While not all public giving is necessarily socially progressive in its motivation or sustainable in its application, there is an important piece of the emerging discourse around participatory or community philanthropy that is being championed and innovated by civil society activists who feel that it is time for local people to have a greater say in and ownership of their development. In this framing, notions of “horizontal” (smaller, peer-to-peer) and “vertical” (larger and / or external) resources are gaining currency, with the implication that the mobilisation and blending of both types – and the interplay between them – can strengthen constituencies for specific issues or causes, flatten power dynamics and help to civil society organisations to embed themselves more deeply within their local context through increased local ownership. Read more here.
Source: European Foundation Centre