Today’s funding systems often fail the very communities they claim to serve. Local organisations and activists face barriers that keep them from accessing resources—even when they are already making a difference. Rigid compliance frameworks, donor-driven agendas, and power imbalances continue to dominate international development cooperation.

Many funders, on the other hand, genuinely want to shift power—but face limitations:

• Legal and tax frameworks that restrict direct giving.
• A lack of visibility into community-led initiatives.
• Bureaucratic processes that exclude informal or emerging actors.

At the same time, humanity is running out of time. The complexity of today’s challenges—climate change, extreme weather, social injustice, failing food systems—requires a systems change approach: one that tackles root causes, shifts power relations, and transforms the underlying narratives.

joy∞untu exists to unlock the conditions for this shift—removing barriers between funders and communities, and enabling long-term, locally-led systems change.