About Firelight

Our vision and mission, our history, our values and our donors

Scroll down
1999
25 year history
$50M+
Funds raised
490
CBOs supported
2000+
Grants in 12 African countries
Mission & Vision
History
Values
Donors
Vision and Mission
Our vision
Children and youth in Africa live in safe, strong, nurturing environments where they thrive and are able to realize their extraordinary potential.
Our mission
We pool funds to build the capacity of CBOs working with their communities to achieve smart, sustainable community-driven systems change for children and youth in Africa.
What we know
Relevant, impactful, and sustainable change at the community level comes when:
  • Community members determine and drive the change process; and
  • Change actions address the underlying systems and root causes of concern – rather than only reacting to symptoms.
What we believe
Lasting change comes when communities have agency to address the issues that affect them. We take a justice and solidarity approach to our grant making in which we seek to walk with and shift power to the people and communities we serve.
History
1999
Firelight Foundation was founded in 1999
by Kerry Olson and Dave Katz to address the needs of children orphaned and affected by HIV, AIDS, and poverty in eastern and southern Africa. Firelight supported grassroots African initiatives serving children, based on global evidence that community-based care provides a better future for vulnerable children.
$50m+
We have raised more than $50 million to:
  • Make 2000+ grants in 12 African countries: Cameroon, Ethiopia, Kenya, Lesotho, Malawi, Namibia, Rwanda, South Africa, Tanzania, Uganda, Zambia, Zimbabwe;
  • Supported 490 community-based organizations, many of which support other CBOs
  • Impacted millions of children, parents, caregivers, professionals, and community members
25 years
In Firelight's 25 year history we have:
  • Co-founded the Coalition for Children Affected by AIDS (CCABA) with Bernard van Leer Foundation, International AIDS Alliance, and Teresa Group
  • Co-founded the International Education Funders’ Group with the William and Flora Hewlett Foundation
  • Co-founded the Faith to Action Initiative to encourage faith communities to direct resources to the most effective family- and community-based solutions
2010
In 2010 Firelight became a public charity
and is now a multi-donor fund that brings together philanthropists - both individual and institutional - to support community-driven systems change for children and youth in Africa.
Our values
We act with integrity
  • We value respect and care and demonstrate it in all of our interactions with each other, with our grantee-partners and with all other stakeholders.
  • We treat all others as equals.
  • We give others the benefit of the doubt.
  • We trust and verify.
  • We are honest and truthful while giving and receiving constructive feedback.
  • We respect and value others’ skills, experience, time, constraints and input.
We value learning and listening
  • We seek evidence and learning for action and impact – not punishment.
  • We learn together - with each other, with our grantees and with others.
  • We are always growing and learning. We update our learning with new information, research, and knowledge from local and global resources and experiences.
  • We understand that failure and mistakes are part of learning and growth.
We strengthen each other
  • We are understanding and supportive of each other in thought, word and action.
  • We seek to build others up – we openly share knowledge, skills and expertise in order to help others grow.
  • We see strength and capacity in everyone.
  • We care about each other and respect each other’s humanity.
  • We are collegial.
We act with humility
  • We recognize the limits of our experience, knowledge and skills – both individually and collectively.
  • We hold ourselves accountable for our shortcomings and mistakes.
  • We are empathetic, we listen genuinely and take time to seek to understand each other’s capacity, circumstances, situation.
  • We think deeply, broadly and critically about our assumptions and our decisions.
We are inclusive
  • We are open and transparent and share our processes, our decisions and our knowledge whenever we can.
  • We are inclusive, participatory and collaborative in our information gathering, our discussions and decision processes, aiming to meaningfully taking others’ knowledge and expertise into account.
  • We celebrate difference.
  • Our processes are thoughtful, step by step, and involve in-depth discussion in search of a common goal.
Donors
Firelight is grateful for the ongoing support of founders Kerry Olson and Dave Katz. And amongst many generous foundation and individual donors, Firelight is honored to have been supported by:
Abel Family Foundation
Addie J. Guttag Foundation
Aid for Africa
Alpert & Alpert Foundation
American Jewish World Service
Bainum Family Foundation
Bernard van Leer Foundation
Comic Relief
The Community Foundation Serving Boulder County
Conrad N. Hilton Foundation
The David and Jerilyn Schricker Family Foundation
Dorothea Haus Ross Foundation
Dubai Cares
The Efrusy Family Foundation
The ELMA Foundation
Elton John AIDS Foundation - UK and US
Enkel Foundation
Fidelity Charitable
Flora Family Foundation
Fondation Les Paquerettes
Goldman Sachs Philanthropy Fund
GHR Foundation
Imaginable Futures
Johnson & Johnson Family of Companies Contribution Fund
Mastercard Foundation
New Field Foundation
Nike Foundation
Oak Foundation
Opportunity International
Pathy Family Foundation
The Reinhold Foundation
Rockdale Foundation
Roy A. Hunt Foundation
Rotary District 5170 Foundation
Rutgers Presbyterian Church
Sall Family Foundation
Schwab Charitable Fund
Skees Family Foundation
Tides Foundation
The Treehouse Fund
Tsadik Foundation
Two Lilies Fund
William and Flora Hewlett Foundation
UNICEF
World Vision International
& anonymous donors
We also collaborate closely with these groups and networks:
African Evaluation Association
African Grantmakers Affinity Group
African Philanthropy Network
Coalition on Children Affected by AIDS
Council on Foundations
East Africa Philanthropy Network
EDGE Funders
Elevate Children Funders’ Group
Funders Concerned About AIDS
Human Rights Funders Network
International Education Funders Group
Participatory Grantmaking Community
Regional Psychosocial Support Initiative
Trust-Based Philanthropy