Beyond Feel-Good: Funding Faceless Impact
by Margot Hinchey
In today’s global development and philanthropic landscape — a recurring challenge emerges the continuing desire to put a face to the impact a donation has by showing feel-good images & documentaries showcasing smiling beneficiaries. There is a want to fund the outputs, but not the people or systems that fuel the change. This is a critical misalignment between the desire to “do good” and the necessity for sustained long-term transformation.
The problem as we see it is mistrust, manifesting as a reluctance to entrust resources to Locally-led Organizations (LLOs) by creating barriers preventing them from accessing resources critical for their growth. Despite these LLOs possessing abundant resources — such as human capital, local knowledge, expertise, and an intimate understanding of their community’s challenges — they are still made to feel inadequate.
The power dynamic is skewed, with those possessing a majority of resources lacking negotiating strength, a disparity echoing historical imbalances stemming from global resource shortages, resulting in exploitative systems like colonialism and neo-colonialism. The traditional development sector unwittingly perpetuates this dynamic, acting as a by-product of colonialist endeavors to ‘empower’ former colonies. Donors, by attaching conditions to funding such as showcasing faces of impact, inadvertently establish a new form of colonialism that dictates terms reminiscent of historical control. This funding hang-up becomes a tool to restrict access and propagate exploitative economies, creating a dependency cycle.
Investing in Faceless Impact
Through our programs, one of them — the Localization Development Accelerator (LDA) program, we aim to tackle the systemic underfunding of early-stage locally-led grassroots organizations in the global development sector. We believe that sustainable change comes through localization and three core components: strengthening systems, increasing visibility, and reducing donor dependency. This is not so easily captured through visuals of smiling children or construction projects, but rather by equipping local organizations, who possess an innate understanding of local dynamics and challenges, making them powerful catalysts in their communities. Our question remains: how can this people-driven impact be conveyed to donors without necessarily putting a face to the work?
The MAMA HOPE LDA program takes on locally-led organizations that are often overlooked by funders due to their under $100k annual budgets. Through the LDA program, we work with organizations that are considered “not established enough for grant funding” in building foundations and systems on which to operate and broaden their impact. This enables them to be a grant-ready, efficient, and effective organization capable of scaling their work, handling larger budgets, and meeting the funding requirements that often come with grants.
In the last five years, we have seen a real shift toward localization. Despite this progress, there are still massive barriers for locally-led organizations to tap into available resources. Donors require that organizations have fully developed budgets and financial systems, theory of change, and strategic and communications plans — most of the time communicating in English — a language that in most cases is not the native language of the organization’s team. The list goes on.
Systems Strengthening is Critical
MAMA HOPE’s LDA program revolves around investing time, resources, and knowledge towards local leaders and communities to support them in driving their development. By prioritizing the systems-building of individual organizations within communities, the LDA program seeks to create a ripple effect that catalyzes sustainable growth and positive change. This approach challenges the traditional top-down models of philanthropy, emphasizing the importance of community-driven solutions for long-term impact.
While traditional philanthropy tends to gravitate towards projects that showcase tangible outcomes and heartwarming narratives, the LDA program serves as a beacon, illustrating the untapped potential of funding impactful systems-change initiatives. The post-pandemic world requires organizations that are ready to pivot, innovate, and adapt to the changing environment but with strong, robust, and sustainable systems holding anchor.
By redirecting philanthropic attention towards programs like LDA, we can all work towards dismantling the illusion that impactful work is synonymous with visible imagery. Faceless impact, characterized by the depth and longevity of systemic change, deserves a spotlight in the philanthropic arena. It’s time to redefine the metrics of success in philanthropy, recognizing the power and significance of initiatives that may lack the immediate visual appeal but hold the promise of shaping a better future for communities around the world.
