This companion reflection introduces a practical fundraising guide developed by AWID and Justice Funders through the lens of ecosystem-oriented civic resilience. Rather than treating fundraising purely as a technical exercise, the text explores how locally rooted, collaborative, and partially informal forms of organizing can strengthen long-term sustainability, autonomy, and adaptive capacity in rapidly changing funding environments.
This practical guide by AWID and Justice Funders offers an important contribution to current discussions on the future sustainability of feminist and civil society organizing. Particularly in contexts where funding environments are becoming more uncertain, competitive, and compliance-heavy, the guide provides useful perspectives for smaller grassroots actors, informal collectives, youth initiatives, and community-based networks that often remain outside traditional funding architectures.
From the perspective of the HBF Cambodia Office, the resource is especially valuable because it recognizes that future civic resilience will likely depend not only on established NGOs, but increasingly on a broader ecosystem of diverse actors, relationships, networks, and organizing forms. This includes initiatives that may remain partially informal, locally rooted, care-oriented, experimental, or collaborative in nature.
Rather than approaching fundraising purely as a technical exercise, the guide reframes resourcing as part of movement-building, collective sustainability, and political autonomy. It validates forms of organizing that may not possess professional fundraising departments, formal institutional status, or long donor histories, yet nevertheless contribute significantly to social transformation processes.
The guide is particularly relevant for current discussions on ecosystem shift approaches because it:
- recognizes diverse and less formalized forms of organizing,
- acknowledges mutual aid, volunteerism, and community solidarity as legitimate forms of support and sustainability,
- offers practical entry points for smaller initiatives with limited institutional infrastructure,
- and critically reflects on structural inequalities within international funding systems.
Of particular relevance in the Cambodian context are the sections on “Autonomous Income Streams” (8/chapter 2) and “In-Kind Support” (9/chapter 2). Discussions around these approaches often intersect with legitimate concerns among feminist and advocacy organisations about increasing pressure to adopt more entrepreneurial or commercially oriented models that may compromise political mandates, organisational identity, or accountability to communities.
The guide, however, does not advocate replacing social justice work with market logic. Rather, it encourages organisations and informal initiatives to develop more diverse, resilient, and flexible forms of support beyond exclusive dependency on conventional donor grants. From our perspective, its value lies precisely in opening space to think more broadly about resilience, autonomy, solidarity, and locally grounded support systems.
This may include community contributions, volunteer expertise, solidarity fundraising, shared infrastructure, paid facilitation or training, donated digital services, creative production, or other mission-aligned forms of self-generated and non-monetary support. Many Cambodian organizations and collectives are already experimenting with such hybrid approaches as practical ways to maintain continuity, autonomy, and adaptability under increasingly constrained conditions.
In this sense, an entrepreneurial and innovative mindset should not be confused with commercialization. From the perspective of the HBF Cambodia Office, it is better understood as the capacity to creatively mobilize relationships, skills, local trust, reciprocity, and diverse support mechanisms in ways that strengthen locally rooted, long-term ecosystem resilience.
At the same time, autonomous and community-based resourcing should not become a justification for the chronic underfunding of grassroots organizing. Such approaches can complement — but should not replace — equitable, flexible, and long-term support from public and philanthropic donors.
For the HBF Cambodia Office, the relevance of these discussions lies precisely in the ongoing transition toward more decentralized, networked, plural, and adaptive civic ecosystems. In that context, this guide offers both practical tools and an important political contribution to current conversations on feminist and ecosystem-based organizing.
Recommended as a practical and reflective companion resource for organizations and collectives exploring ecosystem-oriented approaches to feminist and civic organizing.
Explore more here: Getting the money we need awid.org/sites/default/files/2025-10/getting_the_money_we_need.pdf