Creativity Fund: Rwanda (aka The Ingazi Fund)
The Creativity Fund: Rwanda, which puts the decision-making for Rwandan grant money into the hands of Rwandans who know and understand what is happening in their own communities, was created two years ago with the help of the Creativity Foundation. It is a bold experiment to re-think foreign aid. (Foreigners are in facilitation and fundraising roles only, while all of the board leadership is from and based in Rwanda.)
In its second year, Creativity Fund: Rwanda has built upon what it learned the first year. The organization has honed the nature of its non-traditional collaborative leadership structure, and it has enabled hundreds of local entrepreneurs to apply for crucial funds who would not have been able to apply for conventional grants/loans. Creativity Fund: Rwanda has now run its third grant cycle, and has funded affordable local staple food production and processing, vocational skills for vulnerable youth, and agricultural techniques that are locally appropriate to boost farmer income. Most impressively, the organization has been transparent in its operations all along. It’s been open about the lessons it has learned at every step of the way -- and it has made appropriate adjustments.
Creativity Foundation: Rwanda (the Ingazi Fund) is now ready to take what it has learned, and scale up. In the coming year, the Ingazi Fund will use its Creativity Foundation grant a) to hire an African Executive Director for six months who can prepare fundraising materials, prospect potential funders, oversee strategic planning, and implement Ingazi programs b) to hire a headhunter to recruit this Executive Director and c) to pay for six months of Ingazi Fund’s trusted Program Manager’s salary as additional money is fundraised.
We are delighted that large foundations are now taking note of the non-traditional model of philanthropy that the Ingazi Fund is developing.
The Ingazi Fund was the brainchild of Creativity Foundation Legacy winner Gayatri Datar.
