The Liberia Giving Month Campaign launches today
- Liberiagivingmonth.org is launching a home-grown platform to give people a chance to donate directly to vetted Liberian nonprofits through their phones or internet.
- More than 1,700 nonprofits are expected to participate in the campaign, which is scheduled to run throughout the country’s Independence Month.
- Platform founder, Smart Liberia, says it gives Liberians a chance to move from donor dependence and build human capital.
By Anthony Stephens, senior correspondent with New Narratives
For years people who wanted to donate money to nonprofits in Europe or the U.S.A have been able to do so with the click of a button on their computer or phone through well-known platforms such as GoFundMe and GlobalGiving. Now a new platform is allowing people to do the same for Liberian nonprofits doing good.
The liberiagivingmonth.org platform launches today offering people in Liberia or around the world the opportunity to donate directly to verified local organizations through a secure, home-grown digital platform. Coming in the wake of cuts to USAID and other key international doors that have crippled many Liberian NGOs, platform founder Marvin Tarawally of the Liberia-based start-up incubator Smart Liberia, says the platform could be a game changer for Liberian nonprofits.
“We think if we can get just 10 percent of the diaspora to give—even just $10 a month to an organization doing good work—that could generate anywhere from $4.5 million to maybe $6 or $7 million annually,” Trawally said. “We know folks in the diaspora care deeply about their families in this country.”
Smart Liberia is inviting qualified nonprofits to sign up to the platform from today. To sign up organizations will be expected to provide a range of financial and legal data to show they are meeting regulatory requirements and are transparent. Tarawally expects nonprofits in all sectors to sign up. Donors have the option to contribute to all organizations on the platform — with funds distributed equally — or to direct their donations to a specific organizations or sectors.
“You can see their full profile,” says Tarawally, of the organizations that will be listed. “You can see the work they’re doing. You can see their impact report. You can have access to the financials. We’re just creating more transparency for the donor to make an informed decision on where to spend their money. That’s the structure we’ve created so far. This is our version one — it’s not perfect, but it gets the job done.”
Marvin Tarawally, president and CEO of Smart Liberia presents “Liberia Giving Month Campaign” to nonprofits.
The launch of the platform comes at a critical time for the country as it confronts steep cuts in international aid. One of the world’s most aid-dependent nations, Liberia is being forced to reckon with the consequences of shifting donor priorities.
Before this year’s cuts to aid, the United States contributed nearly 2.6 percent of Liberia’s gross national income—the highest share from the U.S. to any country globally, according to the Center for Global Development. At a retreat with development partners in April, Augustine Ngafuan, Liberia’s Minister of Finance and Development Planning, warned that the total annual cost of the cancelled U.S. projects could reach $300 million. That figure is equivalent to 35 percent of the government’s $800 million annual budget.
Many experts fear the cuts will have dire consequences for the country’s long term economic outlook. Tarawally takes a contrarian view. He argues the aid cuts are a chance for Liberia to shake itself of donor dependence and address serious underlying problems in the economy.
“I think it’s really at a great time that it challenges Liberians to take ownership of our own own future, and this is what the campaign is built on,” Tarawally says. “True independence means we take care of ourselves. Any independent country will have to rely on its people, its resources, to fend for themselves. So this campaign is to really call on national pride and nationalism and say, ‘We know that no one is going to come and save Liberia, but Liberians and we can.’”
Liberians abroad already send large amounts of money to the country. So-called “remittances”, money sent home from abroad, reached $800 million in 2023, according to the Central Bank of Liberia, roughly equivalent to the entire national budget.
With an estimated 500,000 Liberians living abroad, according to a 2022 report by the International Organization for Migration, Smart Liberia is hoping its newly launched donation platform will tap into that diaspora support. It will also give Liberians at home and non-Liberians the chance to help worthy causes.
Tarawally says he hopes the platform will help people move toward institutionalized giving—supporting organizations that are addressing structural problems like education, rather than solely sending remittances to friends or relatives. The goal is not only to raise funds, but to foster a culture of local giving and self-reliance. He says even modest contributions from the diaspora could have a transformative impact if sustained over time.
“If I give to an organization that’s set up to teach kids how to read, that work can be sustained,” he says. “Sending money to a friend or family member is still important, and it should continue. But the larger issues facing our society can’t be left to government alone.”
Tarawally says that the financial impact may grow gradually, but the long-term goal is to build a collective sense of ownership among Liberians at home and abroad.
“We’re excited about the role the diaspora can play a very important role in this campaign,” he said. “Every year, we want to come together and say, ‘Liberians, we can invest in our own country.’”
Tarawally is one of several Liberian leaders raising the alarm about what he says is Liberia’s most pressing national challenge: its underdeveloped human capital. He says Liberian leaders have failed generation after generation of Liberians who have not been given the education they need to unlock opportunities to grow businesses and the economy as a whole.
“Human capital is the single biggest threat to our national security,” Trawally says. “And I think it’s going to take radical, revolutionary, innovative approaches to solve these problems. In every segment of Liberia, we have to act.”
He says the platform is about “building scalable products and services that can unleash the power of our people and Liberia.”
Tarawally says he hopes the platform will help create jobs, something development experts say is vital to economic growth and also security. As Liberia’s youth population swells the number without jobs is a threat to national peace.
“We have to figure out how to get 20, 30, 40, even 50,000 young people into the right jobs — jobs where they are earning.”
The platform goes live today and nonprofits across the country are urged to sign up or reach out to Smart Liberia for inquiries.
This story is a collaboration with New Narratives as part of the West Africa Justice Reporting Project. Funding was provided by the Swedish Embassy in Liberia which had no say in the story’s content.
