We are living in catastrophic times where situations are complex, and things cannot continue as they are. Beyond the crises, what new horizons can we create for our world? How can we reimagine philanthropy as we reimagine the future? Understanding philanthropic transformation requires a deeper interrogation of what constitutes radical transformation and the role of ideology and worldviews within the philanthropic change demanded by those we seek to serve.

As we reflect on people, power, policy, and practice as important components to achieve transformative philanthropy, we recognize that philanthropic transformation and building a new philanthropic system rooted in a pan-African and feminist grounding is not the work of a day. Nor is it the work of any single institution, which is why UAF-Africa and TrustAfrica believe deeply in the importance of collectively advancing the Pan-African and Feminist Philanthropies with others which we hope to do at the 2023 WINGS forum.

We are particularly enthusiastic that the WINGs forum is taking place on the African continent for the first time in its history. This provides a unique opportunity to center the rich history and repository of knowledge and practice around African giving with a broader scope of shared experiences on how others navigate the challenges of philanthropy transformation.

Moreover, the overall WINGS Forum theme “Transform Philanthropy to Transform the World’ aligns with the pan-African and Feminist Philanthropies initiative narrative and principles of advancing a reimagined approach and practice to philanthropy that is in service of constituency agency rooted in solidarity. We are delighted about this as we represent two pan-African grant-making institutions, TrustAfrica and Urgent Action Fund-Africa. These two organisations have been working together over the past year to create a vision, practice, and strategy for a world where pan-African and feminist narratives and practices around giving are central to our understanding of philanthropy and its role in addressing key challenges while seizing potential opportunities on the continent and globally.

We began seeding this work – the pan-African and Feminist Philanthropies Initiative (PAFP) – in July 2022 in Naivasha, Kenya where the three key pillars of this work – narratives and principles; advocacy and influencing; and infrastructure and endowment were created.  In addition, at that meeting, over $520,000 was contributed towards the establishment of the PAFP endowment, a legacy initiative for UAF-Africa and TrustAfrica.

Since that landmark meeting we have engaged in a series of strategic conversations, outreach to key funders and influencing events, development of core narratives and principles, and launching a scoping study for a pan-African and feminist endowment, all of which center pan-African and feminist narratives and strategies.  This is clear in the evolution of this work which was conceptualized in Naivasha in July 2022 and February 2023 respectively, launched in Addis Ababa in June 2023, and presented at the African Philanthropy Conference in Saly, Senegal in August 2023.

Guided by several deliberations around how to reimagine pan-African and Feminist Philanthropy, we hope for a more critical engagement at the WINGS conference with some of the key challenges and contradictions we must face to advance transformative philanthropy.  These include reimagining who we think of as philanthropists and including everyday giving, social solidarity, and mutual aid in our framing of giving. PAFP has merged pan-African and feminist framing to politicize funding and ensure that those who are most impacted by the harms of our world are centered in solidarity, mutual support, and horizontal giving.  We are launching an endowment because we know that to transform philanthropy, we must reimagine how wealth is defined and distributed and control our own resources.  PAFP is a collaborative effort since philanthropy can only be transformed if we invest in collective leadership across the continent.

In order not to widen the philanthropic gap which benefits those who have power and everything, there is a need to demonstrate contributions towards bettering the lives of the citizens we serve through strategic collaborations in the philanthropic sector.

In addition, the goals of the PAFP initiative at the WINGS conference are to:

• Popularize and socialize our concepts and tools,
• Deepen relationships with philanthropic and movement actors
• Engage with funders to help us think through a resource mobilization strategy for the PAFP endowment that will serve pan-African and feminist movements, constituencies and the philanthropic ecosystem
• Partner with the Zambian Governance Foundation, PSJP (Global Dialogue) to host a participatory session that will build on the lived experiences of change makers that will explore the personal, relational, organizational and political transformations needed to to shore up transformational philanthropy

We will be bringing insights, analyses, tools, and resources to the WINGs conference as part of our efforts to bring new perspectives and understanding to the important and timely conference topic – “Transform Philanthropy to Transform the World’.  The WINGS conference is yet another touchpoint in the process of learning, exchanging, and developing new insights into African leadership and activism in the philanthropic space.  To learn more about the Pan-African and feminist philanthropies initiative see our brochure here.

Alliance will be covering WINGS 2023. For updates sign up to our newsletter here.

Inquiries:

Tsitsi Marylin Midzi – Tsitsi@uaf-africa.org +263 71 804 6656

Briggs Bomba – bomba@trustafrica.org +263 71 822 6196

We hope you will join us!