US$26 billion, and almost nothing for Francophone Africa

By John GBENAGNON, Director of Strategy and Development, RFLD

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When RFLD opens a call for proposals, we receive far more strong applications than we can fund. Behind each one is a women’s organisation in Francophone Africa doing essential work on a budget often below US$22,000 a year, the median for feminist organisations worldwide (AWID, 2025). In seven years, Yield Giving has given away US$26.3 billion (Associated Press, 2025). In its own database, organisations headquartered in Francophone Africa receive 0.13% of the published amounts. I write this with respect for what Yield Giving has achieved, and with a proposal: that funders and African organisations change this together.

A philanthropy that changed the rules

Few donors have overturned so many habits so quickly. Yield Giving’s gifts are large, rarely restricted, and come without quarterly reports or endless logical frameworks. In 2025 alone, US$7.1 billion was given (Associated Press, 2025). For many organisations, this money has made it possible to hire, build reserves and plan beyond the next project. The Center for Effective Philanthropy has shown that these large, unrestricted gifts create sustained impact for the organisations that receive them (CEP, 2025). This trust is precious, and I welcome it.

Yet I wanted to check where the money goes. I downloaded the public gifts database as it stood on 10 November 2026 and went through it line by line (Yield Giving, 2026). My question was simple: what share goes to organisations born, led and based in Francophone Africa?

What the data says

The database lists 2,711 gifts to about 2,500 organisations from 2019 to 2025. For 676 of them, the amount is not published at the recipient’s request. Published amounts total US$17.46 billion, and the shares below are calculated on that basis.

Most “African” gifts go to international organisations that work on several continents. Only three recipients have their main base in a French-speaking country: Tostan, which runs its programmes from Thiès, Senegal, but is registered with its headquarters in the United States, with US$20 million in 2021 (Tostan, 2026); FVS-Amie des Enfants in Burundi, with US$2 million in 2024 (ABP, 2026); and Inkomoko in Kigali, whose amount is not published. Other recipients work in Mali, Côte d’Ivoire, the DRC or Togo, but they are registered and led from abroad. Apart from Tostan, whose legal seat is in the United States, no women’s rights organisation based in Francophone Africa appears as a direct recipient.

The challenges behind the gap

I do not believe in deliberate exclusion. I see a set of obstacles that we know well and that our report Funding Feminist Movements in Francophone West Africa: 2026 Data measures precisely (RFLD, 2026).

An unprecedented aid shock. Official development assistance from OECD donors fell by a record 23.1% in 2025. The OECD projects a further fall of 6.9% in 2026, and of 11.6% for bilateral aid to sub-Saharan Africa (OECD, 2026). In France, a leading partner of many French-speaking countries, aid to women’s rights organisations fell by 71% between 2022-2023 and 2023-2024 (Focus 2030, 2026). According to UN Women, at least one million women and girls have already lost access to critical support, and two in five organisations expect to close within a year (UN Women, 2026).

Organisations that live on almost nothing. Women’s rights organisations receive about 1% of gender-related aid (Focus 2030, 2026). The median feminist organisation worked with US$22,000 in 2023. For 72% of them, grants last 18 months or less on average, and 64% could not operate for six months if their funding stopped (AWID, 2025). In the Global South, 64.4% of feminist organisations have annual budgets under €50,000 and 57% have no institutional funding at all (Groupe Egaé, 2022).

Money that stays elsewhere. More than 58% of funds intended for Africa still pass through Western intermediaries (Oak Foundation, 2024). African-led organisations receive less than 2% of global philanthropy (Myriad USA, 2026). Only 13% of direct human rights grants for sub-Saharan Africa are flexible (Human Rights Funders Network, 2023).

The language barrier and closed scouting. Funders favour English-speaking and East African initiatives, and calls and reports in English keep many French-speaking organisations out before they even apply (RFLD, 2026). Yield Giving does not accept applications: it identifies recipients through research and recommendations (Associated Press, 2025). Those who are not on the radar have no door to knock on.

