INSPIRE hosted a series of workshops titled Foundations for Trust: Assessing and advancing community trusts maturity for impact between July-September 2025 in Gqeberha, Kimberley, and Cape Town respectively. We had a privilege to host 70 Community trustees, independent trustees, trust administrators and donor representatives across the three cities.
These workshops are part of the broader Trust Matters project and were geared towards activating the Trust Maturity Self-Assessment Tool, which is a practical resource developed from the Trust Maturity Framework. The Trust Maturity Self-Assessment Tool is designed to support trusts in reflecting on and strengthening their organisational practices across the four pillars of the Trust Maturity Framework: Governance, Vision and Strategy, Capacity, and Impactful Delivery.
With each workshop we delivered on the following objectives:
- Activate Trust Maturity Self-Assessment tool: Demonstrated how to use the tool, walked participants through the question-and-rating process, and encouraged them to think critically about their trusts’ strengths and areas for growth across the four pillars of the tool (Governance, Vision & Strategy, Impactful Delivery, Capacity)
- Enable hands-on application of the Trust Maturity Self-Assessment tool: Ensured community trusts were well-positioned to self-assess based on the four pillars.
- Create a space for peer-to-peer learning: Reflected on the results of the self-assessment from each group and identified areas for development.
The foundations for trust workshops were interactive, with participants divided into four groups, each group focusing on one of the Trust Maturity Framework’s pillars. To make the most of the limited time, the groups combined their responses to form a “super trust” allowing them to experience the tool in a practical and engaging way. Each group completed their section of the self-assessment tool and presented back their findings to the room, sparking rich discussions.
The presentations were followed by a collective reflection, and question-and-answer session, encouraging participants to think critically about strengths and areas of growth. Upon completion of self-assessment tool, it automatically generated an overall trust maturity levels score ranging from Initiating, Developing, Maturing, and ultimately Leading, giving participants a clear picture of where their community trust stands on its journey.
Attendees were also invited to play an interactive and thought-provoking game that underscores the importance of choosing the right tool and collaborating. The activity demonstrated how certain approaches may be less effective, and how opportunities for mutual support are often overlooked. This exercise served as a practical parallel to the Trust Maturity Self-Assessment Tool, which is designed to assist trusts in identifying what is working well, where challenges exist, and where improvements can be made. By combining reflection on strengths with honest identification of challenges, the tool enables trusts to chart a clearer path towards more effective governance, strategy, capacity, and delivery.
One of the highlights was seeing how the tool gave trustees practical language and structure to assess their strengths and areas for improvement. It was also encouraging to witness how group activities sparked conversations about governance, accountability, and long-term strategy.
Furthermore, participants were introduced to our Trust Support Matrix, outlining existing INSPIRE support resources. The resource development is an ongoing task, and these are some of the resources that have been developed thus far:
Participants also had an opportunity to make suggestions on other resources that INSPIRE can further develop. To build into these resources, INSPIRE aims to land at providing scalable capacity building opportunities for trusts as part of 2026 plans and beyond.
All trusts in Renewable Energy sector are encouraged to complete the trust maturity self-assessment tool and share their results with us. Completing the tool will help to inform future resources, capacity building and training support, as well as provide growth pathways for trusts to reach the next stage of maturity and strengthen the ability for trusts to act as true vehicles for community empowerment. It’s about growth, not judgement, a principle that resonated deeply throughout the sessions.
