Moving Power in Grantmaking:
Where We Are and Where We’re Headed.

PGM Pilot Project – Final Evaluation Report

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The Karibu New Realities Grant was a 2.5-year pilot project in participatory grantmaking, where African activists and civil society members co-designed and led the decision-making process. It embodied the principle of ‘nothing about us without us’ and marked a significant step in shifting power within Karibu’s grantmaking approach.

This website and evaluation report capture the key learnings, challenges, and successes from the process and project, offering a reflection on the journey of moving power to African movements and civil society groups.

Contents and Toolbox

Why it Matters

The KNRG wasn’t just about funding; it was about transforming who held the power. Read more about the background of the pilot, and how it aimed to continue aligning Karibu’s grantmaking programs with its mission and values of lifting voices from the Global South.

The Journey to Shift Power

The African ‘Core Group’ crafted the grantmaking program from the ground up, deeply rooted in the needs of social change movements across the continent. Read directly from them early on in their journey, and learn how they set this transformative process in motion!

How It Works: The KNRG in Action

While there is no one-size-fits-all models for moving power in grantmaking, the KNRG provides one prototype. Discover how the KNRG was built, explore its internal mechanisms, and learn about the structures the ‘Core Group’ co-created to channel funds into bold, forward-thinking initiatives across the African continent—in this interactive presentation.

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Challenges & Lessons Learned

Shifting power isn’t easy — but it’s necessary. Read more about our lessons learned, how we pushed through obstacles, and lessons we hope to take forward, and what you can take forward.

On the Co-Creation Process

ON THE CO-CREATION PROCESS

“Experimental” work is messy, and it is okay that it is not perfect. A “building the road as we go” approach was liberating and key.

The participatory PROCESS is equally important as the RESULT. It was key that the group moved together always without leaving someone behind, and that we worked for consensus in the work we did. If you are going to do participation, do it right.

It is okay that our first “structure” needed tweaking after Cycle 1.

Periods of “unknown” that took emotional energy – sometimes felt like waking through the fog. “Building the new” is exceptionally hard and demands a different part of your being/brain.

Physical meetings were urgently needed as time went on, or this process would have likely stalled.
Having a flexible road map was key. But this had to be a co-created map, and not necessarily set before we started.

Power will always be a part of the equation. The question becomes how are the various power dynamics being managed/checked/re-balanced? It’s like gravity — pretending it doesn’t exist won’t stop you from falling.

Group had to both be visionary but also pragmatic at times- this was not always an easy task. It was challenging to find out where this boundary was, but we acknowledged that we are on a journey – and must consistently work to make the process better and more adaptive.

This was a learning-by-doing process. PGM provides important new solutions, but also opens many new questions that need to be tackled. It was critical that we had at least 2 cycles to test things, and to update/adapt as we learned.

On the internal processes of the “Core Group”

ON THE INTERNAL PROCESSES OF THE “CORE GROUP”

Group went on an emotional journey throughout the process. The processes demanded large amounts of trust (that took time to build), both with each other but also between the Core Group and Karibu.

Important to recognize that inter-personal, cultural, and political dynamics of the group were part of the journey. The “Communication, Expectations, Responsibilities” document become an important tool that we came back to frequently, to help mitigate this as much as we could.

A “Core Group” will never be an expert on all subjects, and will never be absolutely inclusive or representative. The group acknowledged that we lacked on certain critical knowledge-bases, and this was brought in to the group in Cycle 2.

Group sometimes felt a little “alone” in this work, as it is still rather ground-breaking. It was important for us to meet with other African / global South groups doing similar things.

There were more sensitive political and social questions in the group, especially given the diversity of the group, which were not always easy to talk about from our various backgrounds. This sometimes made decisions and discussions more difficult. We strove for consensus when possible, but also requested external support to get more information on certain topics when needed. We also agreed to aim to be bold when working with new issues we didn’t know / had never talked about before.

The process brought to light the issue that the Core Group is now in a new position of power and privilege, and that this required reflection internally. This was especially true in relation to grantees, as Core Group members entered new roles of power. We could have considered a “Power and Privilege” workshop for the Core Group early on.

On the Grant-making Process

ON THE GRANT-MAKING PROCESS

We struggled to reach social movements in our grants with Cycle 1, and that most applicants (and many grantees) tended to be small CBOs or NGOs. The question then become how we might place more emphasis on movement building, rather than solely a grassroots anchoring.

The application-review process was time demanding. Although we had mechanisms to try to give each applicant an equal chance, we still need good routines for reviewing applications when they come – especially to check-in with each other about what maybe we missed.

That having only English applications did not represent the diversity of actions on the continent. We needed more language diversity on the Core Group, and it was important that we opened to French and Portuguese. applications in Cycle 2

The grantmaking process is complex, and not always black-and-white – as much as we wish it was.

It would have been helpful to have wider mapping exercises or even deeper relations to social movements on the continent to better understand the main struggles and needs of movements.

We had to consistently work to “de-donorfy” the language of applications, and to make sure that we don’t further contribute to the NGO-ification of movements. We needed to consistently critique our own wording, documents, and communication.

We tried to remove as much administrative burden from those applying as possible, including simplifying the process, provided lo-tech alternatives for communication (including WhatsApp and low-res documents), and to simplifying all reporting requirements to that which we actually had to know.

It was very difficult to find out which applications would be supported, especially when we saw how many exciting processes could not be supported. We struggle to know if an “open application” process was adequate, as it resulted in majority of applicants spending time to apply without receiving funding.

Perspectives from the Process

Dive in further – listen to stories from the process! The “Core Group” and Karibu speak in the podcast “Conversations on African Philanthropy”.

And read from the “Core Group” in Alliance Magazine.

Resources for Donors

Ready to take steps to moving power, and are wondering how?

1. Check out the global PGM “Community of Practice“.

2. Download and use the Norwegian guide to Participatory Grantmaking (coming 27th November).

3. Contact us, or learn more from others trying to do the same.

KNRG@karibu.no

The Way Ahead

Karibu is actively striving to integrate the insights from the KNRG process into our core structures.

Karibu’s director writes in Transit Magazine (in Norwegian) about some of the steps ahead.

More soon on where we are headed.

Photo and Media Gallery

See change through the eyes of those driving it. Our gallery highlights images and stories from some of the bold and courageous groups and movements across the African continent who received grants – and who are struggling for a more just world.

Download final evaluation report