This July, Nairobi was the site of a unique gathering: over 700 individuals with diverse roles on the African continent, all brought together by Segal Family Foundation to make sense of the state of the world and design what happens next with Africa at the center. Segal 2026 existed to look back at the foundation’s twenty years of championing local African visionaries and give our community of grantee partners and fellow funders a space to imagine their own work two decades into the future.
We have always been a connector, finding various creative ways to link those in our universe and amplify their work. From large annual gatherings (that have now been spaced out in favour of smaller regional events under the banner Segal Connect), to the UNGA side event Spotlight Africa, to a variety of local mixers, we’re big believers in the transformative power of networks.
There are many ways to convene that aren’t centred around just events, but also ways of working. Through the Social Impact Incubator (SII), we are exploring how to best work in new regions and with other donor entities while bringing together impactful local organizations to grow alongside each other and co-create the world they want to see. As funders, it is a gentle yet bold way to explore parts of the continent where we haven’t previously focused (in this case, the francophone countries of West and East Africa) while bringing along peers who are also interested. SII is powered by collaborative co-funding with Partners for Equity, Livelihood Impact Fund, Dovetail Impact, SAS-P, the King Baudouin Foundation, to name a few – an example of tangible impact born of convening with purpose. We’re also creating avenues for private individuals and entities to support the work of visionary African organizations without the hassle of overhead: through The Multiplier, an atypical donor-advised fund designed to make private grantmaking seamless. Between powering changemaker ecosystems and championing tools for those doing the work, Segal Family Foundation is looking towards a future where homegrown solutions get the support they need in the most effective manner.
There is strength in numbers; this we know and have seen. As the actions of one person can start an entire movement, how much more that of organizations? A fellow funder described to us how one of their grantees realized that “growing up in [this] system caused her to slowly give up on the dream of a brighter future for her own country. But while sitting in the main room at Segal [2026], listening to other African leaders working in contexts so similar to her own, she felt the dream begin to return.” We live in a circular world, one that also has a few cracks in its pavement. Global systems can help or hinder philanthropic collaboration – too often the latter, as we are seeing in visa restrictions (for which unfortunate reason there will be no Spotlight Africa this year). In a world that often and recently feels unstable, this is a time for philanthropy to be bold in building new systems that replace those that no longer serve us. We can bank on the existing and untapped relational infrastructure to do more, do better, and do differently...and, ideally, collaboratively.