Shifting power, processes, and funding, to local actors
Our Approach
Our mission is to support collective action for community resilience. We are working towards a world where the most marginalized members of society have a powerful and sustainable avenue to collectively build the future they want for themselves and their communities.
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An Ecosystem of Change
The Share Trust focuses on three elements of an ecosystem that help enable communities to lead, strengthen local organizations to support them, and create the policy and institutional conditions that allow locally led change to thrive.
Self Help Groups
Groups of 10–25 people who meet weekly to save, build livelihoods, and strengthen their communities. We partner with them to build on their collective strengths and lead change.
Local Intermediaries
Organizations that bridge donors and communities, providing the expertise, services, and resources to local actors. We support local intermediaries through capacity sharing and coalition building, while our research helps international intermediaries rethink how resources and decision-making power are shared.
Policy Ecosystem
The systems, policies, relationships, and resources that shape how locally led organizations operate and access support. We partner with donors, governments, and private sector actors to strengthen these systems for locally led change.
We believe…
Invest
When we invest in the agency of local actors to create change, we exponentially and cost effectively dismantle poverty and build resilience from the inside out.
Shift
There needs to be a fundamental shift in the way we tackle poverty reduction, moving towards investing in the promise of collective action.
Holistic Approach
While there are varying approaches to community engagement, a holistic focus on empowerment and collective action drives transformative change.
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Local intermediaries could deliver programming that is 32% more cost efficient than international intermediaries, by stripping out inflated international overhead and salary costs.
Meet Katooko
Katooko Shadia, a leader in Uganda's Mukisa Achievers Hair Shampoo and Conditioner Self-Help Group, turned training in financial literacy and shampoo production into a reliable livelihood. She now mentors families of children with disabilities, helped launch a shared catering business, and is building savings to support her children's education and healthcare.
Together, the women-led group is strengthening household resilience through collective savings and local enterprise.
Support locally led solutions that empower communities to shape their own futures.
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