A demostration./PHOTO ;By AI
Across Africa, social movements have shaped some of the continent’s most important moments.
From anti-colonial struggles to pro-democracy protests, from women’s rights organising to youth-led movements demanding economic justice, collective action has often been the force that pushed societies forward when institutions failed to act.
Yet despite this history, social movements remain among the least supported actors within African philanthropy.
This tension sits at the heart of People Power: The Philanthropy Support Ecosystem for Social Movements in Africa and Latin America, a report released by WINGS in May 2025.
The report does not focus only on donors or movements.
Instead, it looks closely at the systems in between: the funds, platforms, intermediaries, and networks that quietly shape who gets funded, how money flows, and whose risks are considered acceptable.
In the African context, the report paints a clear picture.
While the continent has strong traditions of giving and solidarity, the structures needed to support social movements, especially those that challenge power, remain weak, uneven, and under-resourced.
Giving is not new, but movement funding is fragile
Philanthropy in Africa is deeply rooted in everyday life. Long before formal foundations existed, communities relied on shared responsibility and mutual support. These traditions are captured in Indigenous concepts such as ubuntu, harambee, ujamaa, ajo, ilima, and susu.
As the report explains, African philanthropy is “underpinned by the ideas of solidarity, mutuality and reciprocity, and is understood to mean a love for humanity.”
It adds that giving has never been limited to money alone, but has included time, skills, labour, and collective care.
Both formal and informal forms of philanthropy have long coexisted and continue to play an important role in African societies.
However, the report makes clear that these strong traditions of generosity have not translated into consistent support for social movements, particularly those working on social justice, rights, and accountability.
Why social movements matter
The report is direct about the importance of social movements. They are not side actors in development, but key drivers of long-term change.
Movements help hold governments and institutions to account, shape public debate, and push issues onto national agendas long before policy change becomes possible.
“Social movements play a critical role in influencing laws, policies, and public norms,” the report states.
“They often lay the groundwork for reforms that may only materialise years later, making them central actors for anyone concerned with justice and equity.”
It emphasises that without movements, many social and political gains across the continent would not have been possible.
At the same time, the report explains why movements are so hard to fund. Unlike NGOs, movements are not built around projects, service delivery, or predictable plans.
They are often informal, decentralised, and fast-moving, responding to sudden political moments rather than donor timelines.
A funding system that does not fit
Most philanthropic systems are designed for registered organisations with clear leadership, stable structures, and detailed reporting systems. Social movements rarely operate this way.
According to the report, movements often mobilise “in response to sudden events such as elections, court rulings, or acts of state violence.”
Their strategies can change quickly, and they may operate through loose networks rather than formal institutions. This flexibility allows them to act fast, but it also places them outside conventional funding models.
As one Africa-based interviewee quoted in the report explains, moments of mobilisation “happen quickly, like a storm, leaving little time to put formal accounting or reporting systems in place.”
The report adds that this mismatch often leads to movements being excluded from funding or pressured to reshape their work to meet donor expectations, sometimes weakening their impact.
From liberation movements to NGOs
The report places today’s challenges within a longer historical context. It traces African social movements through three broad phases.
The first phase, in the 1940s and 1950s, consisted of anti-colonial movements fighting for self-determination and the dismantling of colonial systems that created deep social and racial divisions.
The second phase, emerging in the 1980s, focused on strengthening democracy and challenging single-party rule.
Following the introduction of multi-party systems, many organisations that had driven democratic struggles became NGOs or development agencies.
The report notes that this process, often referred to as the “NGO-ification” of opposition, shifted focus toward service delivery funded by Western donors, especially as states withdrew from social services.
A third phase, emerging in the mid-2000s, reflects more urban-based, decentralised movements, often disconnected from political parties.
The report explains that these movements were shaped by both political grievances among the middle class and material grievances among poorer communities.
In recent years, the COVID-19 pandemic further intensified pressures, accelerating inequality, funding cuts, and civic restrictions.
A thin and uneven support ecosystem
To understand how movements are supported today, WINGS mapped 49 domestic and international actors involved in the philanthropy support ecosystem for social movements in Africa.
