What We Do
Nurture Spaces for Collective Voice and Networking
Strengthening the impact of African philanthropy requires a strong, diverse and robust infrastructure that can lead the field, support its development and serve as a platform for collective philanthropy voices and agendas. Strong philanthropic and civil society institutions – working at community, national and pan-African levels have emerged, bringing with them a rootedness, legitimacy and credibility to engage in ways that open spaces for new and diverse voices, build movements that challenge the prevailing development system, and enable mechanisms to highlight existing power imbalances in national, regional and continental governance arrangements.
Furthermore, beyond traditional practices, there are a host of formalised communities-based philanthropies that are authentic sites of African agency at work. There is a great possibility for such institutions to inform and shape the governance discourse in ways that bring community priorities to the fore. Despite the emerging knowledge, we simply do not know enough to comprehensively reflect on the nature, trends and impact of African philanthropic giving in development. This is an opportunity for APN to think of effective forms of engagement and possible partnerships with these institutions so as to offer the space to actors who have legitimacy to create public awareness and drive conversations around how development must be done, the ineffectiveness in the current approaches to philanthropy, the transformative potential of African philanthropic giving practices, and the role of social justice philanthropy in creating safe and just societies.
Influence and Advocate for Enabling Philanthropy
Africans have a long-entrenched tradition of philanthropic giving, rooted in notions of solidarity and trust. In spaces where people have been marginalised by state or other external actors, these individuals and pooled resources and have responded to people’s needs and sustained livelihoods. In these mechanisms the real value and potential of African philanthropy can be found.
Recently, practitioners in the continent have been contesting the forward grounded narratives on the conceptual understanding of continental resources flows, challenging the myths of a continent dependent of foreign aid. Reflecting a practice of engaged citizens actively forging peer giving practices, and accessing aid when it is made available. There has also been a resurgence in remittance based giving from Africans in the diaspora. In some countries such remittances are the biggest source of foreign currency.
We see the rise of the foundations established by wealthy Africans, corporations, grant making, faith based, community foundations and other community philanthropies playing significant developmental roles. Several of these are supporting initiatives as sites of active citizenship and community organizing, enabling spaces to drive agendas that demand accountability and transparency. Yet, there is little support given to understanding and enable these philanthropic mechanisms.
Strengthen APN’s Resilience
Established in 2009 as a network of African led member organizations, the challenge remains building resilience and while maintaining a focus on nurturing a strong enough infrastructure that can bring African philanthropies together and articulate a common voice. It is critical therefore to strengthen APN as a platform with the capacity and resources to execute its mission effectively.
Strengthening the impact of African philanthropy requires strong, diverse and robust infrastructure that can lead the field, support its development and serves as a platform for collective philanthropy voices and agendas. For a long time, civil society and community philanthropy organizations were dependents on northern-based organizations (INGOs) and networks as the site of peer learning and analysis. The recent years have seen the emergence of a range of infrastructure institutions at the national, regional and continental level such as APN. While these are not without challenges, there is considerable potential to strengthen the African philanthropy arena.
During the five years, we will mobilize members from all African regions and deepen our work in sub-Saharan Africa, while attracting strategic partners and identifying opportunities globally. We believe that without adequate investment in this infrastructure, the impact of philanthropy field will undoubtedly remain marginal.
Our Approach
APN focuses more explicitly towards the multi-stakeholder end of the philanthropy spectrum -emphasis on philanthropic giving practices, philanthropy as an act of participation, empathy, trust; a chain of solidarity– African philanthropy as a development tool.
APN remain true to its mission and values by embracing the following main approaches in all our operations and relationships:
- Partnership
- Distributed leadership
- Narrative building
- Data-driven Systems Change
- Gender and Inclusion
- Meaningful participation of young people
More about APN
Frequently Asked Questions
APN is the only continent-wide network dedicated to promoting the culture of philanthropic giving in Africa and its diaspora.
Africa philanthropy to entail resources – nature, human, financial, social, and intellectual that can be tapped into addressing Africa’s most pressing challenges. At APN, we equate Africa philanthropy with citizen agency – the capacity of individuals to act independently and make their own choices. African philanthropy includes foundation and funds; family and community based; individual donors and collective solidarity mechanisms such as in case, in kind, or in time; and social investments.
African philanthropy is generally characterized by all forms of horizontal and vertical dimensions of giving private resources for the common good; it cannot be defined by a single giving practice or culture
APN supports efforts to build knowledge on philanthropy, nurturing spaces for collective voice and networking and partnering with funders to strengthen our resilience as an infrastructure that brings African philanthropy actors and developers together to articulate a collective voice for African philanthropy.
APN welcomes grantmakers, community foundations, private foundations, academia, CSOs, individuals who give and other philanthropists in the continent and the diaspora – whose capital, influence, knowledge, and moral authority – have the power to address the structural and systematic causes of injustice and inequality.
Becoming a member of APN is easy! Simply fill this form within our Membership page.
reach out to us
Call Support
+255 738 045 256
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info@africaphilanthropynetwork.org
Address
Samsa Real Estate
Dar es Salaam, Tanzania