The journey to host this year’s WINGS Forum in Nairobi, Kenya began in Mexico in 2017, the last in-person forum of WINGS where it was announced that the 2020 Forum would be held in Africa. However, the COVID-19 pandemic delayed those plans. This year’s forum brought together over 300 change-makers and development practitioners from around the world committed to transforming practices, institutions, and ways of working to address the complexity and urgency of the multiple global issues that we face today. The isi Zulu (Swahili) saying ‘Izandla ziyagezana’ meaning ‘hands wash each other’, seemed fitting for this event, recognising that for philanthropy to transform and move forward, we need each other.

It seems as if 2023 has had a subtle but effective word for the year in the philanthropic space, and that word is ‘transform’, which was also the theme of this year’s Forum. From Brazil to Kenya, from Senegal to South Africa, and wherever those working in the international development and philanthropic field gathered, the words ‘transform’, ‘reform’, ‘change’ has echoed throughout the halls. Stigmata Tenga of the African Philanthropy Network reminded us in her opening remarks, that the philanthropy that is being discussed at such events as this one is not a new thing, that the communities we refer to as ‘grassroots’ invented philanthropy. And if there is a need for reform or change, it is us development practitioners and not these communities. And as she put it, Africans have always given, ‘we even gave away our land, resources, and power.’ The work now for philanthropy is on ‘how to retain resources in the hands of people and their communities and stifle the dynamics that rid people of their deserved resources and power.’

Day one: ‘We will all die together!’

Ben Bellegy, Executive Director of WINGS, started off the first day of the conference by stating that the current model of philanthropy as we know it is broken and no longer an option. If philanthropy is to be transformed, then we need to live out the true meaning of philanthropy – love of mankind. If we remain with the status quo, then we may be inadvertently designing our own end. He proposed three mindset shifts needed for the sector to transform: distancing ourselves from ‘ego’ and the need to brand our work (i.e., we must learn to collaborate – it’s about the people, not us); we need to walk the talk more often; and finally, we need to be bold in creating the future we want.

The solutions we are looking for are in the past, for indigenous peoples have seen these problems and their solutions a long time ago.

The first plenary session, Existential challenges and shared futures: Rediscovering the role of philanthropy, was a sobering start to the forum. Theo Sowa, Co-chair of the Equity Fund, began by saying that existential challenges are nothing new to African feminists or Africa in general. The only difference now is that rather than being reactive, we need to meet these challenges head-on and be proactive.

‘Our world is literally dying in front of us, and maybe this is the time for it to die so that a new world can be re-birth,’ Indy Johar, co-founder of Architecture 00 and Dark Matter Labs, bluntly stated. ‘We will all die together so we must reimagine our relationship with the planet and philanthropy.’ Echoing Ben Bellegy’s sentiments from earlier in the day, Indy predicted what the future could look like if no action is taken now: one of a mutually assured destruction of our world in the next five years! The philanthropic sector has for too long focused on just the symptoms to deep-seated challenges. It’s time for us to recast at the deep code of humanity for what the future should look like.

While that session left me feeling all sorts of gloom and doom (discussions about our planet literally boiling, the war in Ukraine becoming a pathway for multiple crisis, and engaging in what Jaan Tallin (co-founder of Skype) called ‘speculative philanthropy’ – scenario mapping and exercises, AI), I was grateful for the uplifting words of Txal Surui, indigenous leader of the Paiter Surui nation, who simply stated that ‘the future is ancestral.’ The solutions we are looking for are in the past, for indigenous peoples have seen these problems and their solutions a long time ago. She invited us to dream with her, to believe in the magic and power of songs, prayers, forests, and our own voices.

In the next plenary session on Unravelling the paradox of philanthropy: transforming from within the system, Degan Ali with Adeso, put forward a grave point: the reason that we are poor in the Global South is by design, not happenstance. She suggested that perhaps a way out could be ethical capitalism, a sort of communist/egalitarian approach. While this might be a radical concept, the logic of her argument was that Western capitalism has led to much inequality and has manifested the Western form of philanthropy today, the ‘White saviourism’ model.

What does unequal wealth look like? In a 2022 Oxfam report Inequality Kills, the wealth of the world’s 10 richest men doubled since the pandemic began.

For Matthew Bishop, Senior Fellow with the Sorenson Impact Institute, the problem with philanthropy is that we are not taking enough risks. We tend to dictate how resources must be used instead of letting communities drive the change that they need. He continues to say that this moment that we find ourselves, where we are all rethinking our systems and practices, we should see it as a positive force for thinking outside the box and embracing innovative approaches.

I agreed with the points that Asha Curran of Giving Tuesday shared: that there is too much rhetoric out there, and that we focus too much on the giving of high-net worth individuals instead of the giving of everyday people which is more transformative. She warned that the Mackenzie Scott approach of giving away millions with little interaction with the organisations who receive these ‘gifts’ lacks the co-creation and trust building between donors and grantees, which is essential for tackling injustice and driving change.

