Kenya hosted this year’s Giving Tuesday Africa Summit in Naivasha, Nakuru County. The five-day meeting briought together a dynamic and diverse group of social leaders to discuss how Africa’s rich cultures intersect with the future of generosity.The leaders drawn from Country Leaders, SPARK and Starling Alumni Network collaborated with partners to explore, deepen and expand efforts that provide people with the insights, pathways, and partnerships needed to mobilize their communities for social good.
Speaking at the summit, Asha Curran, the CEO of Giving Tuesday expressed optimism at the growth trajectory of the world’s generosity from just fundraising to people-centred generosity. “Giving Tuesday the day started out being very much about fundraising, and it started out being very much about organized institutions, with nonprofits and civil society organizations. Now I think it’s much more; it is also about people, about families, about young people,about schools, about houses of worship, and how generosity can look in all of those places,” said Curran.
The week-long event came at a time when Africa, the world’s youngest continent, is feeling the impacts of a hotter, harder world more than anywhere else. Traditional approaches to civil society and development are being challenged, making it essential to reinforce programs and partnerships that drive locally-led development.
Curran notes: “In the past couple of years, the trend that I’m seeing is more of a trend toward human connection and combating things like polarization and social isolation and how generosity can be an antidote to those things. And I think that’s a really wonderful trend at this moment in human history that is so beset by problems and crises of all kinds.”
During the summit Giving Tuesday country lead for Nigeria Folakemi Adesina emphasized on the need to involve the community more in decision making. Adesina said there was need to build networks and give other people responsibilities including allowing them to take part in leadership. “Community leaders are best placed to identify the needs of a community and also build a giving culture among the members of the community,” she said.
Adenisa emphasized on the need to localize community campaigns. “Local Giving Tuesday community campaigns bring people together in the same area, have them work together, think creatively, and inspire change,” she said.
Rose Maruru, Co-Founder and CEO, EPIC Africa told the summit that surveys done over the years have dispelled the notion that foreign support surpasses donors from within Africa supporting the continent in various ways. “Surveys have revealed that individual donors from within the continent are the leading source of funding for nonprofits and other Civil society organizations in Africa as opposed to the notion that money come from abroad,” she said.
An opportunity to celebrate human generosity
In the midst of political crises, climate change challenges and conflicts in many parts of the world, Curran said that the upcoming Giving Tuesday will be a moment of celebration of our generosity as humans. “Hopefully this day is a celebration of the change we can make and not a day to mourn all the things that are wrong. The trend with Giving Tuesday is that today that we celebrate the good things and it’s a day that we celebrate what’s possible.”
GivingTuesday, a global generosity movement, works with volunteer leaders to use generosity to build community infrastructure and transform giving culture in their contexts. By adapting the movement to their unique contexts, these leaders create locally-driven campaigns that strengthen civil society.
Speaking to Africa Solutions Media Hub on the sidelines of the Giving Tuesday Africa Summit, Christopher Worman, the chief global strategy and partnerships officer at Giving Tuesday noted that people continue to give both in difficult and happy moments in life. “The data that we capture on a weekly basis around the world says that people are very happy to give in the best of times as well as the worst of times, across political lines, across sort of ideological spectrums.”
Worman underscored the importance of this way of timeless giving, adding that the overwhelming majority of people are just good people and they will help people in need. They will help their neighbors whether they agree with them or not, whether they look like them or not.
As Giving Tuesday gets closer, Worman says that all eyes are set on the new giving trends across the world, in view of the difficult times that have hit different parts of the world. “Giving Tuesday is an annual celebration of a year-round movement, and I think this year we’re curious to see whether the numbers will go up around the world or not? We are building new partnerships here at this event to understand who are the different people that might want to understand African generosity as the baseline in community resilience, in participation in civic life,” he said, adding that such data will advise different players on how better to support this kind of generosity.
Jacob Mati, the Deputy Director, Centre for Philanthropy and Social investment said the giving culture in Africa is taken to new levels during disasters and calamities. Major giving initiatives were during the Covid 19 pandemic, Africa Against Ebola, Kenyans for Kenya, Kenyans’ floods in 2024 and most recently during the Kenyan Gen Z protests.
He said there was need to continue embracing the giving culture especially for development. Mati added that there was need for organizations to tell their stories, to inspire others, including those who are in a position to give to support noble courses.
Growing non-monetary giving
Woodrow Rosenbaum, Chief Data Officer, Giving Tuesday emphasized on the need to look at the non-monetary giving that is popular in many African communities. He explained: “We see that Africans give a lot all the time. African people are giving in their communities in many, many ways all year round. Compared to other places in the world, African giving tends to skew a little bit less toward monetary giving and a little bit more toward giving things and volunteering time.”
According to Woordrow, most Africans are doing more than one thing and are giving in multiple ways. With a noticeable shift toward giving to formalized organizations in the past year.
While various stakeholders have put efforts in technological solutions around giving, Woodrow opines that That said, the technology is not necessarily the answer. “The biggest challenges are not technological. The biggest challenges are ones of culture and practice. And that’s the main issue is bringing the right stakeholders together to work collaboratively, ensuring that everybody’s getting value from their participation. And then yes, there’s lots of tech tools that we can deploy in order to make sense of what we gather, but that collaboration and collective effort is much more important,” he concluded.
