While we can be busy implementing our action plans and organizing the trainings, it is good to sometimes take a step back and look at the bigger picture. Why did we start Change the Game Academy?
Over the past decades, we have seen that Civil Society Organizations across the globe are increasingly facing challenges that hinder their ability to be effective advocates of social change. While the alarming trend of shrinking civic space demands a strong civil society that can claim its space, many civil society organizations are struggling to even survive.

Foreign donors are reducing their funding, donor priorities are shifting and some donors tend to make fewer, grants (in general not accessible to smaller CSOs). And although there is considerable economic development in many countries, not all benefit: inequality is growing. This challenging context asks for bottom-up efforts to bring about change. Therefore, through Change the Game Academy we want to strengthen the voices of local CSOs and help them build local constituencies.

As such, we are part of a bigger, global movement of organizations that are looking for ways to empower local civil society from grassroots level up, rethinking power and resources to ensure that people and communities can drive their own development. Multiple conversations are taking place around the globe under the hashtag #ShiftthePower, initiated by the Global Fund for Community Foundations.  Here you find a video explaining the rationale behind this movement.