Accomplishments (Includes)

1. Under the slogan “African Diaspora in Action,” AFI has completed meetings of African-serving organizations in Atlanta (GA); Boston (MA); Chicago (IL); Columbus (OH); Houston (TX); Los Angeles (CA); Minneapolis (MN); New York City (NY); Philadelphia (PA); Providence (RI); and Washington, DC (DC). Requests for additional convening have been received from organizations in: Dallas (TX), Newark (NJ), San Diego (CA), Seattle (WA) and Silver Springs (MD).

2. A tax exemption status as a 501 (c) 3 organization has been secured from the IRS.

3. A website-in-progress has been established with the domain name- africanfed.org

4. In May of 2006 AFI signed a memorandum of understanding (MOU) with Bethex Federal Credit Union located in the Bronx to extend banking products and services such as affordable ATM services, credit cards, checking and savings accounts, and asset-building mortgage loans are now available to both banked and “unbanked“ African immigrants in the greater New York area. Upon evaluation this model would be replicated in other cities with high concentration of African immigrants

5. AFI members supported joined other African immigrant organizations in the metro Washington, DC area to call for the establishment of the Office of African Affairs in the Office of the Mayor of Washington DC and in Philadelphia, the Mayor’s Commission for African and Caribbean Affairs.

6. AFI opened up discussions at various stages with the goal to establish working or “learning” relationships with seasoned national immigrant organizations such as: the Hispanic Federation, National Council of La Raza, UJA-Federation of New York, Center for Community Change, National Coalition of Asian and Pacific Islander Community Development, the Korean-American Community Foundation, Chayya CDC, the Anerican Indian Foundation, and the Brazil Foundation.

7. AFI has established a working “strategic” relationships with organizations in the broader African Diaspora communities: The African-America Unity Caucus (Washington, DC); The Institute for Caribbean Studies (Washington, DC); African Foundation for Development (AFFORD, United Kingdom); African Diaspora Association of Canada (Toronto, Canada); AfroNeth (The Netherlands) and Trust Africa (Dakar, Senegal) to assist it with fundraising and programming advisory services.

8. In late September 2006, AFI was the featured organization to be interviewed by members of the Africa Grantmakers Affinity Group of the Council on Foundations in the U.S.

AFI representative was a panelist at the 2008 Council of Foundations Annual Leadership Summit in Washington, DC, to speak on “The Development of African Diaspora Philanthropy.”