A funder’s perspective on development in Africa

The Segal Family Foundation is a proud supporter of Invisible Children, focusing funding on IC’s Legacy Scholarship Program for deserving female university scholars.

We are a young organization that has a common sense approach towards making a difference in the lives and communities of people in Sub-Saharan Africa. Similar to Invisible Children’s founding story, we did not begin with an elaborate development strategy. Rather, we started with a sincere curiosity to seek out an area of the world where there was the most need, and then figured out a way to make the most impact. My dad, Barry, who started the foundation, wanted to donate a portion of the money he had earned throughout his life and Sub-Saharan Africa seemed a natural place to focus his time, his energies and his philanthropy. It has been an adventure and in the past 18 months I have traveled several times to several countries, including Kenya, Uganda, Burundi, Rwanda and Malawi.

Since we have a business background, we adopted a business-like approach to funding and empowering grassroots organizations that have strong skill sets and objectives but may be lacking in certain strengths. We try to invest in smart people and smart ideas and get out of the way—we are listening to those who are more knowledgeable than us and to mentors that can guide us.

One of the advantages of having a business background is that we are sometimes willing to take informed and calculated risks. One time, we had a group of pastors in eastern Uganda ask us for some money. We worked with them on their proposal and decided to give them a few thousand dollars. It was a site unseen, and yes, it was a risk.

On a subsequent trip to Uganda, my team and I were gratified to see what these pastors had turned our funding into: they had built an orphanage and a school both of which were thriving! For us, the gratification is in the learning curve: you try things, you make informed decisions, you take sensible risks and sometimes, the unexpected happens.

For the past year and a half the core team – executive director Andy Bryant, board member Antoine Chiquet and myself, along with family members Janis Simon, Rich Segal and our founder Barry Segal, have built upon this common sense approach. We stay within a general mission of supporting basic needs like food and agriculture, health, education, alternative energy and family planning at the community level.

We realized that we could add value by serving as a network facilitator amongst our partners to help them develop a more cohesive strategy and become more interdependent. In practical terms, this means that, for example, if a health clinic needs electricity, we will fund that need with a solar power suitcase from another organization that specializes in solar power. Or perhaps when an organization specializing in school food security needs partners, we will link them with our education partners for joint projects.

This practical approach has worked well for us and we are looking in the future to build on this. Last year, we worked with about 130 different grassroots organizations in several Sub Saharan countries. Slowly but surely, we are expanding our network, strengthening our impact in communities on the ground, and learning valuable lessons along the way.

About the Author: Martin Segal is the Managing Director of the Segal Family Foundation.
The Segal foundation is not accepting donations, as it states on their website in this quote from Barry Segal, the founder: “The foundation is currently healthy and is not in need of external funds. If you are inspired by the things the Segal Foundation is doing, you can use our website to help you learn more about the issues, causes, and people that are making a difference in Sub Saharan Africa.”