The Nelson Mandela Foundation was established after Mr Nelson Mandela’s retirement on August 19, 1999 and leads the development of the vision and values of Mr Mandela’s life and work. Through the creation of strategic networks and partnerships, the Nelson Mandela Foundation directs resources, knowledge and practice to add value and demonstrate new possibilities. The Nelson Mandela Foundation embodies the spirit of reconciliation, ubuntu, and social justice. The Foundation’s work is a celebration of Mr Mandela’s life. The Foundation’s specific role is to establish a vibrant and dynamic Centre of Memory and Dialogue that accurately portrays the life and times of Mr Mandela, makes his archival records available to the world and facilitates dialogue around critical social
issues.

In November 2006 the Foundation’s Board of Trustees approved a new vision for the Foundation. In many ways it signalled a return to the Foundation’s original mandate which was to consolidate and propagate Mr Mandela’s legacy. The Nelson Mandela Foundation, through the Centre of Memory and Dialogue as its core work, contributes to the making of a just society by promoting the vision, values and work of its Founder and convening dialogue around critical social issues, while continuing to provide support to its Founder.

Four guiding principles inform the five-year Strategic Plan of the Foundation that emerged from a year-long review:

• The core business of the Nelson Mandela Foundation will become memory and dialogue work, with the key institutional vehicle being the Nelson Mandela Centre of Memory and Dialogue;
• As part of his retirement Mr Mandela called on all people to do something small to make the world a better place. In response to this the Nelson Mandela Foundation launched Mandela Day and they call on people from around the world to do good in honour of the 67 years that Mr Mandela dedicated to fighting for social justice;
• In moving from direct project implementation to intervening in critical social issues, existing commitments will be fully met and where necessary partners will be found to ensure ongoing implementation;
• The work of the Nelson Mandela Foundation must be aligned explicitly and unambiguously with that of its two sister charity organisations – the Nelson Mandela Children’s Fund and the Mandela Rhodes Foundation.