The Islamic Development Bank (IsDB), and the Islamic Solidarity Fund for Development (ISFD), in close coordination with Regional Hubs Indonesia, Kazakhstan, and Egypt together with the United Nations Development Program (UNDP), held virtual onboarding workshops to launch the Tadamon Crowdfunding Academy in April 2021.The Ministry of Finance of Indonesia as well as the IsDB Governor’s Office for Kazakhstan (Astana International Financial Center -AIFC) participated in the launching ceremonies.

The events came in response to a series of  open call for proposals, organized jointly by IsDB, ISFD, UNDP (the implementing partner) and local partners in Indonesia (22nd April), Lebanon (22 April) and Kazakhstan (15 April) where tens of shortlisted leading Civil Society Organizations (CSOs) and Non-Governmental Organizations (NGOs) took part.  

The programs aimed to help CSOs and NGOs learn to develop crowdfunding campaigns. This was conducted through e-learning and offline training sessions comprising learning materials and pitching presentations, work assignments, and guidance from leading crowdfunding experts for select CSOs/NGOs with a diverse range of sectors including women, youth empowerment, disability, climate change, energy and environment, peacebuilding, STEM education, community development, agriculture, and rural development.

Sponsored by ISFD, the Tadamon Crowdfunding Academy is part of IsDB-ISFD NGOs Empowerment for Poverty Reduction Program which is aligned with the inclusive social development pillar of IsDB’s 10-Year Strategy and the President’s Five-Year Program (P5P) which call for more participation of CSOs as active elements  of the developers network.

It also emphasizes the importance of the role and participation of CSOs in contributing to mainstream socio-economic development initiatives and supporting the achievement of the SDGs. The Program is now moving online in partnership with the Kaya platform, a global learning platform of the Humanitarian Leadership Academy of Save the Children.

Elaborating on objective and scope of the Program, the speakers highlighted that Tadamon crowdfunding academy is an innovative platform, well aligned with the IsDB Group’s new business model, and seeks to unlock the potentials of the grassroots stakeholders, while capacitating and mobilizing them to be strong development actors.

UNDP, as the implementing partner of the Crowdfunding Academy, specified that tackling poverty as a multidimensional issue remains a key priority at UNDP which is partnering with organizations on the ground to develop innovative and inclusive solutions for tackling poverty to help achieve the Sustainable Development Goals.