During our annual conference, the Civic Tech Innovation Forum (CTIF) themed #DIYAfrica in September, we hosted a session titled ‘Civic Tech Financing and Sustainability’ in which participants including funders, philanthropies and civic organisations (fundees) discussed the civic tech funding landscape, grappling with the important question of how organisations balance their competing objectives of social impact and sustainability.
Building on this discussion, the CTIN is pleased to announce that it will be hosting a Masterclass titled Civic Fundraising and Sustainability in partnership with the Sustainable Development Network and the African Sustainability Academy. This Masterclass is intended to equip our Network with funding strategies they can employ when looking to sustain their mission-driven operations and social impact.
This masterclass, facilitated by Lisa Thompson-Smeddle, aims to empower civic tech organisations with strategies that leverage and maximise the non-profit business model to scale social impact. The Masterclass will cover focus areas including types of funding sources, understanding your funding landscape, insights on how best to engage with potential funders and how to effectively create sustainable mission-driven business models.
Masterclass Facilitator: Lisa Thompson-Smeddle Founder/Director of Sustainable Development Network (SDN) / African Sustainability Academy.
- Lisa Thompson-Smeddle has over 25 years of experience working in the NGO sector in southern Africa. She is the Director of the USA and RSA registered non-profit organisation, Sustainable Development Network. She has acted as a sustainability consultant to Family Health International, an Umbrella Grants Mechanism managing a $93 million USAID/PEPFAR grant in South Africa. Her role was to build capacity in PEPFAR funded NGOs. This included the development of sustainability strategies, organisational policies, effective financial, monitoring evaluation and reporting systems and more.
Target Audience
- Civic tech founders, innovators, practitioners and more