At TrustAfrica, we believe that institutional collaboration across Africa offers the best hope for developing lasting solutions to such intractable challenges as violence, discrimination, and economic isolation. Through agenda-setting workshops, collaborative grants, and technical assistance, we encourage African institutions to work together for a safe, free, and prosperous future.

Setting Priorities

We approach these complex issues by convening scholars, activists, business professionals, artists, public officials, and other civic leaders from across the continent and throughout the diaspora. These thoughtful, imaginative workshops invite Africans to set our own agendas and craft our own solutions. In our view, such strategies are more likely to win acceptance and make a lasting impact than ready-made responses imposed from abroad.

Forging Partnerships

In this era of globalization, the toughest problems tend to transcend national boundaries; solutions should, too. At TrustAfrica, we believe that civic institutions can best tackle societal challenges by collaborating with peers in neighboring countries. Through such alliances, social entrepreneurs can learn from each others’ experiences and reach the critical mass needed to achieve social change.

Mobilizing Resources

Although TrustAfrica does not accept unsolicited proposals, we make grants to a limited number of promising initiatives that emerge in our workshops. These major grants for collaborative projects tend to fuse multiple strategies (like research, advocacy, dialogue, or creativity) and connect organizations from different countries and regions. Through a separate fund, we also support research on the investment climate and business environment in Africa. At the same time, we expect to attract additional resources by amplifying African voices within the donor community.

Strengthening Institutions

TrustAfrica also makes small grants for capacity building to promote sound management, transparent governance, effective communication, and sustainable results among nongovernmental organizations in Africa. We not only cultivate these qualities in others, by providing technical assistance, but also strive to embody them in our own operations.