The fundraising cliff edge is also a launchpad

Our reflections from the 10th East Africa Philanthropy Conference

There is a particular energy in a room when people finally hear, out loud, what they have been thinking privately for years. Why does our sector keep relying on a funding model it already knows is broken? That question ran through the conference here in Addis Ababa this week. The 10th East Africa Philanthropy Conference brought together over 500 philanthropic institutions, intermediaries, donors, and civil society leaders.

Our sector has circled the question for a decade. This week, we tackled it directly.

Belmont Fundraising co-created a session alongside The Bridgespan Group, Women First International Fund, and the Movement for Community-led Development. The session ended not with a speech, but with a diagnostic, and the tools to address the challenge. It quantified how fragile each organisation's funding model is, and exactly what to do about it.

While the funding environment has rarely been harder, we left more confident about Africa’s future, not less.

A conference built on an uncomfortable truth

The past two years have not been comfortable for the sector. Billions of dollars were cut, as US, UK, and other traditional donors reduced their spend. Many organisations had built their financial models on one assumption: that yesterday's relationships would still exist tomorrow. They were wrong.

But EAPC made one thing clear: this disruption is also an opening.

The capital has not left the world. High-net-worth assets and remittances flowing to Africa are growing. The largest intergenerational wealth transfer in history is already underway. What's been disrupted is the old architecture — the assumption that capital would keep arriving the same way, from the same sources, on the same terms.

That is a structural shift, not a collapse. Structural shifts reward the institutions with the confidence and discipline to move first.

The question we keep hearing

One thread ran through nearly every Q&A we attended: why are we still talking about this? A decade on from commitments to shift power to local actors, why the same conversation about restricted funding? About risk? About who gets trusted with capital?

It's a fair question. What we heard is that many funders still sees these organisations through a risk lens, not a partnership lens. Proximity to the ground gets treated as a liability. Impact, local knowledge, and strong governance often get overlooked. The result rarely resembles partnership. EAPC did not shy away from naming this.

Why this is the moment to rebalance

The current disruption has created genuine leverage — for organisations willing to use it. Funders are under pressure too. They're asking harder questions about efficiency and demonstrable impact. That pressure changes the conversation. A constrained funder wants fewer, deeper, better-evidenced relationships. Not a portfolio spread too thin to oversee. They want partners who can show strong governance, clean accounting, and impact visible on the ground. Years of results, project momentum, and local knowledge now become real headwinds in your favour — not just credentials on a slide.

The organisations that come through this period strongest won't necessarily be the ones with the most diversified income today. They'll be the ones with the clarity to have the hard conversation now, while funders are actively reassessing how they work. Wait too long, and the window closes!

What Belmont Fundraising advised

True to our style, the session was practical, not theoretical. Delegates left with a complete diagnostic tool, and a short, unglamorous list of next actions:

1. Have the hard conversation now, not later. The right moment to renegotiate terms is exactly when both sides know the old terms are under strain.

2. Adapt your narrative — address the elephant in the room. If you're still pitching the case you've always pitched, you're not listening. Funder priorities have shifted. Has your narrative?

3. Make the hard decisions now. Stop spending time on prospects who don't share your vision or model. A scattergun approach isn't a strategy. It's the absence of one. Hone in on two to three funders who are realistic and aligned. Move on from the rest.

4. Invest real time in your narrative, for each funder. Give it the same rigour as a financial model. Refine the case for why your institution deserves sustained investment — not just project funding.

5. Sit down, director to director. An RFP is not a relationship. The conversations that shift funding trajectories happen between people. Sometimes that means being honest about the fragility in your own funding model, instead of presenting a polished façade.

6. Give funders the evidence, and give them time. Show your impact, your local knowledge, your governance. Let funders arrive at the conclusion themselves: this institution merits sustained, less restricted capital. Then don't rush them.

7. Lean into the moment. Use the confidence in the room at EAPC. Notice what peer organisations are doing. Notice what funders are signalling they want — efficiency, demonstrable impact, real collaboration. Position accordingly.

The conversations that mattered most happened off the agenda

Some of the best moments of EAPC didn't happen on stage. They happened in the corridors. Over coffee. At dinner. Delegates comparing notes on what's actually working. Peers being honest about what isn't. That energy is hard to manufacture. Thank you to the EAPC team for creating this environment.

Belmont Fundraising is not a ‘silver bullet’ solution to all of your funding needs. No one is. What we do offer however, is practical guidance. We help organisations focus on what they can control, prioritise the relationships that matter most, and adapt with confidence to a changed environment. That is the work, and while unglamorous, is exactly what this moment calls for.

To find out more about our work, how we might support your impact, or to receive a copy of the EAPC presentation, email harvey@belmontfundraising.com.