Philanthropy over the years has been seen as the act of giving back to promote the welfare of others, either by donations of money, time, or skills. But over the years, I came to learn that it’s more than that – it also largely involves partnerships – which is one of the reasons why the Impact Philanthropy Africa Forum was funded; to ensure that they are committed o creating social impact with partners whose philanthropic purposes are working to build a culture of corporate social investment (CSI) and influence policy through advocacy and thought leadership.
Speaking to Les Baillie, Executive director of the M-PESA Foundation, philanthropy is about partnerships with like-minded people and organizations, commissioning research into how to best help more people and so much more. In short, it’s not just about the money and that’s exactly why the Impact Philanthropy Africa Forum exists.
What is philanthropy to you?
Philanthropy isn’t just about giving money; because anyone can give money – that’s the easy part – the hard part is making sure that its being used in the most appropriate manner
Philanthropists are people who care about the society, want it to improve, and change it for the better, so it doesn’t always involve money. You have philanthropists who influence advocacy, government thinking thus painting a picture of it philanthropy as something much more holistic because you also have to insure that you’re involving partnerships particularly with like-minded organizations so if you think about it, it really is an all rounded issue.
We want to transform lives by improving the social and economic status of Kenyans as much as we can
Why create the Impact Philanthropy Africa Forum?
One of the main reasons was to get some of the like-minded organizations together for the sole purpose of helping people. We also want to have well-funded structures that are properly constituted and can have a measurable impact especially when you look at the needs of the community and its shared purpose.
A good example would be the M-PESA Foundation. The idea was in the works for years but it could only work if we had the right partners who had the right mindset to run such a brilliant forum
You said that brands are trying to do the right thing. What exactly is the right thing with regards to philanthropy?
It’s all about making sure that the money donated has an impact. You have to look at the outcome. It’s too easy for people to say they made donations; for instance, a million shillings can be donated to build a classroom but what is the outcome of that if there is no furniture in it and there is no teacher to go into the classroom.
One will be left with one question, why did you do it? So you have to look at the outcomes and impacts of that investment. It isn’t just a straightforward donation. It’s much more than that. In short, it’s all about how the project or investment brings about sustainability.
Speaking of sustainability, why did you decide to come together to create the Impact Philanthropy Africa Forum?
It isn’t just about getting people to join together to do philanthropic projects. What we see in Kenya is that the regulation around charitable organizations is a bit fuzzy. There are still areas that need to be developed further.
A good example is the KRA that allows tax exemptions to foundations but sometimes takes them away because they believe you are not doing the right thing. Therefore what we are trying to do is to specifically work with governments because it is difficult to do meaningful projects especially here in Kenya without involving the government. It isn’t the government’s job to do the philanthropic work but they do set the foundation for philanthropists. As a forum, we ensure that the set rules and guidelines are strict enough and that organizations strictly follow them. We also challenge them and coming up with and suggesting changes that would benefit Kenya and the Kenyan citizens.
Based on the objectives you have like a forum, do you think it is going to be accomplished by working with the government? Also, there has been some backlash with regards to philanthropy from the people and the government, do you think you are going to accomplish those objectives even with the backlash from the government?
There are various government initiatives such as Sustainable Development Goals SDGs, the Big 4 Agenda, and Vision 2030 and we have to make sure that we support the government in those.
We take part in spaces where we and the members of the forum can help in achieving these government goals. As long as we continue to work alongside the government, we may not always agree 100% and also they won’t agree 100% with us all the time. But all we do is see a gap between what they are doing and what we think should happen then I think it’s our duty to engage the government in a bid to improve it. Therefore it’s quite hard for us to fall out with them. A project like Vision 2030 acknowledges the need for more private and corporate sector participation. When we look at SDGs that also increases the recognition of philanthropy.
As a forum what are you currently trying to achieve as a forum especially in this time of the pandemic and how you’re working with the government is going to impact your targets and achievements?
If you are looking at some of the strategic areas, first of all, it’s safe to say that the current members will probably work across a vast array of focus areas. These areas include education, maternal and child health, economic empowerment, peace, and justice. As a forum, we don’t necessarily pick and devote our attention to one area.
What we encourage is for the members to work together as we try to partner with relevant authorities within government in pointing out issues and making suggestions as to how they could be solved and hopefully be able to look at improving the legal side of some of those areas. We do this with pure intentions of supporting the government on its quest of improving the lives of Kenyans. These parts are sometimes out of scope for the government or the government is just physically unable to do because of lack of funding.
What does this forum, Impact Philanthropy Africa, mean to Kenya in the fulfillment of Kenyan goals such as the Vision 2030 and SDGs?
One key area for us is that if we can show that as the collective members of making a difference then I think we would be able to involve more and more people and organizations into it. We would certainly like to see some of the larger individual philanthropists coming in because we’ve got a huge so much to learn from them.
To make sure that by sharing experiences, each individual member can ensure that what they are doing is making a greater impact than what they have been doing in the past. One area that tends to be weak is the area of monitoring and evaluation and the fact that once a project is finished, there is still a requirement to ensure that it continues in a sustainable way. Also, if we could share those experiences with other organizations, then we can certainly show that we have made an impact.
Those are also the kind of programs that we can get with them to the government for them to have a look at what we have done. If we can demonstrate as a group exactly what we are doing and the benefits of it and then hopefully influence the government both central and county to build on that and use some of these programs as great pilot projects. These projects are in full support of the government’s goals in place and we are there to ensure that that happens more and more.
