Our main interventions to carry-out Connective Paths Foundation’s objectives

What We Do

CPF will fund co-created solutions to accelerate progress towards the SDG 2030 Agenda together with women’s NGOs and CBOs in the global south, with a focus on lower middle-income countries. CPF aims to provide an alternative to current practices that result in short-term, donor-driven and project-based funding. Thus, CPF does not just want to fund projects or programs, it aims to invest in organisations in order to strengthen civil society and community activism—especially at the grassroots level.

”Every day, they strive to improve their service to the clients by developing the right blend of technology and creativity to make sure every job done is done as efficiently as possible.”

- Joyce Gould

”Every day, they strive to improve their service to the clients by developing the right blend of technology and creativity to make sure every job done is done as efficiently as possible.”

- Sharon Roddy

CPF has technical expertise in developing and executing strategies for change—policy and behaviour change—to fulfil the rights of women, children and persons with disabilities. As highlighted in the objectives, CPF will provide institutional capacity strengthening for its grantees on:

a) Project management, financial management and strengthening systems, structures and strategies for organisation effectiveness (i.e., organisation development (OD) assessments, change management, etc.)

b) Resource mobilisation and fundraising

c) Gender analysis, mainstreaming and inclusion strategy development

d) Using and generating data in order to design evidence-based projects for social norm change

e) Advocacy, local governance and community mobilising

This will help ensure that: (1) the women’s NGOs and CBOs receiving grants have the best chance of success with their initiatives, and (2) the organisations would have gained significant institutional capacities in order to sustain their work towards their mission, by the time the partnership comes to a close.

Organisation strengthening and technical support

Participatory Grant Making

”Every day, they strive to improve their service to the clients by developing the right blend of technology and creativity to make sure every job done is done as efficiently as possible.”

- Clarice Turner

”Every day, they strive to improve their service to the clients by developing the right blend of technology and creativity to make sure every job done is done as efficiently as possible.”

- Brian Moten

”Every day, they strive to improve their service to the clients by developing the right blend of technology and creativity to make sure every job done is done as efficiently as possible.”

- Joyce Gould

1.Strengthen Institutional Capacities

Focused on women’s nongovernmental organisations (NGOs) and community-based organisations (CBOs) in the global south on 5 skill areas:

Supporting cooperative formation of grassroots women to provide urban poor women services (e.g., day care centres, slum upgrade, income-generation)

Resource mobilisation and Supporting good governance and civic education (including voter's education, human rights)

Adapting globally-tested programmes to prevent gender-based violence (GBV); e.g., SASA!, IMAGE, GREAT, Stepping Stones to new contexts in an effective and ethical manner through science-based processes of changing social norms

Advocacy, local governance and community mobilising/organising

Conducting research to promote equitable and effective donor practices that supports community-led development

Addressing the most important development priorities identified by and with the NGOs, CBOs and communities in the global south in the following 5 issue areas:

2. Support Community-led Solutions

Women's health, rights and empowerment

Community well-being and poverty alleviation

Healthy and participatory democracy

Community philanthropy and volunteerism

Violence-free households and communities

In order to model true participatory grant making, CPF will promote trust-based partnerships and ‘ally-ships’, centre local expertise, and support grassroots innovation for international development. This means it will acknowledge and work with local expertise; respect priorities of community women, men and youth; and work towards their aspirations in a way that ensures the relevance of the programmes and increases chances of community buy-in and sustainability—beyond project cycles.

CPF aims to provide longer-term grants to women’s NGOs and CBOs spanning three to six years in order to allow the organisations sufficient time to work on issues that are most relevant to them, strengthen institutional capacity and to build meaningful engagement with community members, other CSO and government actors.

Our Approach