The African Visionary Fund is a new venture that aims to find and channel unrestricted and unburdensome funding to high-impact African social change-makers. The aim is to transform development across the continent through local leaders and organisations, while simultaneously tackling inequities, injustices and power imbalances in grantmaking. They believe that driving funding to those most proximate to the issues ensures that the hopes and aspirations of each member within the communities helps to inform the solutions that are being developed.

Upending traditional funding streams is at the core of African Visionary Fund’s model. Utilising the knowledge and expertise of leading incubators, fellowships and accelerators across the African continent, the African Visionary Fund gives donors access to a well-vetted pipeline of locally-led organisations which have the potential to transform millions of lives.

Dozens of social change-makers are partnering with African Visionary Fund to develop innovative solutions that are sustainable and just, for local, low-income communities.

These solutions are built to tackle the challenges they face—from education quality, to hygiene and sanitation, through to gender-based violence, and more. By steering funding towards these social change-makers, they are able to implement these solutions at a community level. African leaders live, go to school, access healthcare, and work among the communities they are seeking to partner with—so they understand their context, know what works and what doesn’t, and are able to collaborate in a creative and cost-effective way. Leveraging social change-makers helps accelerate their impact and drive transformational change within these communities, whilst enabling flexible funding with localised, on-the-ground capacity and development support.

The African Visionary Fund believes that those most proximate to on-the-ground issues are the best ones to lead change. That’s why they encourage anyone looking to make a difference in the world, to find the leaders who have lived experience with the problems they seek to solve. Their advice is to listen, and follow their lead.