Manu Chandaria named as 1st Carnegie philanthropy awardee from Africa

The 2022 Carnegie Medal of Philanthropy winners have been unveiled, and included among them is philanthropist and businessman Manu Chandaria, who chairs the Chandaria Foundation and is the first recipient from the African continent.

The Chandaria Foundation provides educational scholarships and supports poverty relief, health care, and environmentalism in Africa. The foundation helped establish the Chandaria Medical Centre at Gertrude Children’s Hospital in Kenya and funds medical clinics, among other activities.

The 93-year-old Chandaria, who is of Indian descent, has been working to address social issues in Africa for nearly 70 years through the foundation established by his family. The Chandarias operate the Comcraft Group, a multibillion-dollar industrial conglomerate based in Kenya.

He joins a long list of honorees who have received the award since 2001. Carnegie Medal of Philanthropy candidates are nominated every two years by the more than 20 institutions founded by philanthropist Andrew Carnegie in the United States and Europe.

Past winners have included Indian billionaire philanthropist Azim Premji, the Gates family of the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, Open Society Foundations founder George Soros, and Michael Bloomberg of Bloomberg Philanthropies, among many others. Aside from the Kenyan-born Chandaria, whose parents emigrated from India, no other medal recipient has been from Africa.

It was Chandaria’s work to give “hope for a healthier and better educated population” that caught the attention of the award’s selection committee, according to Eric D. Isaacs, the president of the Carnegie Institution for Science and a member of the committee.

“Mr. Chandaria is setting a very high standard for philanthropy through his support for higher education and his efforts to mobilize and empower a new generation of business leaders,” Isaacs wrote in a statement to Devex. “We believe that his example will inspire other philanthropists, perpetuating the virtuous cycle that the Carnegie family of institutions seeks to advance.”

Chandaria credited Jainism — an Indian religion that promotes nonviolence and respect for living things — for shaping his philanthropic approach. He described himself as “not a religious man,” but he said that Jainism was important in his family as he grew up and that it influenced the creation of the Chandaria Foundation in the 1950s.

His father, who founded the company that would eventually become Comcraft Group, initially dismissed the idea by Chandaria and his brother to set up the foundation, Chandaria told Devex. “We’re not Rockefellers. We’ve got a big family here,” he said his father told him.

Chandaria’s father later agreed to the proposal once the company had become more prosperous. He told his children that he would give them 10% of the company to help create the foundation.

“We started with one scholarship to a student, and then making sure that every three or four months when the school closed he’d give his results. If it was bad, we would call him. If it was good, we would send him a little book or something like that,” said Chandaria.

Now the foundation provides scholarships to students in 35 countries, he said. Chandaria said he hopes that his life’s work will inspire other wealthy Africans to do more to support their communities.

“My family is helpful to others. But besides me, who else can help? Because the poverty that is there in Africa is unbelievable sometimes,” he said.

“[The Carnegie award] is a great recognition. Recognition makes others follow the path,” he added.

Unveiled Wednesday, the latest list of medal winners also includes country music star Dolly Parton of the Dollywood Foundation, who made headlines early in the coronavirus pandemic when she partially funded Moderna’s COVID-19 vaccine. Lyda Hill of Lyda Hill Philanthropies and Lynn Schusterman and Stacy Schusterman of Charles and Lynn Schusterman Family Philanthropies are receiving the honor as well, with a ceremony for all recipients set to be hosted by Carnegie Corporation of New York in October.

World Central Kitchen, an international nonprofit founded by Spanish chef José Andrés, has meanwhile won the Carnegie Catalyst Award — a new prize for philanthropic organizations that was created in honor of former Carnegie Corporation President Vartan Gregorian, who died in April of last year.