Helen and Karien have been collaborating on making philanthropy more impactful, resilient and sustainable for the past 20 years. Philanthropy Matters is the latest iteration of this vision.
Karien Bezuidenhout
Karien believes in the positive potential of philanthropy, using open, inclusive, and trust-enhancing methods. She has over 20 years of experience helping philanthropists and over 50 social change agents achieve their mission.
She has used her ability to quickly grasp complex organisational dynamics, understand the frictions that prevent impactful progress, and factor in business realities quickly to:
develop philanthropic application, review, and reporting processes
create lightweight, effective, trust-enhancing reporting systems
run effective sessions to build community and solve problems collaboratively
help practitioners develop healthy organisational policies as they grow
Karien has worked with philanthropy and organisations in education, telecommunication, healthcare, cellular agriculture, citizen science, data governance, governance and accountability, complementary currencies, and equity and inclusion. She studied business and emerging market economics at the University of Stellenbosch and the University of Cape Town, which gave her the foundation and resolve to challenge conventional socio economic frameworks and the systems of inequitable power distribution that keeps them in place.
Helen King-Turvey
With over 20 years of experience working with international NGOs, agencies, social enterprises and purpose driven organisations, Helen has a deep-rooted understanding of the inner workings of philanthropy, what it does well, and what it does not.
She is recognised for investing in 50+ social impact founders and entities throughout all stages of development, including strategy, fundraising, service provision, people management, and leadership development.
Helen has spent the past two decades working to make philanthropy better, over half of that time working with the Shuttleworth Foundation, an organisation that provided million dollar Fellowships for people engaged in social change and helping them have a sustained impact.
Educated in Europe, South America and the Middle East, Helen now lives in the UK after many years in South Africa. She has a truly internationalist perspective and has developed programmes and organisations all over the world. She holds several major board positions including for the Mozilla Foundation, the Open Knowledge Foundation and several for-profit entities. Helen is a regular public speaker at events – such as the Creative Commons Global Summit and the Paris Peace Forum – where she promotes openness and administrative justice as integral tools to democratise philanthropy and improve societies, education and economies everywhere.
