Question 1

Who runs Kwanda?

Accepted Answer

Our board is responsible for financial oversight and the strategic direction of the organisation: Izzy Obeng, Lynne Egwuekwe, Anne-Caroline Midy and Jermaine Craig, who founded Kwanda. You can  read their profiles , check our directorship and filings on  Companies House , or read  our constitution , which sets out how we are governed.

Question 2

Is Kwanda a registered charity?

Accepted Answer

Yes. Kwanda Inc. is a 501(c)(3) public charity based in Maryland, USA (EIN: 41-2766953), at 306 W Redwood St, Baltimore, MD 21201. We also have a UK entity, Kwanda Ltd, a non-profit company limited by guarantee (Company Number: 12378728) at International House, 64 Nile Street, London, N1 7SR. Neither entity distributes profit to anyone. Any surplus goes back into the work.

Question 3

What does Kwanda fund?

Accepted Answer

Assets. Things that keep producing after the money has been spent: a clinic that opens every morning, a borehole a school maintains itself, sewing machines still running three years on. That focus is recent, and we would rather say so than let the ledger imply otherwise. A bit over half of what we have deployed over five years fits it. The rest was chosen against different criteria at the time, from COVID relief to grants for Black-owned businesses, and a good deal of it is still running. What has changed is the test the next thing has to pass. Our  thesis  sets out the five tests every proposal is now judged against.

Question 4

Is my contribution tax deductible?

Accepted Answer

In the US, yes. Kwanda Inc. is a 501(c)(3) public charity, so contributions are deductible to the extent the law allows. If you want a formal receipt, give through  Every.org . They handle our US receipting and keep a record of everything you have given. Monthly contributions are billed by us through Stripe, so what you get there is an invoice for each payment rather than an annual acknowledgement. In the UK, no. Kwanda Ltd is a non-profit company limited by guarantee rather than a registered charity, so we cannot claim Gift Aid and your contribution is not deductible. It funds exactly the same work either way.

Question 5

Why Africa and the Caribbean?

Accepted Answer

Kwanda was built by the African and Caribbean diaspora. We already send money home. Kwanda is about making some of it buy something that keeps producing. We have funded work in 18 countries so far. You can see every one of them, and what was spent in each, on our  ledger .

Question 6

How do I know the money actually arrives?

Accepted Answer

We only fund partners who can evidence what they spent it on. That is part of our  funding criteria , and it is assessed before anything is transferred. We hold ourselves to the same standard. Every transaction we make is on our  open ledger , our recurring costs are on our  fixed costs  page, each project carries its own updates as the work progresses, and every quarter we publish a full  impact report .

Question 7

How much of my contribution goes to projects, and how much to running Kwanda?

Accepted Answer

It moves month to month, so rather than publish a fixed promise we publish the actual numbers. Every transaction we make is on our  open ledger . Every recurring cost is itemised on our  fixed costs  page and updated monthly. You can work out the split yourself, for any month you like. Staff is our largest single cost. Paying people properly is what pays for the due diligence, the follow-up and the reporting that make everything else here worth trusting. Our costs do not grow at the same rate as the village, so the larger we get, the more of each contribution reaches a project.

Question 8

How does voting work?

Accepted Answer

Every villager gets a vote, whatever they contribute. We publish a proposal for each project we want to fund. It sets out the context, who is implementing it, the plan, the cost, and what we expect it to produce. Villagers who have opted into email hear when one goes live. You then have a set window to read it and vote. A proposal passes if 50% or more of the votes cast are yes, so it is the villagers who turn up who decide. Results go to the whole village once voting closes.

Question 9

How do you decide what to put to a vote?

Accepted Answer

Every proposal is judged against the same five tests: permanence, public benefit, self-sustaining, productive output and stewardship. Our  thesis  sets out what each one means. Most of what reaches us comes through local networks rather than an application form. We practise trust-based philanthropy, which means we start from trust in the people doing the work, then verify: local references, registration documents and financial history. Where a project warrants more scrutiny than that, we use  GlobalGiving's  vetting and due diligence alongside our own. They have verified non-profits and projects for years, and it gives us an established process to lean on rather than one we invented.

Question 10

Can I suggest a project?

Accepted Answer

Yes, and villagers do. Send it over and we will assess it against the same five tests as everything else. In practice most of what we fund comes through partners we already know, or people they vouch for. A project that arrives cold takes longer, because we have to build the local picture from scratch.

Question 11

Can I choose which projects or countries my contribution goes to?

Accepted Answer

No. Every contribution goes into one pool, and the whole pool funds whatever the village votes through. That is deliberate. A single pool lets us fund a £12,000 clinic that no individual contribution could reach, and it means a project is chosen on whether it passes our tests, not on how photogenic it is. Your say comes through the vote, not through earmarking.

Question 12

How do you know a project worked?

Accepted Answer

We agree the measures before the money moves, and they are specific to the thing being funded. Patients seen. Litres pumped. Students enrolled. Income earned. Then we go back. Partners report as the work progresses, and we keep checking after it is finished, because the test is not whether it opened. It is whether it is still producing. Every quarter we publish what each project produced in our  impact report .

Question 13

What happens if a project fails?

Accepted Answer

We work with the partner to fix it. If it cannot be fixed, we stop and redirect whatever is left. Either way you hear about it. Problems, underperformance and any misuse of funds go to the whole village as soon as we know.

Question 14

Why does it have to be monthly?

Accepted Answer

A predictable monthly income is what lets us commit to a project that runs for eighteen months, keep a team, and stop fundraising long enough to actually do the work. You can also make a  one-off contribution . That is a donation rather than a membership, so it does not carry a vote.

Question 15

Can I change, pause or cancel my contribution?

Accepted Answer

Yes, any of the three, from your dashboard, whenever you like. There is no minimum commitment period and no notice to give.

Question 16

Can I pay by direct debit?

Accepted Answer

Yes, you can set one up when you join. It means you keep your villager status if a card expires or gets replaced.

Question 17

Can I contribute skills instead of money?

Accepted Answer

No. We keep every core function with permanent staff, so nothing critical depends on somebody's spare time, and we hold the projects we fund to the same standard: they are not built on volunteers either. The most useful thing you can do beyond contributing is bring someone else into the village.

Question 18

I can't log in

Accepted Answer

Check for a typo in the email you signed up with, and check your spam folder for the login link. If it still will not work, email  support@kwanda.co  and someone will sort it out.