Creativity Fund: Rwanda (aka The Ingazi Fund)
The Creativity Fund: Rwanda puts the decision-making for Rwandan grant money into the hands of Rwandans who know and understand what is happening in their own communities. Created one year ago, it is an 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 first year of operation, Creativity Fund:Rwanda hired a program coordinator, held four retreats with local entrepreneurs, recruited and trained five interns, sourced and helped write up almost 200 applications to the fund from local entrepreneurs, worked with local government officials and other local groups, selected six winners for grants, and began the due diligence process. Most impressively, Creativity Fund:Rwanda was transparent in all of its operations, it enabled people to apply for crucial funds who would not have been able to apply for conventional grants/loans, and it was open about the lessons the organization learned at every step in the process.
During 2022, Creativity Fund: Rwanda will a) continue funding creative local entrepreneurs with its novel decision-making process run by Rwandans b) share this novel process with other philanthropists, laying out the lessons they have learned in an effort to upend the traditional power dynamics in aid and c) fundraise significant additional resources to guarantee that the work can continue.
Creativity Fund:Rwanda was the brainchild of Creativity Foundation Legacy winner Gayatri Datar.
