher fees, and she’s not quite sure what “better” means. An NGO is planning a […]
Tags: Early literacy Development, Education, India
Posted on 23 November 2015
We recommend…
A quick note to let you know about some recent online discoveries we’ve found helpful and inspiring: The Community Tool Box is a public service of the University of Kansas and is developed and managed by the KU Work Group for Community Health and Development together with national and international partners. It is a free, online resource for […]
Tags: Online resources
Posted on 28 October 2015
Lets change the way we relate to each other with StoryCorps
I recently discovered StoryCorps on the internet. It’s the most exciting discovery I’ve made all year; in fact, it tops my list of internet discoveries for the past few years. Before I spend a lot of time explaining what Storycorps is – and why this discovery might be relevant to you – take a look […]
Tags: Storycorps
Posted on 9 October 2015
What does creative learning look like for grown-ups?
Working in the education and non-profit sectors, I’ve been to talks and conferences that fire up my passion – that make me want to leap out of my seat and do something. But I’ve been to at least as many with uninspired content, formats, speakers, or all of the above – gatherings where I wind up […]
Tags: Conferences, Learning events
Posted on 24 July 2015
Thinking scale – some tips to think about
Many of the organisations that we work with ultimately aim to scale – but very few have a clear sense of how to do it. While at a detailed level there are lots of ways to think about and plan for scale, here are a few tips we think can help: Start by shifting your […]
Tags: Scale-up
Posted on 1 July 2015
Communicating effectively about your organisation’s work and achievements: resources and advice
As a funder, we are at the receiving end of organisations’ efforts to communicate their work and achievements. We review many grant applications, sit through hours of presentations and carefully study reporting and learning documents. From this experience, we thought it might be helpful to share some of the common mistakes that we see, and […]
Tags: Communication, Stories
Posted on 22 April 2015
