real insights

From the Chronicle of Philanthropy:

Mr. Affleck said he wanted to give money to local groups both to help people in the Congo directly but also to back up his advocacy work with real insights.

“We’ve all seen advocates who have a lot to say, but when I really drill down with them, I don’t have any kind of clear sense of where their opinions are coming from,” he said. “I wanted to have the integrity of doing that and I also wanted to make a tangible difference on the ground.”

I've written before about what I think Affleck's Eastern Congo Initiative is getting right. Add to that list the importance of getting beyond advocacy slogans to a perspective of what is actually going on at ground-level. Glad to see that Affleck is trying to learn directly from the Congolese.