This gap has a price, and people pay it. When a women’s organisation closes, survivors lose a place to turn to and defenders lose the network that protects them. In Francophone Africa, women’s movements often hold the line alone against violence, with funding that runs out before the work is done.

A model already exists: SEA-T

The good news is that some funders have already found a way to fund African civil society directly, including in French-speaking countries. The SEA-T programme (Society. Equality. Africa – the Transformation), implemented by GIZ for the German Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development, is one example. With €25 million for 2024 to 2028, it aims for “local and regional civil society actors” to improve “social justice and participation in Africa” (GIZ, 2026a).

Four design choices make it work.

1. Direct funding. SEA-T contracts with African organisations, including RFLD, without going through an international NGO intermediary.
2. Shared decisions. For its institutional resilience strand, a Participatory Grant Council of regional feminist organisations and GIZ selects thirty organisations (GIZ, 2026b).
3. Funding the organisation itself. Funds can build reserves, cover core costs, diversify income and strengthen governance, with support tailored to each organisation (GIZ, 2026b).
4. Connecting actors. SEA-T civil society gatherings, such as the 2025 Civil Society Convening “Voices for Collective Action”, bring English- and French-speaking organisations together around shared data and strategies.

SEA-T is not perfect, and no public programme is. But it proves that a funder can work in French, take the risk of funding African organisations directly and share part of the decision with them. What German cooperation does with €25 million, a private philanthropy of US$26 billion can do on a very different scale.

Case study: RFLD, regranter and chair of the SEA-T advisory committee

A French-speaking voice in the programme’s governance. RFLD knows this model from the inside. A SEA-T partner since September 2025 through the Afrofeminist Initiative for the Development of Human Rights in Francophone West Africa, the network also chairs the programme’s advisory committee, which brings together partner organisations, GIZ and the German Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development. This seat allows it to carry the priorities of French-speaking organisations: protection of women human rights defenders, digital security, advocacy with the African Union and the African Commission, and recommendations for the programme’s second phase.

A regranter close to the ground. RFLD does more than receive funds: it passes them on. Between June and September 2026, it awarded 27 grants, worth US$722,100 in total, with an average of US$26,744. Nine of them are institutional strengthening grants under SEA-T, totalling €160,000, over six months, from 15 October 2026 to 14 April 2027. The others fund digital rights work and ten organisations working with Vulnerable Groups in West Africa, among others (RFLD, 2026). Each SEA-T grant comes with support for the organisation itself, from financial management to governance.

What a grant changes. The average RFLD grant, US$26,744, is higher than the median annual budget of a feminist organisation worldwide. For many of our grantees, one grant secures a full year of work. It can keep a coordinator in post and pay for the audited accounts that open the door to larger funders (RFLD, 2026).

This dual role shows what the SEA-T model makes possible: a French-speaking African organisation that receives funds directly, regrants them as close as possible to the ground and takes part in the funder’s decisions. Every quarter we publish our grants register, with the amount, purpose and country of each grant, and every year our report on the funding of feminist movements (RFLD, 2026).

A call to funders

I speak first to Yield Giving and to large private philanthropists, then to every funder who says they are committed to equality.

Measure what you really fund. Publish the breakdown of your gifts by the recipients’ country of headquarters, not only by their areas of work. A US organisation working in Mali is still a US organisation.

Scout in French. Entrust part of your research to French-speaking teams based on the continent, and draw on the open data that African networks already produce.

Adopt the SEA-T logic. Fund directly, share decisions with African feminist organisations, and give multi-year core funding. A regional grant council for Francophone Africa could be set up within months.

Fund through African funds. Where you cannot fund small organisations yourselves, entrust envelopes to feminist funds and African networks able to regrant, with explicit targets for Francophone Africa.

Donors trust donors: ask the peers who already fund the region

There is a simple first step for philanthropists, family offices and individual givers who want to act. Before you commit, call the funders who already invest in French-speaking Africa, many of them based in New York, Washington and the United Kingdom. Ask them which local organisations they trust, and why.

