“From Fiduciary Risk to Direct Funding: Institutional Strengthening of Indigenous and Community Organisations in Highly Pressured Contexts”

​The organisations closest to the land are often the ones facing the greatest barriers to receiving and managing funding directly. Funding can move through multiple intermediaries, arrive late, and do little to strengthen organisations’ ability to access the next grant on their own terms.

​This session will explore what it takes to change that. Drawing on experiences from Indigenous and community organisations in the Congo Basin, the conversation will look at financial and institutional strengthening as an investment in direct funding itself: from due diligence and financial systems to sustained training, embedded advice, peer learning and organisational readiness, while respecting partners’ own governance.

​Speakers will share concrete examples of what this investment has made possible, including stronger financial systems, improved audit and compliance outcomes, and organisations going on to secure significant multi-year funding.

​The session will bring organisations and funders into conversation around a central question: what would change if institutional readiness were funded as seriously as the grants themselves?