Philanthropy Central

In Africa, Asia and Latin America, citizen participation through a range of civil society organizations has become a growing and vital force. Civil society organizations have brought significant material and human resources from the community level to bear on poverty problems through donations of time, energy, materials and money. Locally managed and controlled organizations that provide direct financial support to other organizations within their societies have been established over the last decade in many southern countries. Few of them were created with a single large endowment, as was the case with most northern private foundations. Most of them rely on a wide range of strategies to mobilize financial resources, including earned income contributions from individuals and corporations and grants from international organizations. Some managed donor-designated or donor-advised funds following the US community foundation experience.
To distinguish this type of southern foundationlike organization from northern foundations, the term "civil society resource organization," or CSRO, has been proposed. This term refers to organizations which combine financial assistance to community-based organizations and NGOs with other forms of support for organizations or the civil society sector as a whole.
With the support of the Sasakawa Peace Foundation, the Synergos Institute has had the opportunity to expand the field of understanding by publishing a series of three case studies that explore how foundations in Southeast Asia are working to attain financial sustainability. This case study presents the experience of the Indonesian Biodiversity Foundation (most commonly known by its Indonesian acronym, KEHATI) in endowment building.