These include intermediary funds, joint funds, community foundations, funders, and organisations that enable philanthropy.
The report finds that this ecosystem is uneven and concentrated in a few regions.
Most activity is found in East, West, and Southern Africa, leaving many countries with little access to movement-supporting infrastructure.
In East Africa, countries within the East African Community, particularly Kenya and Uganda, show the most developed support structures, supported by regional coordination through the East Africa Philanthropy Network.
In West Africa, Nigeria and Senegal stand out due to more established philanthropic institutions and long-standing donor presence, though shrinking civic space and weak regulatory environments remain serious obstacles.
Southern Africa’s ecosystem is dominated by South Africa, where institutional philanthropy is most visible.
The report notes that while networks such as the Independent Philanthropy Association of South Africa have played important convening roles, they face challenges, including limited resources, sustainability concerns, and a lack of government recognition.
Why intermediaries matter
Where philanthropy support organisations exist, the report finds they can make a significant difference.
“They allow donors to fund social movements they might otherwise avoid, while enabling movements to focus on organising rather than administration,” the report states.
It explains that intermediaries help manage legal and financial risk, reduce bureaucracy, and provide flexible support suited to how movements actually operate.
However, many of these intermediaries are themselves underfunded.
The report warns that without sustained investment in these support systems, even large amounts of funding struggle to reach grassroots movements safely and effectively.
Big funding numbers, small grassroots reach
The report highlights a stark gap between funding volumes and grassroots access. In 2020, international philanthropic funding for human rights in Sub-Saharan Africa totalled $328.6 million.
Yet only 4 percent of foundation funding about $12.2 million went to grassroots organising.
While funding for women and girls made up more than half of total human rights funding, direct support for informal social movements remained limited.
Domestic philanthropy shows a similar pattern.
Between 2016 and 2019, most African philanthropic funding went to education, health, and basic services, with little directed toward advocacy or social justice movements.
The report stresses that this is not due to lack of resources. Africa’s private wealth is estimated at $2.5 trillion, and large philanthropic gifts surged during the COVID-19 pandemic.
What is missing, it argues, are trusted systems that can channel this wealth toward movements working on deeper structural change.
Digital giving and new possibilities
One of the report’s more hopeful findings is the rise of individual and digital giving.
Platforms such as Kenya’s M-Changa have made it easier for ordinary citizens to support causes they care about quickly and directly.
The report highlights how, during Kenya’s 2024 youth-led protests, nearly 40,000 individuals donated close to KES 30 million in just a few days to support injured protesters.
It argues that while digital giving cannot replace long-term philanthropic investment, it plays an important role in diversifying funding sources and strengthening community ownership.
Importantly, the report challenges the idea that African individual giving is only informal or focused on charity.
New research it cites shows that 65 percent of surveyed civil society organisations receive funding from individuals, including for advocacy, human rights, and environmental justice work.
Trust is the missing link
Running through the report is a clear message about trust. Movements are often subjected to heavy compliance demands rooted in assumptions about risk and accountability.
In many African countries, shrinking civic space, financial regulations, and restrictions on foreign funding have made it harder for movements to operate safely.
The report explains that bank accounts are frozen, transactions delayed, and organisations labelled “high risk.”
While intermediaries can absorb some of this pressure, the report warns that when they are weak, movements are left exposed.
As one interviewee notes, if large foundations face scrutiny, smaller funders and grassroots groups are even more vulnerable.
Investing in systems, not just causes
The report’s conclusion is clear. Supporting social movements requires more than increasing funding.
It requires investing in the systems that allow funding to reach movements quickly, safely, and on their own terms.
Strengthening philanthropy support ecosystems means supporting intermediaries, platforms, and networks that already exist, rather than imposing new models from outside.
For Africa, where civic space is under pressure and movements often operate at personal risk, these systems can determine whether people power leads to lasting change or fades under strain.
As People Power makes clear, movements do not stand alone.
Behind every moment of collective action lies an ecosystem of trust, infrastructure, and support.
Whether philanthropy chooses to strengthen that ecosystem will shape the future of social change on the continent.
Source: People Power: The Philanthropy Support Ecosystem for Social Movements in Africa and Latin America (WINGS, May 2025).
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