Just six months after the African Grantmakers Network held its extremely successful second assembly in Johannesburg [1], a new network of African philanthropists, the African Philanthropy Forum (APF), was launched in San Francisco in March.

The APF is the most recent affiliate of the San Francisco-based Global Philanthropy Forum (GPF) – the first Brazilian Philanthropy Forum was held in São Paulo late last year. Like the GPF, the APF will take the form of a peer-learning network of philanthropists – both grantmakers and social investors. The aim is to promote the expansion of strategic philanthropy by Africans in Africa. ‘Twenty-seven out of 30 of Africa’s largest economies are experiencing extraordinary economic growth,’ said GPF president Jane Wales. ‘This represents an enormous opportunity to advance the social good.’

The APF numbers among its funders the Tony Elumelu Foundation, the MasterCard Foundation, Kenya’s Equity Group Foundation and the Rockefeller Foundation. Its founding membership is drawn from across Sub-Saharan Africa and includes Tsitsi Masiyiwa, executive chairperson of the Higher Life Foundation of Zimbabawe; Hylton Appelbaum, managing director of South Africa’s Donald Gordon Foundation; Manu Chandaria, founder of the Chandaria Foundation, and James Mwangi, chairman of the Equity Group Foundation, both Kenyans; and Nigerian Tony Elumelu, founder of the Tony Elumelu Foundation.

‘Africans are now setting their own development agenda, and the vision behind the African Philanthropy Forum is to create a platform that aligns our collective efforts to transform the continent from within,’ said Elumelu.

Reeta Roy of the MasterCard Foundation added: ‘The early members of the APF are coming together to promote ethical leadership and have made a commitment to mentorship of other emerging philanthropists throughout the continent. And because the APF members will be embedded in the global community that is the GPF, their influence will be felt well beyond the continent.’

For more information
http://philanthropyforum.org

[1] See Latest from Alliance at http://philanthropynews.alliancemagazine.org for reports from the AGN.