Civil Society Wayfinder

Amplifying locally-rooted organizations

Civil Society Wayfinder (CSW) is a word-of-mouth campaign designed to find and promote inspiring local organizations. It was created amidst significant funding disruption across the democracy, rights, and governance sectors and uses a combination of network-based recommendations, verification, and amplification to lift up good work as aid channels have faltered.

CSW is based on two core premises: local communities know best how to promote local governance, and international donors and experts would do well to listen first and let their funds follow where those local examples lead. Many governance and democracy organizations depend on donor funding to sustain their advocacy programs, so changes in funding priorities have direct implications for their stability and long-term impact.

We believe that these crowdsourced groups represent the future the sector needs.

SPOTLIGHT

Nepal

Kayapalat (opens in a new tab)

Kayapalat is proudly youth-driven and works to create spaces for dialogue, collective action, and social transformation through the lenses of democracy, climate justice, human rights and lifelong learning.

Zimbabwe

Tariro Youth Development Trust (opens in a new tab)

The Tariro Youth Development Foundation cultivates healthy, resilient, and active young leaders who drive sustainable development through a focus on Sexual and Reproductive Health and Rights (SRHR), economic opportunity, and youth agency.

Nigeria

YAPD4Africa (opens in a new tab)

YAPD4Africa was founded in 2017 by a group of passionate young Africans who believed in the power of youth-led initiatives to address pressing social challenges. What began as a small network of volunteers has grown into a prominent organization with programs in multiple African countries.

View all groups →

Civil Society Wayfinder featured organizations

55organizations featured

5core themes

25countries represented

Make a recommendation

Help shine a spotlight on local groups whose work can lead the way. Please share your own recommendations for organizations in the governance and human rights community.

NOMINATE AN ORGANIZATION

Leverage beyond funding

Organizations are searching for connection and collaboration as much as they are searching for resources. Groups doing the most creative and sustained civic work are often the least visible to international partners.

The most powerful thing that can happen for an organization is having others speak about you in rooms you’re not in.

The Wayfinder campaign’s value is relational, not just informational. Each featured organization is connected to a network of peers, validators, and referral sources.

Five themes grounded in the sector’s own analysis.

Youth and new champions:

Groups led by youth or elevating leaders outside electoral politics, such as artists, academics, technologists and faith leaders.

Narrative power:

Groups that use storytelling, music, spoken word, digital platforms and other live or broadcast media to leverage narrative power for community outreach, public accountability and participation.

Healthy information ecosystems:

Groups promoting more functional media and information systems through community journalism, media literacy, digital literacy, or other online and offline tools to combat disinformation.

Decentralized funding:

Groups that rely on diversified or decentralized funding models, by turning to local donors over international funders, for example, or through local outreach and mutual aid.

Gender equity:

Groups that center equal rights, responsibilities and opportunities for all people, regardless of their gender, and elevate issues of fair access and shared power.

Explore our Wayfinder organizations

Every point on this map is a group doing the work. Find one near you.

The problem is proximity: the distance between where funding decisions are made and where accountability work actually happens.