About

childrenTo give you some context for the work I do, here is a summary of my work experience.

To get to know me a little better, click here.

 

Recent Projects in Philanthropy and Social Development

 

  • 1 August 2012 to 15 January 2015
    Senior Advisor: “Reducing Maternal and Child Mortality in South Africa through Strengthening Primary Health Care”
    (RMCH), Social Development Direct, London, United Kingdom

      • Provide ongoing input, strategic direction, design and implementation to output 3.
      • Support 10 non-governmental organizations (grantee partners) to generate evidence, distill learning and produce policy briefs, models, tools and case studies.
      • Develop training materials and facilitation guides, including dialogue and multi-stakeholder consultations in respect to traditional health systems, the drivers of child mortality and health workers’ attitudes toward teenagers.
      • Trained District Clinic Specialist Teams (DCST) on demand generation and community engagement in public health.
  • 2012-2013
    Investigator: “Individual Giving and Volunteering” in South Africa
    Charities Aid Foundation (CAFSA), Johannesburg, South Africa

      • Contributed to survey design and methodology.
      • Developed the quadrant model of African giving and volunteering,- a new conceptual framework for understanding giving behavior.
      • Analyzed and interpreted findings.
  • March 2011 – July 2013
    Investigator: “Towards a Better Understanding of Civil Society in Africa“
    Social Surveys Pty Ltd. Johannesburg, South Africa

      • Carried out a literature review and formative research investigating how to understand civil society in Africa on its own terms, using endogenous definitions and constructs.
      • Presented conceptual contributions and developments at Africa-wide and international workshops and conferences hosted by the International Society for Third Sector Research (ISTR).
  • 2010-2011
    Advisory Support to the Community Philanthropy and Development Sector in Africa

      • Participated in round table and consultative project design processes for institutions that include:
        • the East Africa Association of Grantmakers, Nairobi, Kenya;
        • The Global Fund for Community Foundation, European Foundation Centre, Brussels;
        • UNV – State of the World Volunteerism project;
        • The Global Fund for Community Foundations in conjunction with the Coady International Institute, St. Francis Xavier University, Canada; and
        • The Aga Khan Foundation.
  • 2009-2013
    Organizational Learning Advisor on community responses to child wellbeing in the context of HIV/AIDS and poverty in Africa
    Firelight Foundation, Santa Cruz, California

      • Provided advisory and technical support to a three-year organizational learning agenda on the community based organization (CBO) response to child wellbeing.
      • Facilitated workshops to build staff capacity in learning methods and research documentation techniques.
      • Conducted data collection at field level (Kenya and Malawi) in partnership with national resource people and staff of CBOs; carried out analysis; interpreted findings; distilled concepts and generated theory.
      • Generated knowledge products including conference papers and research monographs.
      • Represented the Foundation in research and learning-related meeting and conferences.
  • June 2009 – July 2010
    Guest Editor and Coordinator of a special issue of the Vulnerable Children and Youth Studies Journal(Routledge) on Community Action for Children Affected by HIV/AIDS and poverty in Africa

      • Liaised with authors and the editorial committee.
      • Launched the special issue at the World Aids Conference, Vienna, 2010.
  • June – December 2009
    Research Advisor: Southern African Regional Initiative for Orphans and Vulnerable Children, Research Pilot – a collaborative initiative of the Synergos Institute, Cape Town, the Nelson Mandela’s Children’s Fund and the Community Foundation of Mozambique

      • Designed, coded and analysed focus groups transcriptions on African traditions of love, care and support for vulnerable children for a multi-country project.
      • Supervised national research teams.
      • Documented findings into a research report, and presented at a national conference.
  • April 2010
    Lecturer: CL PGDip-CSI: MODULE 3 – Company in Community Lectures
    Graduate School of Business, and University of Cape Town

      • Designed and delivered lecture modules on a course for corporate social investment officers in South Africa.
  • December 2005 – March 2009
    Director: Community Grantmaking and Social Investment Program, Southern Africa-United States Centre for Leadership and Public Values
    Graduate School of Business, University of Cape Town (funded by the Ford Foundation)

    • Directed a multi-stakeholder, multi- year social action research initiative in collaboration with four community philanthropy organizations in South Africa and a regional network of 30 grantmakers from Southern Africa. Expanded the range of tools that Community Philanthropy organizations can apply for an endogenous approach to development and published these into a practice series.
    • Conceived and directed the first bench mark survey (telephonic questionnaire) on social investment in the small and medium business sector in South Africa, contributing to a new and emergent field both nationally and internationally.
        • Designed and implemented a social action research project that applied a novel idea (horizontal philanthropy) to practice, designing and pilot testing new ways of thinking about and practicing the craft of community philanthropy.
        • Mobilised NGO partners, collaboratively designed and implemented pilot projects.
        • Developed, tested and documented four new tools and techniques for community philanthropy organizations expanding their toolkit.
        • Presented conference papers: Africa Grantmakers Association meeting (Johannesburg 2007); the Synergism University for a Night fundraiser (New York 2006); the Charities Aid Foundation Annual Meeting (Johannesburg 2007), the International Society for Third Sector Research (ISTR) Annual Meeting (Spain 2008) and the Community Foundation of Canada International Conference (Montreal 2008).
        • Developed and delivered university curriculum:
          • Four day module, Master’s in International Philanthropy, University of Bologna and
          • Three day professional course in asset based approaches to community development in collaboration with the Coady International Institute, St. Francis Xavier University, Canada.
        • Guest edited the “Giving Journal” thematic issue on community philanthropy, University of Bologna.
        • Program recognized in the University of Cape Town’s Social Responsiveness Report (2007) as a portrait of practice.