Large donors rarely move on a cold application. They move on the recommendation of someone they respect. Yield Giving itself accepts no applications and finds its recipients through research and recommendations (Associated Press, 2025). For an organisation in Cotonou, Dakar or Lomé, a peer’s word is often the only way in.

A funder who has worked in the region can tell you what no website will: which organisations managed their grants well, and which kept working when the political climate turned hostile. That conversation saves months of searching. It also lowers the risk that every new funder fears when entering an unfamiliar region.

You will not have to look far. Public programmes such as SEA-T have already selected, contracted and supported French-speaking organisations. Feminist funds and African networks that regrant, RFLD among them, know who does serious work on the ground and can show you their records. Ask them, compare what you hear, then fund directly.

We would be glad to make the introductions. If you are a philanthropist, a family office or an individual donor, write to us at admin@rflgd.org. We will put you in touch with funders who already know Francophone Africa, and with the organisations they trust.

We, African organisations, also have our part to play. We must make our work visible in French and in English, publish our accounts and results, and join forces to reach the scale that large funders know how to fund. States must protect civic space and make it easier to register associations, because money does not go to those the law makes fragile.

At RFLD, we have started. Our Data Center publishes open, bilingual data on women’s rights in all 55 African Union member States. We regrant to grassroots women’s organisations across Francophone West Africa and publish every grant in an open register, except where naming an organisation would put it at risk. We are ready to share these tools with any funder determined to know Francophone Africa better.

US$26 billion has shown that philanthropy built on trust is possible. It still has to learn French.

John GBENAGNON is Director of Strategy and Development at the Women Leaders Network for Development (Réseau des Femmes Leaders pour le Développement, RFLD).

References

• ABP (2026) School kit distribution campaign for orphans and vulnerable children was launched by the association FVS-Amie des Enfants. Agence burundaise de presse. Available at: abpinfo.bi.
• Associated Press (2025) MacKenzie Scott has given $26B to nonprofits since 2019. Here’s what she supported in 2025. ABC News, 10 December. Available at: abcnews.go.com.
• AWID (2025) Morena, A., Michaeli, I. and Staszewska, K. Where is the Money? An Evidence-Driven Call to Resource Feminist Organizing. Toronto: AWID. Available at: awid.org.
• CEP (2025) Research shows MacKenzie Scott’s large, unrestricted gifts create sustained impact for nonprofits and communities. Center for Effective Philanthropy, 18 February. Available at: cep.org.
• Focus 2030 (2026) The state of gender inequalities around the world in 2026. Available at: focus2030.org.
• GIZ (2026a) Society, Equality, Africa – the Transformation (SEA-T). Bonn and Eschborn: GIZ. Available at: giz.de.
• GIZ (2026b) Contract management to strengthen institutional and financial resilience of afro-feminist civil society organisations, tender No. 10007989. Available at: mercell.com.
• Groupe Egaé (2022) Étude sur les mobilisations et besoins des OSC féministes des Suds. Paris: Agence française de développement. Available at: feminaction.fr.
• Human Rights Funders Network (2023) The trust gap. Available at: hrfn.org.
• Myriad USA (2026) Philanthropic deserts in West and francophone Africa, 19 May. Available at: myriadusa.org.
• Oak Foundation (2024) Philanthropy ecosystem in Africa (scoping report). Geneva: Oak Foundation.
• OECD (2026) ODA projections for 2026 and the near-term. Paris: OECD. Available at: oecd.org.
• RFLD (2026) Funding Feminist Movements in Francophone West Africa: 2026 Data. Accra: Réseau des Femmes Leaders pour le Développement. Available at: rflgd.org.
• Tostan (2026) Contact us. Available at: tostan.org.
• UN Women (2026) At least one million women and girls lose access to critical support, press release, 10 July. Available at: unwomen.org.
• Yield Giving (2026) Gifts database, export of 10 November 2026. Author’s analysis.

All pages accessed on 10 November 2026.