Philanthropy and Charity are key components of nonprofit, otherwise

known as the Third Sector. It has contributed tremendously to the

development of Nigeria and Africa; majorly through foreign aids,

grants and individual tax deduction based donations.

However, local organizations willing and ready to contribute through

nongovernmental mechanisms towards complementing the developmental

efforts of governments in our society are confronted with lack of

leadership and management manpower, verifiable database, transparent

impact assessment auditing system and partnership policy framework.

This is in contrast to what is obtained in the United States of

America where statistical data shows that the nonprofit sector

generates over 5% gross domestic product of their economy. It employs

over 11million workers, with 9% of all wages and salaries amounting to

over 500billion dollars.

In the United States also, 90% of nonprofit workforce is found in

healthcare, education and other social services. Cumulatively,

charitable giving from 1976 – 2016 in United States amounts to

US$400billion dollars. More than 2/3 of tax payers in United States

give to charity and three quarter of US$400billion dollars comes from

individual giving. In volunteering, 63million Americans volunteer for

charity and it is made up of 25% adults.

The numerous reported and unreported cases of misappropriation of

funds meant for charitable services, lack of public trust, and

unprofessional conduct of some domestic nonprofit practitioners have

resulted to withdrawal of some foreign aids, grants and donations

required to meet the critical needs of our communities.

These are propellers that challenged our working group to peer review nonprofit

capacity building guidelines, with international best practice ‘rooted

in principles of moral agency, stewardship, freedom of speech, freedom

of peaceful assembly, ethical practice, and transparency that

supercharge charity’.

Charitable practice in Nigeria is in desperate need of overhaul and

re-engineering, in consonance with new corporate laws, 21st century

industry standards and corporate social responsibility, new media

variations etc. This will innovatively empower nonprofit sector to

tackle many social and environmental issues confronting our

communities, in accordance with Part F, Chapter Three, paragraph 836 of the

Companies and Allied Matters Act, 2020.