What we do
CPF forms equitable and ethical partnerships with community-based organisations in the Global South, particularly women-led organisations and other marginalised groups. We provide funding and technical assistance to strengthen long-term organisational capacities and to support community-led solutions. Our current programmes are focused on urban and rural poor communities in Asia and Africa.
CPF also operates a mission-driven social business, prioritizing social impact over profit, reinvesting 100% of net surplus as flexible funding and organizational development support to grassroots actions in the Global South. Work is accepted based on its contribution to community-led development or systems change.
Our training and advisory services help organisations work differently, while generating profits to fund community-led programming. This leads to:
Clients improve their practice—shifting power to their partners.
CPF and our grantees gain sustainable funding—reducing foreign aid dependence.
Communities gain resources and decision-making power.
CPF funds co-created solutions to accelerate progress towards gender equality and the SDG 2030 Agenda together with women’s NGOs—with a focus on reaching the most under-resourced and underrepresented grassroots women and community-based organisations.
We aim to provide an alternative to current practices that have led to short-term, donor-driven and project-based funding. CPF does not just fund projects; it invests in organisations to strengthen feminist activism that address the priorities of the communities and navigate the shrinking democratic space for civil society.
Throughout the grant-making process, we will strive to have partnerships that are not just transactional, but transformational.
CPF wants to ensure that the women’s NGOs and CBOs receiving grants have the best chance of success with their initiatives. We provide long-term partnerships and capacity development support to sustain their work towards their mission and serving the communities long after the project. These will include technical capacity building in:
Project management, financial management and strengthening systems, structures and strategies for organisation effectiveness (i.e., through organisation development (OD) assessments, change management, etc.)
Resource mobilisation and alternative fundraising
Gender analysis, mainstreaming and inclusion strategy development
Using and generating data in order to design evidence-based projects for social norm change
Advocacy, local governance and community mobilising
They are also guided in co-implementation models to ensure the community women, men and youth are consulted and to prevent the risk of power imbalances being mirrored by all grantees to their constituents.
Changing the aid system requires the same evidence-based advocacy strategies used in advancing rights. CPF is influencing policies, practices and norms through action and practitioner-informed research:
We do this through:
Documenting our successes and failures in our own practice of equitable partnerships and "shifting the power" principles;
Generating evidence on how community-led development leads to more relevant, effective and sustainable actions; and
Strategic engagements with international NGOs, universities and donors
CPF also promotes community-led monitoring and conducting listening and learning conferences with all its grantees to inform all its research. New publications are coming in 2026, watch out for updates!