Our guest on this episode of the APF Podcast Series is Atti Worku, Co-Chief Executive Officer of African Visionary Fund, a non-profit that provides an avenue for donors to move resources quickly to African visionaries to accelerate their impact. The Fund is designed to allow African visionaries to further focus on efficiently delivering on their mission and investing for the future.
Discussing the topic Understanding & Addressing the Imbalance in Funding African CSOs, Atti shares insights on the under-funding recorded for developmental initiatives on the continent in comparison to organizations headquartered outside the continent. The Fund is committed to ensuring funds go into the hands of local leaders and in the long term, change the stereotypical bias and behaviours that limits funding to proximate organizations.
She also gave insights into AVF’s long-term unrestricted funding approach which is helping African visionaries with catalytic fuel to propel their impactful solutions even further as they drive systems change and transform development across the continent.
With much impact recorded by an organization that is less than 5 years old, this episode packs a lot of useful nuggets for anyone or organization interested in African philanthropic funding.
Atti Worku
Atti is a leader and advocate with over 10 years of experience as a nonprofit CEO. Throughout her career, Atti experienced the biased and unjust challenges of raising philanthropic dollars in the U.S. for a locally-led, community-centered African organization. As the AVFund’s Africa-based co-CEO, she is focused on supporting the personal and organizational growth of African visionaries and their innovative impact ideas.
Prior to joining the AVFund, Atti founded and led Seeds of Africa, a nonprofit developing the educational foundation for the next generation of Ethiopia’s leaders. Since 2008, Seeds has impacted over 2,000 people, transforming the livelihoods and trajectories of students, their mothers, and their families in the community of Adama, Ethiopia. With Atti at the helm, Seeds grew from an after school program serving 15 kids to a full-time, multi-dimensional school educating 250 students from pre-K to middle school and providing them free universal healthcare and nutrition. Seeds also became a micro-finance institution that provided over 150 mothers small business micro-loans, entrepreneurship skills development, and literacy resources.
For more information about our podcast series, please do not hesitate to reach us at apf@africanpf.org with "APF Podcast Series" as the subject of your email.
