Our Publications

Conversations With Africa Grantmakers: Reflections on Navigating Roles and Relationships presents snapshots from conversations with 17 grantmakers. They discuss their career paths, how they perceive their roles, and their perspectives on the grantmaking process.

Funders targeting support to benefit communities in Africa represent a diverse set of grantmakers targeting a broad array of priorities, according to a new report from Africa Grantmakers’ Affinity Group (AGAG). In fact, more than half of the survey respondents provide support for two or more issue areas, specified populations, and/or countries or regions.

This report examines changes in funding over a decade and provides a detailed portrait of giving in 2012.

This paper was commissioned by the Africa Grantmakers’ Affinity Group as a background paper for our strategic planning process. It highlights key trends in American philanthropy and implications for funders interested in Africa. 

This report covers the three overarching issues facing funders supporting organizations in Africa which were explored during the 2011 AGAG Retreat.

The findings and recommendations from this study AGAG conducted to explore attitudes and opinions about funding national non-governmental organizations (NGOs) in Africa directly or indirectly through intermediary organizations. 

This summary report provides only a “flavor” of the topics and ideas that emerged from the main plenary sessions of the AGAG 2010 Retreat.

This report features a summary of three sessions from the 2014 Annual Conference organized by members of AGAG on funding approaches and strategies in funding women, youth and environment projects.

In March 2014, we invited funders interested in Africa to New York to attend our annual conference on “Funding in Africa: Challenges and Opportunities.” This report gives a flavor of the topics discussed and highlights from the presentations.

This conference report captures some of the diverse opinions, interests, ideas, and approaches that emerged from the AGAG Conference on “Funding Impact: Partnerships, Networks and Collaborations.”

This overview of funding by foundations based in the United States for health-related activities in Africa for the three-year period from 2000 through 2002.

This summary captures the key findings from a larger report that examines a sampling of grants from 2001 to 2005 to support health, basic education, and comprehensive programs for children and youth in ten countries in Southern Africa. 

This summary report examined funding by forty-one American and two European funders for health and basic education programs for children and youth in ten Southern Africa countries between 2001 and 2005. 

This summary report presents some of the key topics and points of discussion of the 2012 AGAG retreat.

This directory profiles a sample of the funders represented at the Africa Grantmakers’ Affinity Group Conference and Retreat held in Johannesburg, South Africa in 2008. It was compiled as a resource for participants.

The theme for the 2009 retreat, “Connecting Knowledge: Education, Health and Civil Society” explored the interconnection between education and health and the important role civil society plays in building strong communities. The retreat included presentations, panel discussions and small group work, as well as time for informal networking and meetings with colleagues.

The 2013 gathering was about changes – in Africa and in philanthropy. Neither has escaped the impact of dramatic shifts globally and locally in response to social, economic, and political trends. The discussions ranged from “big picture trends” in philanthropy and in Africa to specific changes affecting the field and adaptive responses.

The 2005 annual retreat took place at the Dulce Hayes Mansion Conference Center in San Jose, California from January 17-19, 2005. The participants included grantmakers based in the U. S. and Africa who represented foundations with a variety of funding interests such as community development, health, women’s issues, support for civil society, democracy and governance, culture, environment and education.

As the third in a series of annual retreats, the 2002 retreat in Chicago focused on both strategic issues, such as theories of social change and partnerships, and substantive issues, such as HIV/AIDS, challenges to democratization and the use of information technology.