Kenya Community Development Foundation (KCDF) is a public charitable foundation founded in 1997 that supports sustainable community-driven development in Kenya. We believe that complete and lasting change is possible when communities initiate and drive their development agenda.
KCDF, therefore, works to enhance sustainable development and social justice through capacity strengthening and grant support. KCDF invests resources to build, strengthen and sustain the core capacities of our communities by developing thoughtful, long-term collaborations with other actors such as governments, non-profit organisations, the private sector and individuals to achieve social justice.
Our Vision:
Flourishing and resilient communities.
Our Mission:
To Promote Social Justice and the Sustainable Development of Communities.
Our philosophy
Our work is guided by four key philosophies:
- Shifting power to communities: We believe that sustainable change is possible when communities are at the centre of their own development and in charge of finding solutions. This is achieved by recognizing and harnessing both financial and non-financial resources in their midst, leveraging resources from other actors, and holding duty-bearers accountable for sustainable community development. We see communities as the drivers of change, not passive recipients.
- Flourishing communities: We believe that communities will attain an improved quality of life through recognizing and investing their resources. We believe that communities thrive where there is social justice and systems that support their prosperity.
- Resilient communities: We believe that communities have the ability to mitigate, adapt to and recover from shocks and stresses in a manner that reduces vulnerability. KCDF works in partnership with communities to complement their efforts.
- Working together: We believe that to promote sustainable development, diverse and multiple actors need to collaborate to address the challenges faced by communities. These include individuals, civil society at the local, national, and global levels, governments （county and national), the private sector, and media, amongst others.
How We Work (Our Approaches)
We work through the following key approaches:
- Community engagement and organising: Working through organised community groups and associations as vehicles to scale up desired changes.
- Community philanthropy: Encouraging the growth of community giving and shifting mindsets from dependency to independence for ownership and sustainability.
- Organisational strengthening: Investing in the capacity strengthening of community organisations to scale up and sustain transformative change.
- Partnerships and networking: Fostering collaborative partnerships with like-minded organisations to jointly address complex development challenges.
- Advocacy and policy influencing: Supporting communities to influence decision-making and policies for positive systemic change and quality service delivery.
- Endowments and asset development: Building long-term assets and endowments that generate resources for the sustainability of community development initiatives.
