Six key factors are driving Kenya’s growing potential as a crowdfunding leader. GlobalGiving’s Paige Creigh explains.
“WOW! This is excellent news! … And a prayer answered as well!”
Martha is a Kenyan nonprofit leader who runs Childline Kenya in Nairobi. When GlobalGiving launched our partnership with M-Changa, she sent this message to our team. In her six years as a member of the GlobalGiving community, Martha has raised nearly $3,000 from individual donors, but none of those donors were based in Kenya.
That could soon change.
Partners like Martha—and continuous feedback from our community as a whole—inspire our team to find new ways to help nonprofits grow their networks, and ultimately, increase their sustainability and social impact. Our partnership with M-Changa opens up exciting opportunities for crowdfunding in Kenya, including expanded local giving options, financial access, and capacity-building workshops and trainings.
These opportunities will help Kenya seize its blooming potential as a crowdfunding leader. So, what’s driving Kenya’s growing potential in the crowdfunding space?
Here are six key factors:
Mobile money transfers are predicted to soon surpass Kenya’s GDP. That’s a lot of funds being moved between individuals and groups. It’s unclear how much of this is philanthropic in nature; nonetheless, it’s a promising trend due to mobile money’s documented ability to raise people (especially women) out of poverty and create access for rural populations to engage in the philanthropic space financially.
In 2017, Kenya was named the third most generous country in the world, according to the CAF World Giving Index. While much of this is centered around giving to individuals and medical needs, about 64% of the population in Kenya gives to civil society organizations.
Kenyans believe in the importance of Harambee, Swahili for “all pull together.” Lucy, a GlobalGiving partner in Kenya, uses the concept to inspire Kenyans to give to her crowdfunding campaigns. Harambee is normally about taking action in-person as a group, but as mobile giving tools (and platforms such as M-Changa) grow locally, we can see a new form of Harambee take place—one for the digital world.
Did you know that 65% of Kenyan companies that engage in philanthropic work do so with Kenya-based organizations? However, there is no formal policy or framework on how companies give, so these gifts tend to be ad hoc and highly variable, rather than planned or recurring.
An estimated 6,500 nonprofits work in Kenya, with an additional 70,000+ civil society organizations—that’s at least one organization for every 600 people! GlobalGiving works with more than 70 of these organizations, and we hope to see this number grow.
Our partnership with M-Changa is a milestone to celebrate. “Thanks to our partnership with GlobalGiving,” said Matt Roberts-Davies of M-Changa, “thousands of CSOs will have access to world class tools for sustainable and effective resource mobilization.”
GlobalGiving is proud to partner with M-Changa to expand opportunities for local crowdfunding in Kenya. Learn more about how your organization in Kenya can benefit from this groundbreaking partnership.
Featured Photo: Long-Term Food Security for 4,000 Samburus in Kenya by Sadhana Forest Kenya
Find exactly what you're looking for in our Learn Library by searching for specific words or phrases related to the content you need.
