Trust-based grant giving is about fundamentally transforming who holds power. When funders trust local expertise and make themselves accountable to communities, it enables adaptive management, ensures adaptation is truly ‘locally led’, and prevents extractive relationships.
Vanita Suneja, Programme Lead, Water Justice Fund at Simavi said:
"As the aid system professionalised, we replaced relationships with log frames; trust gave way to compliance.
"Now, in the climate crisis, we are re-learning.
"Trust-based philanthropy and participatory grant making remind us that real resilience begins when power, resources and decisions rest with those closest to the impacts."