KCDF Newsletter, May 2025
June 3, 2025
KCDF Hosts Refresher Training on Local Fundraising for 12 Organisations
June 25, 2025
Between 16th and 19th June 2025, KCDF participated in the CSO’s Financial Resilience Bootcamp 2025, hosted by CivFund in Kalanamu, Uganda. The meeting, which brought together representatives from civil society organisations (CSOs) from Kenya and Uganda, sought to equip the participants with the right skills to actualise their ideas toward creating social enterprises, which are crucial vehicles to their organisations’ financial resilience.
The Financial Fitness bootcamp is a CivFund annual activity that brings together leaders and actors from the broader civil society expressions to share, learn, unlearn and relearn best practices towards financial resilience.
During this year’s bootcamp, participants learned the essential keys to starting a social enterprise. Though well-curated presentations and sessions facilitated by financial coaches and experts, the meeting equipped CSOs on key aspects such as registration guidelines, setting up the governance structure, and leveraging partnerships in a business engagement.
KCDF’s programmes coordinator in charge of capacity and systems strengthening, Kennedy Odera, speaking during the session, shared insights from the Foundation’s social enterprise model. Through this model, KCDF Trust manages the Foundation’s assets, ploughing back the income earned to community projects implemented by our community partners through the Foundation.
“This convening presents a great opportunity for civil society actors to discuss how we can be more sustainable by generating our own resources, and it has been an absolute pleasure for us as KCDF to share the progressive steps we have made in this direction.” He said.
Also in attendance was Walter Oriedo, an officer from Crime Si Poa, a KCDF community partner, a catalytic organisation that deals with crime prevention, legal empowerment, and the advancement of social justice in Kenya. Crime Si Poa runs a social enterprise, the Kamiti re-integrated poultry training project, through which they provide skill transfer to inmates incarcerated at Kamiti prison, helping them integrate into society after serving their term. Proceeds from the social enterprise also help the organisation run programs such as psycho-education, mental wellness, and legal awareness sessions.
“This session has been very instrumental for me, learning from other social enterprises in Uganda, and has equipped me with the skills of running a social enterprise, which will be instrumental in leading Crime Si Poa to become financially resilient.” He said.
KCDF, Foundation for Civil Society from Tanzania, and CivFund-Africa from Uganda together form the East Africa Financial Resilience Resource Hub. This hub is part of the Ford Foundation’s Weaving Resilience Initiative, which supports civil society organisations in the Global South in attaining financial resilience.
The Hub provides capacity support to CSOs in asset building, compliance support, creative grant-making that supports financial resilience, and coaching and mentoring in financing models for sustainability. This aligns with KCDF’s philosophy of working together, through which we believe sustainable change is possible when communities are at the centre of their development and in charge of finding solutions. This is achieved by recognising 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.
