Throughout my career I have been both personally and professionally committed to strengthening civil society’s role in democratic, non-racial, social change. During 2016 I decided to step away from full-time employment in order to pursue a more flexible lifestyle comprising some voluntary and some consultancy assignments. My most recent full-time role was as CAF Southern Africa (CAFSA) CEO, which position I held from 2008 until December 2016. CAFSA’s purpose is to strengthen civil society via increased and improved philanthropic contributions. My career began in the 1980’s when I joined Planact, an NGO which supported communities and the trade union movement on housing and development issues. After 1994 I moved into the new democratic government as Statistics South Africa’s director of strategy. Following a four-year stint at Stats SA, I returned to civil society, where for the next five years I was privileged to lead the Southern African Grantmakers’ Association (SAGA), an institution established post-94 to help build developmental relationships between the donor and civil society sectors. During this time I honed my advocacy skills, as SAGA, together with partners, successfully petitioned government towards establishment of a more enabling legislative environment for civil society and private philanthropy. During this time I also served on the governing committee of the international umbrella body for philanthropy infrastructure, the World Wide Initiative for Grantmaker Support (WINGS). After leaving SAGA, I worked as an independent development consultant for three years: mostly in the social research, corporate social responsibility, and private philanthropy sectors. I have published in these areas, written for the media, and presented at local and international conferences. For several years I was a proud member of the board at the Trevor Huddleston Memorial Centre www.trevorhuddleston.org