AFRE remembers Charles “Chuck” Feeney
The AFRE community mourns the passing of Charles "Chuck" Feeney, the founder of the Atlantic Philanthropies, the foundation where AFRE's roots lie. He died on Monday, 9 October at age 92.
Born to a working-class Irish family in New Jersey, Chuck was perhaps best known for the idea of "Giving While Living", a philanthropic philosophy that saw him commit to giving the bulk of his wealth during his lifetime.
At the Atlantic Philanthropies (AP), "Giving While Living" shaped a limited-life foundation strategy that prioritised significant investments to tackle the root causes of urgent problems.
Over nearly four decades, the foundation supported efforts to advance health and social equity across five continents, including work to end racial injustice that spanned school discipline reform, death penalty abolition in the U.S., children's health and wellbeing, and civil liberties.
"Chuck's commitment to a more just world - seen in the breadth and depth of Atlantic Philanthropies' investments - facilitated crucial work to challenge anti-Black racism in South Africa and the U.S. That legacy lives on in AFRE," said Damon T. Hewitt, AFRE Board Chair and President and Executive Director of the Lawyers' Committee for Civil Rights Under Law.
The earliest seeds of our fellowship programme were incubated among staff, grantees, and partners of the AP as it geared up to make its final investments. Ultimately, our work, as well as that of six other Atlantic Fellows programmes and the Atlantic Institute, would be established via the AP's final big bets – large grants that sought to expand the leadership capacity and cultivate community among changemakers tackling myriad interwoven inequities across the globe.
"AFRE's work to foster deep relationship and solidarity among changemakers in order to build a world beyond anti-Black racism has been made possible by Chuck's generosity. Our community owes him immense gratitude," says Sebabatso Manoeli-Lesame, AFRE's Executive Director.
We honour his life and work and extend our deeply felt condolences to his loved ones.