The East Africa Association of Grantmakers is one of 11 new membership associations that have been established in the past five years in diverse places around the world among them Irish Funders Forum (1998), Philanthropic Foundations Canada (1999), the Slovak Donors Forum (2000), Romanian Donors Forum (2001), Swiss Foundations (2001), Russia Donors Forum 2002, Ecuadorian Consortium for Social Responsibility (CERES) (2002), Association of French Foundations (2002), Polish Donors Forum (initiatives Group) (2003), Spanish Association of Foundations (2003). And East Africa Association of Grantmakers in 2003.
In other countries and regions, such as Indonesia, the Dominican Republic, Columbia and West Africa, foundations are meeting informally and considering the possibility of establishing an association sometime in the near future. Other associations established earlier in the 1990s are still in the “emerging” stage as they continue to define their mission, develop their membership, and discern ways to promote philanthropy.

In addition to these new and emerging associations of grantmakers, a number of grantmaker support organizations have been established particularly to promote the development of community foundations. These new support organizations—found in Central Europe and in the developing regions of Asia, Africa and Latin America—often take the form of “centers” for philanthropy or are actual foundations whose grantmaking focus is the promotion and development of philanthropy.
EAAG is embarking on the same journey as other more established colleague associations such as New York Regional Association of Grantmakers (NYRAG), Council of Michigan Foundations (CMF), and many others. Discovering the challenges of addressing membership diversity, EAAG established appropriate governance structures, providing effective services to members, engaging governments on public policy issues and promoting philanthropy to the general public.

EAAG also comes at a time of increased regional activity following the signing of East Africa Treaty in November 1999 which was formally launched in January 2001. This treaty was signed to pave way for East Africa Federation where all the three countries in East Africa will form one country through a political federation.
Given this trend, there have been efforts towards political federation, economic union (in form of customs union) and business federation (East Africa Business Council). Less visible is the civil society federation, this is the agenda EAAG will seek to promote as one of its objectives. It is hoped that establishment of a regional association of grantmakers will facilitate strengthen partnership among development organizations in the region as East Africa moves towards a regional integration.