The Role of Faith in Philanthropic Giving to Africa - African Diaspora Network

Impact and Innovation Forums 2021

The Role of Faith in Philanthropic Giving to Africa

Wednesday, July 14, 8:00 AM PST, 3:00 PM GMT

Hosted by the African Diaspora Network and King Baudouin Foundation United States (KBFUS)

Context

The conversation will explore how faith and spiritual/religious values drive charitable giving; why is giving to Africa important; and how faith-based organizations and individuals go about deciding where and to whom to give.

Faith is often a motivating factor in giving. Research shows that individuals who are religiously affiliated are more likely to make a charitable donation. For members of the African diaspora, faith often influences their decision to give back to the home continent. London School of Economics Fellow Edward Edemolu, PhD, in his research, underscored the impact of how “religious identities and ‘narratives of faith’ all play a role” in diaspora engagement in philanthropy.

Speakers

Loksan Harley is a UK-based British-Chinese Independent Migration and Diaspora Specialist, with extensive experience as a consultant to the United Nations, governments, and non-profits in research, policy development, capacity-building and technical assistance across Europe, Africa, and Asia-Pacific. In particular, he has conducted research and advised a number of countries on ways to engage their diasporas.

Hafeeza E. Rashed is the Senior Advisor, Communications and Outreach at the King Baudouin Foundation United States. At KBFUS, she is responsible for the outreach to individual donors and the development of partnerships with African nonprofit organizations. Previously, she worked at Gbowee Peace Foundation USA, which was founded to support the work of Nobel Peace Laureate Leymah Gbowee. Hafeeza has worked in education, law, social justice and philanthropy for the last 15 years. Hafeeza leads KBFUS’s efforts to increase and support direct resourcing of African-led organizations on the continent.

Keith Edmunds, originally from Virginia, attended and received a BA in Political Science from Virginia Commonwealth University, and enjoyed a 15 year career in various operations roles primarily in Telecommunications and Financial Services. In 2007 he segued into leadership development and executive coaching and is a certified executive coach through the International Coaches Federation. He has an executive coaching practice, Coach2Performance and is partner to his wife Kimberly in the management consulting company, SadlerAllen. He is also co-founder of the HopeFeathers Foundation.

Kimberly had a successful career in the Telecommunications and Broadband industry, where she accumulated over 25 years of experience in the areas of operations and customer experience achieving executive level positions. She left her career in corporate america to start a management consulting company, SadlerAllen. SadlerAllen is focused on helping companies improve the experience of customers and employees. Over 60% of the profits from SadlerAllen are directly channeled to the charitable efforts of HopeFeathers, a foundation started by her and her husband Keith. HopeFeathers has given over $800,000 in grants to efforts supporting children in poverty stricken countries in the areas of shelter, food, and education.