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Softening the painful path to goodbye
For grantmakers and grantseekers alike, developing an exit strategy before funding begins might seem totally counterintuitive. Everyone knows the problems funders and civil society organizations seek to resolve are highly complex and deep-rooted. Short-term vision …
Changing contexts, abiding principles
In a lunch conversation just before the start of the CIVICUS Assembly in Gaborone this year, a group of development practitioners marvelled at the seminal shifts of the last decade, but also reckoned that some …
The power of partnerships
Fifteen years ago, the communist regimes in Central and Eastern Europe fell. In the exhilaration that followed, there was an outpouring of support from public and private sources – more than 60 North American and …
The tools to finish the job?
After over ten years of funding the redevelopment of civil society in Central Europe, most foreign donors are withdrawing. The decision is neither sudden nor surprising: NGOs in the region were aware of donors’ intentions …
Can government be a ‘replacement’?
When exiting a country, foreign donors inevitably create a vacuum in funding for certain types of organizations and certain areas of NGO work. Several contributors to this issue of Alliance emphasize that it is important …
Twelve commandments for exiting foundations
Exit is inevitably less inspiring than entrance. When a foundation opens a new field office, launches a new programme or enters a new country, it’s always a challenge and an opportunity. Conversely, when it closes …
A role for partnership facilitation? – Negotiating goodbye while saying hello
Sooner or later, most relationships within the system of international aid face the prospect of separation. In grantor-grantee relationships particularly, because of deeply rooted and substantial power asymmetries, the impact of separation is often uneven …
When limited funds meet insatiable need …
When to stop funding a project, programme or organization must be one of the hardest decisions a donor has to make. Most grantee organizations will need funds indefinitely, and what funder doesn’t want the work …
Company mergers – A new broom or business as usual?
Clearly, company mergers are entered into for commercial advantage. But each company often has its own established community programmes. What becomes of them in the new enterprise? Do they fall victim to the choices that …
The infrastructure of civil society – Hitchhiker’s Guide[1]
‘There is a theory which states that if ever for any reason anyone discovers what exactly the Universe is for and why it is here it will instantly disappear and be replaced by something even …