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African CSO Index

The African CSO Index measures CSOs across eight measures of organizational effectiveness: Strategic Ability and Adaptability, Leadership and Governance, Financial Health and Management, Human Resources, Operations, Communications, Partnerships and Alliances and Monitoring and Evaluation.  We harness the power of data and technology to drive change as we build a platform to map out the sector, foster collaboration and help grow the African philanthropic ecosystem. The index makes it possible to track the evolution of organizational effectiveness of individual groups, sub-sectors and the entire CSO sector.

Efforts to organize data around African CSOs are not new. But to date, these attempts have been fragmented, their scope limited, and the data has been inconsistent, often dated, and of varying quality. The EPIC-Africa Civil Society Index is the first bold attempt to map and rank CSOs across the entire continent, across multiple sectors and indicators. It is also the first attempt to look beyond legal and financial due diligence questions that most funders are concerned with to indicators of organizational effectiveness.

+ How does the index benefit funders?

  • Makes it easier and cheaper for funders to find grantees

  • Shortens the time it takes to make a grant

  • Makes the selection of grantees more objective

  • Increases grant-making effectiveness by betting on high performing groups (as opposed to “spraying and praying”)

+ How does the index benefit CSOs?

  • Makes CSOs more visible

  • Levels the playing field for CSOs, giving equal opportunity to less well-known groups that may be doing stellar work but are not visible

  • Stimulates healthy competition and inborn desire to do better

  • Leads to greater credibility and local legitimacy

  • Leads to increased/diversified funding, including domestic funding from individuals

  • Creates greater transparency and strengthen the sector as a whole, enabling it to fend off constant threats from governments wanting to restrict civic space

+ Who does the index serve?

  • African philanthropic foundations

  • Global philanthropic organizations

  • African CSOs

  • Individual donors

  • Multilateral and bilateral aid agencies

  • Governments

  • Corporate/private sector foundations

  • Journalists

  • Researchers