Day two: Wealth, inequality, and leadership

What does unequal wealth look like? In a 2022 Oxfam report Inequality Kills, the wealth of the world’s 10 richest men doubled since the pandemic began. ‘Economic violence’ is perpetrated when structural policy choices are made for the richest and most powerful. Inequality contributes to the death of at least one person every four seconds. In 2018, just two years before the pandemic, 12 white men owned 80% of the world’s wealth. Several thousand new billionaires were created just within the last two years of the pandemic.

These were some of the sobering facts shared by Danny Sriskandarajah, CEO of Oxfam Great Britain, during the Reimagining wealth: Unveiling the dynamics of wealth creation and redistribution plenary session on the second day. ‘We need to engage with the journey of wealth management and redistribution in the work we all do.’

‘It takes a lot of money to keep people in poverty,’ says Vidya Shah with EdelGive Foundation in India, when talking about her family foundation and the work they do. Conscious of the privileges her middle-class family afforded her, she does not want to replicate some of the harmful behaviours of the super-rich. ‘A large part of my wealth will go into philanthropy [and helping communities] and a smaller portion will go to my children.’

Marlene Engelhorn stated that ‘there’s no such thing as absolutely clean wealth.’ She abhors the fact that she was born into great wealth by sheer luck from activities her family engaged in from the 19^th century. Power, influence, and relevance in modern society should not be determined by one’s lineage and luck. She’s been on a mission to have governments tax the super-rich, working with a slow growing group of peers and organisations working with ‘rich kids’ on what they think about philanthropy.

During the morning breakout sessions, I attended the session on Fostering fair and equitable collaborations for change – Towards a philanthropic ideal, facilitated by EPIC Africa (Senegal), The Partnering Institute, Conrad N. Hilton Foundation (US), Porticus (Kenya), and Fundacion Avina (Spain). This interactive session had participants reflecting on how power shows up in partnerships and what role they can play in transforming power. A key take-away from the small group discussion I engaged in was the comment from a participant, ‘Can you find me a human in that organisation I can talk to?’ – a realisation that at the core of partnerships/collaborations is the human connection that matters, not necessarily the work.

The last plenary session I attended on day two was the one on Embracing transformational leadership: Role of boards and executive leadership in navigating risk, reward, and failure. Julian Corner, CEO of Lankelly Chase Foundation, who recently announced that they were abolishing their foundation and giving away £130 million in funding to organisations doing life-affirming social justice work, started off by saying that the conditions of transformation cannot exist in a vacuum; it needs to be created. ‘The more we tried to be systematic, the more we were confronted with the contradictions of our funding model (around who makes decisions, how it is spent, etc.).’  Over dinner later that night, he confessed that he was surprised at being referred to as a bit of a celebrity, thinking that the ripples of change his foundation have caused in the sector was limited only to the UK.

The warning bell of mutually assured destruction for the world has been rung. The beginning process of change is having difficult conversations, and this Forum created an atmosphere that allowed for that.

When it comes to what needs to change, Andrew Chunilall of Community Foundations of Canada, thinks that it’s the philanthropic institutions that need transformational change, not philanthropy itself. The philanthropic sector is generally very risk-adverse compared to the corporate sector that is constantly innovating and changing because of competition. In the philanthropic sector, there is no natural competitor, and if there needs to be a change, it must begin internally with boards. ‘Holding on to capital isn’t power because we can’t hold on to capital forever. We need to change the coding in our brains.’

Jackie Assimwe, CEO of CivSource Africa, contends that one of the challenges leaders face is the reluctance to handing over power. ‘When this process is not managed effectively, it can hinder progress and impact the organisation negatively.’ At CivSource, all staff experience ‘moments’ of leadership by taking on the CEO position on a rotational basis – a way to delegate leadership responsibilities and grow capacity. This could be a model worth replicating across the sector.

Day three: Transformative philanthropy

The breakout session on Transformative philanthropy: Strengthening civil society when human rights are under attack, highlighted the important role community philanthropy can play in driving much needed change from the bottom-up.

Jonathas Azevedo of Comua Network began his presentation by saying that the act of giving is a political one. He sees independent philanthropy as instrumental in driving transformative change because it is not about maintaining the status quo.

Giovanni Harvey with Fundo Baoba painted a historical lesson of what racism in Brazil looks like. ‘For us, democracy is still a work in progress. It was only less than 40 years ago that Black people in Brazil had to pay a fee just because they were Black, and less than eight years ago that Black women’s groups were given access to rights. The Republic was configured to perpetuate inequalities.’

Horizontal giving – the everyday giving of people – is central to community philanthropy. The result of this type of alternative model to development and philanthropy is that it encourages community engagement, building legitimacy of organisations, and safeguarding rights. ‘Any external resources given should only build on local resources already there within communities,’ says Esther Meester of the Wilde Ganzen Foundation.

Take-away

The warning bell of mutually assured destruction for the world has been rung. The beginning process of change is having difficult conversations, and this Forum created an atmosphere that allowed for that. We must get comfortable with discomfort and continue to ask ourselves difficult questions. For many in the room at the WINGS Forum, there was the welcome change that action needs to be the next step, some even going as far as labelling themselves as ‘revolutionaries’ in the way they approach (or will approach) their work in philanthropy, by ‘burning it all down, ending philanthropy as we know it!’

Ese Emerhi, Sub-Saharan Africa Regional Representative for Alliance magazine