Around the globe, civil society organizations are considering how to gain more financial freedom to ensure their sustainability and better meet constituent demands. In this interest, a new guidebook published by the West Africa Civil Society Institute explores alternative funding models for civil society organizations. The guidebook incorporates input from over 20 organization in 10 countries across the continent and suggests potential funding models based on the various contexts of different CSOs.

The guidebook highlights 12 alternative funding models, including avenues like providing for-fee consultancy services and event organization, asset building, and crowdfunding. For each, it provides a case study detailing the experience of one or multiple organizations. For example, it outlines how the Moroccan Centre for Innovation and Social Entrepreneurship (MCISE) has adopted an incubation funding model as one of its means of increasing financial resources through its Dare Inc. program. “They select innovative social projects and support them with seed funding. In return, they get back 2% of profit over 5 years or 5% of equity participation from companies incubated that have reached maturity.” Read more about alternative funding models here.