Last March, Global Fund for Children and four other philanthropic organizations launched Funder Safeguarding Collaborative (FSC) to support global efforts to prevent abuse and exploitation. The collaborative connects funders to safeguarding expertise, provides high-quality support, and invests in initiatives to advance safeguarding globally. Here are five of FSC’s accomplishments so far.
1. More than 50 members
FSC was founded by Comic Relief, Global Fund for Children (GFC), The National Lottery Community Fund, Oak Foundation, and Porticus, and is housed within GFC. A year after its launch, FSC now has over 50 members, with new organizations joining every month.
FSC membership is incredibly diverse. While some members are child-focused, many others have diverse funding portfolios, encompassing everything from poverty alleviation and mental health to climate change and animal welfare. FSC’s broad appeal underscores the fact that safeguarding is an important issue for all organizations.
2. Over $1 million invested
So far, FSC members have invested more than $1 million to help the collaborative grow and to support FSC initiatives to strengthen safeguarding globally. In addition to the generous support from FSC’s founding members, the collaborative has received new investments from Laudes Foundation and Children’s Investment Fund Foundation to help improve access to high-quality safeguarding expertise around the world.
3. Shifting power to local experts
FSC has taken a number of steps to help shift the locus of safeguarding expertise away from the Global North by investing in the local expertise that exists in countries and communities in other regions.
Through a pilot project in Uganda, FSC is providing grants to 11 local organizations to enable them to articulate and strengthen locally developed safeguarding strategies. The grantees include organizations working with children, people with disabilities, women, and girls.
FSC is also strengthening access to safeguarding expertise in five countries in Asia (Bangladesh, Cambodia, India, Indonesia, and Pakistan) and three countries in Africa (Ethiopia, Kenya, and Nigeria) by identifying, training, and supporting safeguarding experts in these countries.
4. Continually generating learning
FSC is committed to continually learning and improving knowledge around best practices. FSC’s strategy is based on our study into funder approaches to safeguarding, which was funded by Elevate Children Funders Group. In collaboration with the Association of Charitable Foundations, FSC has also used the learning from this study to revise the Safeguarding Framework for Funders, the only framework explicitly addressing safeguarding within grantmaking organizations.
Over the past year, FSC has hosted a range of learning opportunities for members, including webinars, peer learning circles, and community conversations on a diverse range of topics. FSC has also provided consulting support to more than ten grantmaking organizations, helping them to review policies, deliver training, and embed safe practice across all aspects of their operations.
5. A growing team
When FSC first launched, it had just one full-time employee. The growing demand for FSC services and resources has prompted the collaborative to expand its team over the past year. FSC now has a Senior Safeguarding Associate based in the US and regional advisors based in the UK, Cambodia, and India. The collaborative is currently recruiting additional advisors in Kenya, Ethiopia, and Nigeria, helping to ensure tailored and contextually relevant support to FSC members around the world.
Header photo: GFC Regional Capacity Development Specialist Amé Atsu David leads an activity with grassroots organizations in Liberia and Sierra Leone that are working to end violence against girls.
