Foundation projects come from the identity of the place.

principle — attributed to Mark Johnson

Johnson and co-founder Whitney Kroenke Silverstein's Playing for Change Foundation projects come from each location's specific identity. South African townships asked for a school so the next kid might be the next Mandela rather than a gangster. Nepal: elderly women travel the Himalayan villages teaching through plays about protecting children from the sex slave trade. West Africa: clean water, solar power, light in maternity wards. Mali: two hundred kids in a dance class. Kathmandu: an orphanage. The discipline is operational. The foundation does not arrive with a program template. It asks each community what to build, then builds that. The pattern is the inverse of most international development work and produces durable local results.

For international development leaders, foundation directors, and global program designers thinking about whether to standardize or localize. The principle is most useful as a frame against template-driven philanthropy.

playing-for-change-foundation, local-identity, townships, place-specific