From Crisis to Collaboration: Reimagining Global Development Beyond Traditional Aid

July 2025

At Connective Impact, we've spent the last few months listening deeply to what is unfolding on the ground. We’ve hosted several in-person and online meetings with funders, social enterprises, nonprofits, and frontline changemakers around the world to understand how major funding disruptions - like recent USAID cuts - have forced global development organizations to adapt. Programs have paused. Staff were sent home. Some organizations closed altogether. But the story doesn’t end there.

In the face of this uncertainty, something remarkable has emerged. Rather than collapse under pressure, organizations, grassroots leaders, and their communities are adapting, innovating, and rising to the challenge. They are shifting from models of dependency to models of agency. We’ve heard many stories of local communities stepping up, pooling resources, volunteering, and creating innovative income-generating initiatives.

This moment is offering a powerful new vision for the future of global development - one that highlights the resilience of local actors, the rise of community agency, and the urgent need for more diversified, flexible and collaborative funding models. It’s a vision that is collaborative. Sustainable. And most importantly, led by the communities themselves.

The Power of Communities Rising to the Challenge

Too often, communities in the Global South are seen as aid recipients - but they are, in fact, leading change with agency. From raising school funds to launching enterprises, local actors are stepping up with creativity, resilience, and commitment. Amid government funding cuts and a shifting philanthropic landscape, this agency is becoming even more visible - as communities fill gaps, adapt quickly, and drive solutions from the ground up.

Funders’ Progress and a Vision for the Future

Many funders are already shifting - listening more closely, easing reporting requirements, extending timelines, and investing in long-term infrastructure. Some are helping organizations cover funding gaps or transforming short-term grants into multi-year partnerships.

But more is needed. True sustainability means funding capacity, not just programs. It means supporting income-generating assets and backing locally led innovation, even when the return on investment isn’t instant.

Rethinking Funding and Partnerships for the Long-Term

To thrive - not just survive - organizations must explore hybrid models: blending grants, investments, and earned income. They’re also tapping into growing philanthropic capital from foundations and corporations from regions like Asia, Africa, and Latin America, and raising unrestricted funds through crowdfunding.

This is a pivotal moment. One that calls for a new kind of development: grounded in trust, built through collaboration, and led by the communities themselves.

Connective Impact’s latest breakthrough brief, Reimagining Global Development, surfaces trends, stories, and recommendations for funders and organizations alike. While not exhaustive, we reflect on exploratory questions like:

• Are we funding for survival or sustainability?
  
  

• Are we listening first, then acting?
  
  

• Are we helping to build ecosystems, not just programs?

We believe wholeheartedly that it’s time to move from crisis response to co-creation.

👉 Download the full PDF version of this breakthrough brief here to explore and reimagine a new sector that is ready to be uncovered.