Reporting the dynamics of indigenous philanthropic organisations in Malawi, Namibia and the DRC

Abstract

Indigenous philanthropic organisations have done much work in Malawi, Namibia, and the DRC. In Malawi and Namibia, the key areas organisations spent money on were education, health, humanitarian, and child protection. Organisations in DRC were spending a lot of money on gender promotion, health, children’s protection, and agriculture. Across all countries, the groups funded the most were children, women, youth, and orphans. Despite the tangible work of the organisations, they encountered many challenges. Lack of funds to undertake their philanthropic work was the major problem. The organisational values, annual revenue and expenditure were much smaller, restricting the size of service provision. Some charitable organisations had no official websites, hence impeding their discoverability. Generally, registering philanthropic organisations in the three countries was not easy, although it could be completed within four months. Amongst the key recommendations, educational institutions should work on having more philanthropic infrastructure support organisations, the enabling role of governments requires more attention (e.g., leveraging technology to make the registration process easier), income generation projects for charity organisations are highly recommended, which may act as a sustainable source of philanthropic funding, yet another source of sustainable financing could be the breeding and grooming of more corporate foundations.