International Efforts to Promote Local Resource Mobilization for Philanthropy in Africa: Why the Ford Foundation's Initiatives Failed

Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis (IUPUI)The exportation of institutions from developed economies to developing countries has been a development strategy that international actors have employed for decades. In the 1990s and early 2000s international donors introduced philanthropic foundations into African countries. The Ford Foundation was instrumental in setting up a number of foundations in African countries to promote the mobilization of local philanthropic resources for self-reliant community-driven development. However, more than a decade after their establishment the Ford-founded philanthropic institutions continued to depend heavily on international funding. This dissertation investigates why Ford’s exportation of foundation philanthropy to African countries for the promotion of local resource mobilization was unsuccessful. Current explanations attribute the local resource mobilization ineffectiveness of donor-founded philanthropic institutions to domestic factors --- developing country governments’ failure to provide an enabling environment for the development of nonprofit institutions. Drawing on quantitative and qualitative data, I go beyond the endogenous explanations to examine the role and institutional transplantation strategies of the external actor, the Ford Foundation. Based on in-depth interviews with former staff and consultants of the Ford Foundation, as well as staff of selected Ford-founded African foundations in Kenya, Ghana, and Senegal (namely The Kenya Community Development Foundation, the African Women's Development Fund, and TrustAfrica) I contend that the oft-cited domestic “obstacles” are actually the preexisting local conditions that Ford should have taken into consideration during the formulation and implementation of its philanthropy promotion program in African countries. Using institutional transplantation theories as a framework, I argue that Ford failed to achieve its local resource mobilization goal in African countries because the American-inspired foundation model that it transplanted in those countries for the purpose was incompatible with the local African cultures of giving and philanthropy

Transplanted Philanthropy: Why African Community Foundations Cannot Bloom Where They Have Been Planted

This research set out to find out if African public charity grant making institutions have been able, over the years, to match their local fundraising with their stated objectives of developing local philanthropy, ending dependence on foreign donors, and thus creating opportunities for ordinary Africans to participate in their own development

Philanthropy in Contemporary Africa: A Review

Despite the availability of a wide range of literature on what is can be construed to be philanthropic behaviour in Africa, there is limited conceptual discussion on what constitutes philanthropy in African context(s). Yet, philanthropic behaviour is culturally rooted phenomena manifesting in diverse forms, expressions, and models. This review contributes to a growing body of literature on conceptions and manifestations of African philanthropy. The review illustrates a complex plurality of actions that fall under cultures and practices of giving in Africa. These include the giving of money, time, knowledge, influence and visibility in support of a cause, valuable goods, and body parts/organs from living and dead. While some of these actions conform to dominant Western notions of philanthropy, others do not. From an analysis of these practices, this paper proposes that African philanthropy can be conceptually structured on the basis of spheres of philanthropic practice, and the underlying bases and motivations for philanthropy. On spheres of philanthropic practice, at least three forms of philanthropy exist: institutional (formal); non-institutional (non-formal/informal/direct); and a hybrid form that blends practices from the formal and informal spheres. On motivations for giving, the predominant forms are based on mutuality, solidarity and counter-obligation inherent in collectivist and humanistic African philosophies of life. Further, motivations are drawn from religious obligations, institutional requirements on corporate bodies, and institutional arrangements in the development process. There are, nonetheless, significant overlaps between spheres of practice and motivations in contemporary philanthropic practices in Africa. For instance, philanthropic culture in Africa manifests as religious giving, donations to individuals or institutions, mutual aid, reciprocal, self-help revolving fund organisations, corporate social responsibility activities, and individual/family donations to public benefit organisations. These practices highlight a rich tapestry of spheres of practice and motivations for giving practices, where the wealthy and the poor are equally involved. The review, concentrates (by choice) on giving of money and time (volunteering, especially informal volunteering) due to dearth of academic literature on other forms of giving as philanthropy in Africa