Across Latin America, we are navigating an increasingly difficult context defined by shrinking of civic spaces and a growing risk of political repression. That´s why building financial resilience strategies has become essential to sustain our causes and ensure their continuity.
Maylí Sepúlveda Toledo, external consultant at COMETA
As civil society organizations, we face the impacts of legal restrictions on funding, the stigmatization of external resources, and unstable economic conditions. That’s why we must plan how to sustain ourselves safely, ethically, and autonomously—without compromising our principles or putting the communities we work at risk.
We’d like to share three key strategies for achieving financial resilience with security and political autonomy:
1. Integrating Fundraising into Strategic Planning
Fundraising should be part of strategic planning from the very beginning. This means designing a diversified financial plan aligned with our long-term goals. By anticipating how we will fund our activities, we reduce to need to improvise under pressure and avoid over-reliance on a single funding source. This proactive approach helps build financial resilience for our cause, even in challenging times.
Research across the region confirms that planning and professionalizing fundraising efforts leads to stronger results and greater impact on the financial sustainability of our organizations. Today, over half of Latin American civil society organizations already generate their own income alongside external funding sources. However, many remain overly dependent on a single primary source of support, a trend underscored in the report Financial Sustainability Models promoted by Civic House, Donar Online, and Kubadili.
Integrating fundraising into institutional strategy is, therefore, one of the most important financial resilience strategies we can adopt to strengthen our independence.
2. Empowering Grassroot Communities: Financial Sustainability and Political Agency
Financial sustainability also emerges from within our grassroots communities. Engaging local partners in our joint projects is a powerful strategy. On one hand, it contributes local resources that actively involve communities in financing the activities we carry out; on the other, it helps avoid an assistance-based approach to our work and reduces the risk of reproducing unwanted power dynamics between organizations and grassroots communities.
There is broad consensus that community-based funding promotes sustainability by strengthening equitable, respectful, and legitimate partnerships. As CIVICUS notes in this article, such funding supports the efforts of groups and activists who advance better practices in financing and mobilizing valuable resources for civil society.
By encouraging the communities we work with to contribute to our processes—whether through in-kind support, their time, or financial resources—we recognize their agency and make them active participants in deciding how these resources are used. In repressive contexts, acknowledging and valuing this community agency demonstrates that our work is not extractive, but rather grounded in horizontal, equitable relationships with the people we collaborate with.
When we speak of extractivism, we are not only referring to the appropriation of minerals or natural resources, but also to the extraction of knowledge, time, narratives, and experiences from communities for the benefit of organizations or their donors. This occurs when information, testimonies, or cultural practices are gathered without returning tangible benefits to the community, or when external agendas are imposed that overshadow local priorities.
This phenomenon can lead to asymmetric power relationships, where communities become mere providers of legitimacy, data, or “success stories” that feed institutional reports and fundraising campaigns, without their agency or needs being genuinely acknowledged.
The work of our organizations matters because it is rooted in the communities with whom we are building a more just environment. This is one of the most effective strategies for financial resilience in a hostile environment.
3. Building Ethical Financial Partnerships
Ethics in financial partnerships is another cornerstone of our financial resilience. Our organizations carefully research potential donors and avoid forming partnerships with actors who harm the environment or seek legitimacy through funding civil society. Many of us have faced the dilemma of “dirty money”—funds originating from entities whose track record contradicts our values.
In the past, it was enough to avoid overtly illicit contributions, but today we also question whether to accept funding from sources that do not embody the mission and values of our organizations. For this reason, we prioritize collaborating only with ethical donors—those genuinely committed to social change and not seeking to “clean their image” at our expense. In doing so, we align funding with our principles.
It is worth noting that, at the international level, a different kind of philanthropy is increasingly being promoted: donors with an anti-racist and anti-colonial approach who support local funding mechanisms and respect the leadership of Global South communities. Building relationships with these kinds of allies allows us to strengthen our political autonomy—without hidden agendas or harmful dependencies—thus reinforcing another of our most important strategies for financial resilience.
Our financial sustainability undeniably has a political dimension. As a Kenyan activist stated during an event organized by JASS and the Feminist Center for Racial Justice, in times when our civic spaces are shrinking, these actions enable us to continue our work with autonomy and security.
Examples in Action and Ethical Partnerships
Despite the challenges, there are inspiring examples of how organizations are creatively implementing financial resilience strategies:
- Crowdfunding: The collective Sangre Fucsia funded the board game Feminismos Reunidos through a crowdfunding campaign, raising over €71,000—well above expectations. This success inspired Latin American feminist collectives to explore crowdfunding as an ethical, community-based alternative.
- K’inal Antzetik works with indigenous and mestiza women, promoting economic autonomy, territorial defense, and cultural empowerment. They have maintained political autonomy by combining artisanal community production with ethical support from international foundations, such as MacArthur.
- The National Network of Community Aqueducts in Colombia manages water systems through contributions from the families who use them. This model safeguards access to water and territorial sovereignty without depending on corporations or governments.
- The Honduran Black Fraternal Organization (OFRANEH) defends the Garífuna people through community radio and strategic litigation. Their sustainability Is built on self-management and international solidarity, while always preserving autonomy. Their work has received international recognition, and in recent years they have received support from the Rockefeller Foundation.
These experiences demonstrate that our financial resilience strategies can be both innovative and effective.
The Path Toward Sustainable Financial Resilience
By integrating fundraising into our strategic planning, supporting our causes collectively from the ground up, and carefully choosing our financial partnerships, we are weaving a more sustainable and just future for ourselves and the communities we work with.
We also know we are not alone. There are solidarity networks and ethical donors ready to walk alongside us on this path. Let’s continue sharing what we learn and strengthening our financial resilience strategies together. This is how we resist and thrive—even in the most challenging environments.
