The Wilde Ganzen Foundation is a Dutch NGO, founded in 1957 with a mission to reduce poverty and inequality through community-led initiatives. We support community-based organisations in the Global South and their Dutch fundraising partners in joint efforts to achieve a better future because we believe that communities should have control over their own development.
The Wilde Ganzen Foundation uses more than 65 years of operational experience in international development to promote responsible philanthropy. We support social changemakers that are taking on initiatives to fight inequality. We do this through grantmaking, in-depth technical assistance, education, expertise and our on-the-ground networks.
We are a dedicated team working from our office in Amersfoort, the Netherlands. For our programs, we partner with organisations that also promote responsible philanthropy and locally led development.
Support of Dutch Philanthropic Initiatives
We believe in locally led development, meaning that projects are led by the community-based organisations (CBOs).
Education through Change the Game Academy
Promote Community Philanthropy: Giving for Change
Support of Dutch Philanthropic Initiatives
Every year, Wilde Ganzen Foundation supports hundreds of small-scale philanthropic initiatives. These projects are co-created by community-based organisations in the Global South and their Dutch partners (mostly “private development initiatives”). We value equal partnerships based on mutuality, complementarity and trust.
In our partnership model, the local organisation takes full ownership of the project while the Dutch partner raises funds in the Netherlands to support them. If Wilde Ganzen approves a project proposal, we commit 50% of additional funding to the Dutch partner’s fundraising. In addition, we provide in-depth technical assistance and expertise to ensure the initiatives are implemented in a smart, responsible and sustainable way.
Wilde Ganzen Foundation welcomes new partnerships year-round. Please note: Project proposals can only be submitted by organisations from countries that are eligible to receive official development assistance (as listed on the DAC list of ODA Recipients), together with a Dutch partner organisation.
We particularly encourage projects:
- That benefit children, people with disabilities and women and girls.
- That are socially, economically and environmentally sustainable.
Education through Change the Game Academy
All across the globe, civil society organisations (CSOs) are facing challenges to realize their mission. We see growing inequality, within societies and worldwide, and international funding for civil society organisations is decreasing. Four social change organisations from Brazil, India, Kenya, and the Netherlands realized: we need to change the ‘rules’ of the development ‘game’. Communities in the global South need and deserve access to know-how to enable them to do their work and shape their own future. There is enormous potential for local fundraising in low- and middle-income countries. Every community has resources available to drive the change they want to see. From that belief the Change the Game Academy was created to offer social changemakers access to the skills they need.
What is Change the Game Academy?
Change the Game Academy is an innovative blended-learning program for Community based Organisations and small NGOs in low-and middle-income countries. The program includes e-learning, in-person classroom courses and individual coaching. CtGA supports grassroots social changemakers in learning how to effectively fundraise and mobilise domestic and international stakeholders. The programme is currently being implemented in 14 countries and more than 1.000 organisations have been trained. Results of an evaluation that was completed in 2018 provide evidence that trained CBOs are effectively increasing their fundraising and mobilising support – demonstrating the objective is being achieved.
We work directly with grassroots organisations, we also partner with INGOs and Foundations to train their constituency. You can find more information about our offer here.
Promote community philanthropy: Giving for Change
Wilde Ganzen Foundation is member of the Giving for Change Alliance, that brings together the Global Fund for Community Foundations, Africa Philanthropy Network, Kenya Community Development Foundation and organizations from eight countries. We share a common vision on the power and potential domestic resource mobilization to shift the power in international cooperation.
Together we participate in an exciting new partnership with the Dutch Ministry of Foreign Affairs (2021-2025). This program, Giving for Change, will promote local giving as a strategy for achieving community-led development by increasing local ownership, buy-in and rights claiming. This is also referred to as ‘community philanthropy’. Against a global background of shrinking civic space, Giving for Change encourages civil society organizations), including and especially human rights organizations, to value and adopt local resource mobilization as a form of constituency building.
This will strengthen their position as legitimate champions and defenders of diverse causes. Moreover, we challenge the notion that development is something that is “done to” communities by external actors and advocate for new ways of working in international cooperation to shift power and resources closer to the ground.
Contact
Wilde Ganzen Foundation
Piet Mondriaanlaan 14
3812 GV Amersfoort
The Netherlands
Email: servicedesk@wildeganzen.nl
Phone: +31 (0)33 204 5555
Integrity
Other documents in English
If you have a complaint you wish to submit, please read:
Complaints procedure of Wilde Ganzen for partners in developing countries.