In May 2020, Masego Madzwamuse, the CEO of the Southern Africa Trust, found herself working from home just over a month into South Africa’s nationwide COVID-19 lockdown. Recognizing that the organization was once again at a critical crossroads, she looked back at the Trust’s history. Five years prior, in 2015, the Trust had faced a severe crisis when its primary donor announced its intention to withdraw funding, which forced the organization to drastically overhaul its structure and strategy. Amid the deep uncertainty gripping the country during the pandemic, Madzwamuse needed to evaluate whether those structural and strategic changes had sufficiently prepared the Trust to survive the global crisis and sustain its vital work long into the future.

The Southern Africa Trust is an independent, non-profit organization established in 2005 and based in Midrand, Gauteng. It was originally founded to combat the exceptionally high levels of poverty and inequality within the Southern African Development Community (SADC) region. Neville Gabriel served as the founding executive director until 2013, followed by Bhekinkosi Moyo, who served as director and later CEO until May 2018. Madzwamuse then stepped into the role of CEO in October 2018, inheriting an organization deeply committed to strengthening civil society and private sector engagement across national and regional levels.

The core purpose of the Trust is to actively contribute to reducing poverty and inequality by facilitating philanthropic initiatives and influencing policy through public-private-civil society collaborations. To alleviate the suffering of the poor, its operations span public policy, official poverty reduction processes, human rights, stakeholder engagement, research, and capacity building. The organization channels these efforts into six key strategic areas, the first of which focuses heavily on knowledge management—specifically sharing strategic data from research and facilitation with the broader policy community through its dedicated Knowledge Hub.