Bringing together youth civil society organisations and donors to create a better resourced, more equitable and sustainable future for youth-led change.
The Donor Dialogues series aims to bring together members of the Youth Collective and funders to discuss the challenges and opportunities facing the youth civil society sector.
Our recent youth-led research has revealed the challenges faced by youth civil society. Organisations report that funding tends to be short term, project oriented and based on ‘donor trends’. The grassroots expertise of youth civil society is rarely considered.
As a result, programmes fall short in addressing the needs of communities, and fail to make the most of strengths of youth organisations. These challenges have been made even worse by the impact of COVID-19.
Bridging the gap.
Some members of the donor community want to build more meaningful partnerships with youth civil society organisations and design funding around community needs and priorities.
The Donor Dialogues intend to help bridge a gap that has been identified by youth civil society organisations and donors alike.
The Dialogues will build new partnerships that help create a better resourced, more sustainable and effective youth civil society sector that doesn’t just survive – but thrives.
Join an event.
We will be adding new events regularly, so keep an eye on this page!
Previous events.
Find our more about the discussions and workshops we’ve held as part of this series, and the key takeaways from each event for better resourcing youth movements.
Practical tips for donors and CSOs.
According to our research, collaborative, trusted and open partnerships between donors and youth CSOs can unleash youth-led change and shift power to CSOs at a faster rate.
In consultation with seven donors and 17 youth civil society organisations (CSOs) and through an extensive literature review, the Development Alternative has created a series of tips to support donors and CSO partnerships.
These practical recommendations for aim to provide actionable steps to amplify youth leadership in development and create stronger partnerships that better serve communities.
What do you think?
We would love to hear from you about your experience of the resourcing challenges faced by youth civil society, or how, as a donor, you’ve implemented power shifting practices in your funding model.
Contact youthcollective@restlessdevelopment.org or submit a blog to We Are Restless.
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