Individual Giving to Local Civil Society Organisations in Ghana: An Exploratory Analysis

Individual giving constitutes one of the most significant resources for many nonprofit organisations globally. However, the literature has focused predominantly on the perspectives and experiences of nonprofit organisations in developed countries. To this end individual giving to African civil society organisations (CSOs) and how they leverage this to promote their sustainability is a relatively understudied phenomenon. Drawing on African philanthropy and the African Grantmakers Network framework as an analytical lens and interviews with 37 local CSOs and key informants in Ghana, this article finds that individual giving, including volunteer labour, knowledge and financial resources, constitutes an important resource for promoting the sustainability of CSOs. Yet, individual giving is undervalued relative to external donor funding. Our findings suggest that individual giving is directed towards localised and social justice issues. Nonetheless, the absence of an enabling environment for local philanthropy has the potential to affect individual giving to CSOs.