I work with African nonprofit and startup founders and boards on four things: governance and board development, financial oversight, fundraising and growth strategy, and cross-border or EU funding structuring — usually because an organization has outgrown the informal systems that got it started and needs to professionalize without losing what made it effective in the first place. Engagements range from a single focused board workshop to an ongoing advisory retainer, scoped to what the organization actually needs rather than a fixed package.
The situations I actually help with
Rather than a generic list of services, here’s what specifically brings organizations to this kind of engagement, because recognizing your own situation in one of these is more useful than reading a menu of offerings.
Governance and board development
This is for organizations where the board isn’t really governing — it’s rubber-stamping, or it’s absent, or it exists on paper with no real structure behind it — and it usually surfaces when a funder starts asking pointed governance questions, or when a founder realizes they’re carrying every decision alone. The work covers board recruitment criteria, committee structure, meeting design, and decision rights — the specific mechanics covered in more depth in how to build an effective nonprofit board, and illustrated in a composite case study on a governance turnaround.
Financial oversight
This is for organizations facing a first audit, a new institutional donor with real due-diligence requirements, or a founder who is still the only person who understands the organization’s finances. The work builds board financial literacy, internal controls, budget discipline, and audit readiness — distinct from bookkeeping or accounting, which I don’t do, but which every serious oversight engagement depends on being solid first.
Fundraising and growth strategy
This is for organizations that have proven a program model and are now trying to grow revenue and scale sustainably without the growth simply multiplying the founder’s personal workload. It covers revenue diversification, building repeatable fundraising processes, and the sequencing question of what to fix first when growth is outpacing organizational structure — the pattern walked through in a composite case study on moving from founder-led chaos to sustainable growth, and in the broader guide to growing a nonprofit organization.
Cross-border and EU funding structuring
This is for organizations ready to pursue international or EU funding — Horizon Europe, LIFE, Erasmus+, ESF, Interreg, or similar instruments — and need help understanding eligibility, compliance requirements, reporting cadence, and the organizational structure needed to actually manage that kind of funding once awarded, not just apply for it. This is the area where my own background is most directly hands-on: I structure and manage this work through Viable Community, a Dutch ANBI-registered foundation. A starting map is in funding platforms for African nonprofit founders.
Most engagements touch two or three of these areas at once, because they’re rarely fully separable in practice.
What I don’t do
I don’t provide ongoing bookkeeping or accounting services, I don’t act as a retained grant writer producing proposals on a recurring schedule, I don’t do brand or communications design work, and I don’t provide legal representation for regulatory or contractual disputes.
What an engagement typically looks like
- A discovery call. A candid, no-obligation conversation about what’s actually going on.
- Scoping. A specific proposal describing what the engagement would cover, in what format, and over what timeframe.
- The engagement itself. A focused workshop, a defined project, or an ongoing advisory retainer, depending on need.
- Handover. Every engagement ends with the organization owning what was built, run by the organization’s own people.
How long engagements typically run
A focused workshop is closer to days than months. A defined project typically runs a few weeks to a few months. An advisory retainer is open-ended by design, reviewed every few months to check whether it’s still the right format.
Who this is a good fit for — and who it isn’t
This is a good fit if: your board or leadership is genuinely ready to change how the organization operates; you’re facing a specific real trigger; you want someone who understands both African operating realities and international/EU funding requirements; you’re prepared to do the follow-through work between conversations.
This isn’t a good fit if: you’re looking for a quick brand or website fix; you want someone to write your grant proposals on an ongoing basis rather than build your own capacity; your board isn’t willing to change existing decision-making patterns; you need immediate legal representation for a dispute.
Where to start
If you recognize your organization in one of the situations above, the most useful next step is a direct conversation about your specific situation. If you’re weighing whether outside help is the right move at all, why African nonprofits benefit from Africa-based, internationally fluent consulting lays out the case and gives you a framework for evaluating any consultant, including me.
FAQ
What kinds of organizations do you typically work with? African nonprofits and mission-driven startups, from small founder-led organizations to more established organizations preparing for a first audit, a major institutional donor, or an EU funding pursuit.
Do you offer one-off workshops, or only long retainers? Both — the right format depends on the problem, decided during scoping.
Can you help with grant writing directly? My work is on strategy, structure, and organizational capacity rather than acting as an ongoing outsourced grant writer.
Do you only work with organizations pursuing EU funding? No. EU and cross-border funding structuring is one of four areas I work in; a large share of engagements are purely domestic governance or financial oversight work.
How do I know if my organization needs a consultant right now, or if we can fix this internally? If your team has the internal expertise and objectivity to diagnose and fix the problem, you may not need outside help yet. A discovery call is a low-cost way to find out.