Change the Game Academy strengthens the capacities of social changemakers to effectively raise local funds and mobilize other forms of domestic support.
It offers free individual e-learning courses and toolkits (in six languages) and in-person classroom training with follow-up individual coaching.

With partner organizations in 15 countries and 150 trainers that implement the program, Change the Game Academy is an initiative of Wilde Ganzen Foundation and co-created with CESE (Brazil), the Kenya Community Development Foundation (Kenya), and Smile Foundation (India).

Changing the ‘rules’ of the development game

Many civil society organizations in the countries we support depend on foreign funding for their work. This vulnerability places them at risk of working donor-driven.

Change the Game Academy’s objective is to end this dependency by supporting autonomous organizations in strengthening their local fundraising and advocacy capacities. This transfers power to communities and enables them to shape their future.

How it helps

Mobilizing local resources makes communities self-sufficient and financially independent. It also increases community engagement, local ownership, resilience and gives organizations legitimacy, and voice. Plus organizations with a local support base are better positioned to hold their governments accountable.

How it works

At Change the Game Academy, changemakers can find these various ways to bolster themselves and their team:

  • Enroll in a classroom course with individual coaching on either Local Fundraising or Mobilizing Support in fifteen countries in Africa, Asia, and Latin America
  • Join online classroom courses with coaching in West and Central Africa (French), Southern Africa (English), and Asia (English)
  • For those who can’t follow a virtual or live course, they can learn at their own pace on the free online learning platform choosing from two full-length courses on local fundraising and mobilizing support, toolkits, and an app

What do the classroom courses offer?

The classroom courses with coaching offer in-depth learning with expert support about local fundraising or mobilizing support.

  • Local Fundraising offers a leaders’ session, a week’s skills training on how to fundraise locally and six months of coaching followed by a 1-day evaluation session.
  • Mobilizing Support offers a leaders’ session, a week’s skills training on how to advocate for a specific cause effectively and mobilize support from different groups and governments and six months of coaching followed by a 1-day evaluation session.