Building Capacity for Change: A TechSoup Talk with GivingTuesday's Asha Curran & Marnie Webb

Building Capacity for Change, our latest TechSoup Talk, was a thoughtful and energizing conversation between TechSoup’s Marnie Webb and GivingTuesday’s Asha Curran, exploring what it really means to build the capacity of communities - not just through funding or formal structures, but through generosity, trust, and local connection.

WHAT WE COVERED
Over the course of the conversation, we explored:
👉 Expanding the definition of civil society: from formal NGOs to mutual aid networks, grassroots groups, and informal community organizers who embody generosity in action.
👉 Generosity as infrastructure: Asha reminded us that generosity isn’t a zero-sum resource. It scales from individual acts of care to systems-level change when communities act collectively.
👉 Data and storytelling: Marnie and Asha discussed how data can help us better describe and value the “hidden” work of small organizations and local leaders who are first responders in times of crisis.
👉 Collective action against isolation: Building connected, generous communities is a direct response to social isolation, polarization, and the closing of civic spaces.
👉 The power of small organizations: TechSoup serves over 300,000 civil society organizations, most with budgets under $2M USD. As Marnie noted, these are not just the last mile of service delivery, but the first mile of community insight.

A huge thank-you to Asha Curran for sharing how generosity builds systems of care and to Marnie Webb for guiding the conversation with such depth.

Recorded by TechSoup on November 6, 2025.
Register for upcoming TechSoup events at https://events.techsoup.org/techsoup-...