The Nelson Mandela Foundation was established in 1999.
Mandela founded the organization after leaving the presidency. It began by supporting rural development and the fight against HIV/AIDS, then expanded its work into dialogue, memory, archives, and access to information. The foundation preserves and shares material related to Mandela’s life and South Africa’s struggle for democracy.
The organization is separate from the Nelson Mandela Children’s Fund, which Mandela established in 1995, and from the Nelson Mandela Foundation’s later archival and dialogue projects. Its headquarters are in Johannesburg. Mandela’s decision to create the foundation near the end of his presidency reflected his continuing public work after office, even though he had retired from formal political leadership.