The African Philanthropy Conference was conceptualised and created in 2017 in response to a request from Mrs. Tsitsi Masiyiwa who is the co-founder of the HigherLife Foundation and Delta Philanthropies. She approached Prof. Emmanuel Akyeampong, the then Director of the Centre for African Studies at Harvard University and Prof. Ellen Gurney, the Oppenheimer Faculty Director at Harvard University. Prof. Akyeampong turned to Prof Bhekinkosi Moyo, who was the then CEO of the Southern Africa Trust, and soon later the Director of Centre on African Philanthropy and Social Investment. Given that TrustAfrica had been at the forefront of promoting philanthropy on the continent, its Executive Director, Ebrima Sall, was invited to the conversation.

 It was in these early conversations that the objectives and implementation plan for the African Philanthropy Conference began.

 In 2018, CAPSI, the Harvard Centre for African Studies and Southern Africa Trust began curating the first annual conference. They collaborated with other leading voices in the sector, such as the APF, the Africa Philanthropy Network (APN), and the East Africa Philanthropy Network (EAPN). HigherLife Foundation soon joined the consortium, creating a pan-African space to collectively promote African philanthropy and set agendas for future interventions. This platform does not replace the individual efforts of each institution but rather offers a space for collective reflection, agenda-setting, and sharing of best practices with a wider community drawn from the consortium’s constituencies and beyond. The first conference was held in May 2019 under the theme ‘The State of African Philanthropy: Setting the Agenda’ in Johannesburg, South Africa.

 Now in its 5^th edition, the 2024 African Philanthropy Conference is hosted by CAPSI and TrustAfrica in collaboration with APF, APN, EAPN and Southern Africa Trust in Victoria Falls, Zimbabwe under the theme ‘The Next Frontiers in African Philanthropy.’ This convening will build on the outcomes partner convenings, such as EAPN’s annual conference and the Philea Forum while also contributing to upcoming discussions to be hosted later in the year, such as APF taking place in Morocco in the month of October and APN Assembly in Zimbabwe in November.