Looking Forward to 2023

NEW FUND STRATEGY

The African Visionary Fund is laser-focused on shifting capital and decision-making power to African-led organizations that, despite being best positioned to deliver innovative and cost-effective impact, are chronically underfunded when compared to their foreign-led peers. Our founding goal was to raise $10M in three years to fund and enable locally-led organizations on the continent. Over the last three years, we have sown the seeds necessary to catalyze widespread systemic change in how funders view and fund visionary African-founded and led organizations. But the work is far from being done.

Our next fund will be dedicated to continuing our mission and realizing our vision on a larger scale. In 2023, we will undergo a visioning and strategy exercise where we dream and scheme about shifting more resources and power to locally-led African organiz tions. Dubbed internally as the “2024 and Beyond” Strategy, we are committed to ensuring that the fund evolves, our team grows, and our programs expand with equity at the center.

BESPOKE PORTFOLIO SERVICES STRATEGY

African visionary leaders are driving impact and systems change across the continent, undeterred by being chronically overlooked and underfunded by Western philanthropy. At the African Visionary Fund, we believe that sustainable organizations are built by empowering and supporting the knowledge and innovative qualities that African visionary leaders possess.

In 2023, we will design a Portfolio Services model that is grounded in our values of equity and collaboration and puts the needs and insights of our visionary partners above our own assumptions. The core principles of the strategy will reflect the work we have been doing to support our partners:

• We ADOPT equity-centered methodologies

• We HELP partners when we’re asked

• We LEAN into trust-based philanthropy, and our approach will be ever-evolving and experimental by design