Zambian Governance Foundation

Our Story

The Zambian Governance Foundation (ZGF) for Civil Society was established in 2009 with a commitment to strengthening Zambian civil society and enabling communities to shape the development that affects their lives.

Our journey began by providing funding and capacity support to civil society organisations across Zambia. Over time, however, we learned something important: lasting development cannot be built around external funding alone. Communities already possess knowledge, relationships, skills, assets and resources that can drive change when they have the power and opportunity to organise around what matters to them.

That learning transformed ZGF.

In 2016, our participation in the Global Summit on Community Philanthropy in Johannesburg strengthened our commitment to the emerging global #ShiftThePower movement and inspired a deeper focus on locally led development. In 2017, community philanthropy became one of ZGF's core areas of work, alongside strengthening civil society organisations. We also established Chuluka Limited, a social enterprise whose profits are reinvested into ZGF's mission, as part of our commitment to building greater financial independence and sustainability.

Today, ZGF works at the intersection of civil society, communities and philanthropy, helping people and organisations recognise, mobilise and grow the resources that already exist around them while connecting them to additional opportunities.

Our Vision

A Zambian society in which local communities realise their rights and shape their own development.

Our mission is to strengthen the capacities of local communities and civil society to unlock and utilise available and untapped resources for sustainable development.

We pursue this through three interconnected pillars: supporting civil society organisations, strengthening communities, and building the field of philanthropy.

Across everything we do, we believe development is strongest when communities are not simply recipients of aid, but decision-makers, resource mobilisers, partners and leaders of their own development.

Our Journey of Impact

Since 2009, ZGF has grown from a grant-making organisation into a recognised champion of community-led development and locally driven philanthropy.

We have directly supported 188 civil society organisations through 262 grants, ranging from small seed investments to long-term institutional support, while building relationships with more than 400 civil society and community-based organisations across Zambia.

But our impact extends beyond the funding we provide.

We have invested in understanding how Zambians give, organise and support one another. Our research has explored local philanthropy, diaspora giving, community-led development and informal giving, contributing evidence that challenges the assumption that communities without significant financial resources have nothing to contribute to their own development.

Through partnerships with organisations including the Global Fund for Community Foundations, GlobalGiving, GivingTuesday and the University of Zambia, we have helped strengthen the evidence base for development approaches that recognise communities as people with assets and agency rather than simply beneficiaries with needs.

Shifting Power to Communities

One of the strongest expressions of our evolution is the ShiftingThePower Programme, through which ZGF works alongside partners in Zambia, Malawi and Ghana to strengthen locally led civil society and challenge traditional approaches to development funding.

Through this work, ZGF provides flexible support to local civil society organisations while creating opportunities for communities themselves to influence how resources are used.

In 2024, we introduced Zambia's first Reverse Call for Proposals, turning the conventional funding model on its head. Instead of an organisation arriving with a predetermined project and asking communities to participate, communities identify what matters most to them and potential partners respond to those priorities.

It represents a simple but powerful principle that increasingly defines ZGF's work:

Communities should have a meaningful say in the decisions and resources that shape their futures.

Building Stronger Communities

Our work increasingly goes beyond supporting organisations to strengthening the structures communities build for themselves.

Through our community philanthropy work, communities are organising around local priorities, mobilising their own resources and building institutions capable of attracting and managing additional support.

This approach recognises that philanthropy is not limited to large financial donations. People contribute money, time, skills, knowledge, materials, relationships and collective action. When these resources are organised around a shared purpose, communities can become powerful drivers of their own development.

ZGF's role is not to replace that agency, but to strengthen it.

Building Knowledge That Changes Practice

ZGF has also helped generate evidence about how local giving and community-led development work in Zambia.

Our research has examined local giving, diaspora philanthropy, community-led development, barriers to domestic philanthropy and informal giving as a community safety net.

In 2020, ZGF served as Zambia's field partner for the six-country Community-Led-Ness research initiative with GlobalGiving and the Global Fund for Community Foundations. The work contributed to practical ways of assessing whether development programmes are genuinely community led.

This combination of practice, research and advocacy allows us not only to implement new approaches, but also to influence wider conversations about how development resources and decision-making power should move closer to communities.

Connecting Zambia's Civil Society

For more than a decade, ZGF has also served as a connector and convenor for Zambia's civil society sector.

Our networks reach hundreds of organisations and community groups, while our civil society communication platforms connect thousands of people with opportunities, learning, funding information and developments affecting the sector.

We participate in national, African and global networks concerned with civil society, philanthropy, locally led development and sustainable food systems, ensuring that experiences from Zambian communities contribute to wider conversations about how development should be done.

Trusted to Deliver

ZGF combines community-rooted programming with strong governance and financial accountability.

Our financial statements are independently audited each year in accordance with International Standards on Auditing. For the year ended 31 December 2025, ZGF received an unqualified audit opinion, confirming that its financial statements presented a true and fair view of the organisation's financial position.

In 2025, ZGF managed K27.8 million in income and closed the year with a surplus, reflecting both the scale of our programmes and our continued focus on organisational sustainability.

Over the years, our work has been supported by and undertaken alongside national, regional and international partners, including the Charles Stewart Mott Foundation, Comic Relief and the UK Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office, Comundo, the Global Fund for Community Foundations, The Share Trust, the Alliance for Food Sovereignty in Africa and Ecorys.

Where We Are Going

The next chapter of ZGF is about taking what we have learned and bringing it to greater scale.

We want to expand approaches that put communities in the driver's seat, strengthen community philanthropy across Zambia and Southern Africa, generate evidence that influences how development organisations fund local actors, and build new models that reduce dependence on traditional donor funding.

Most importantly, we want to demonstrate that local communities are not waiting to be developed.

They are already giving. They are organising. They are solving problems. They are building institutions. They are contributing resources of their own.

Our job is to help that power grow.

Support locally led change

When you support ZGF, you are investing in more than an organisation. You are helping strengthen a network of communities and civil society organisations working to create lasting change from the ground up.

Your support helps local ideas become local solutions — and local solutions become lasting change.