Elevating African Development: The Transformative Role of RARC Consulting

01 — About RARC

Who We Are

Ruwaydah Abdul-Rahman Consulting is a Nairobi based advisory firm working across the African development ecosystem. We partner with non-profits, foundations, social enterprises and mission driven private sector teams to build the funding, the capabilities and the leadership that lasting impact requires.

RARC was founded on a clear observation. Funding is increasingly constrained while needs continue to grow, and the organisations that thrive are the ones willing to evolve in strategy, in creativity, and in the way they connect with the people who support them. We exist to make that evolution possible.

We work personally and immersively with every client. We take the time to understand each organisation, we adapt our approach to its context, and we work directly alongside teams to strengthen capacity, critical thinking and management practice. The goal is always the same. Position our clients to meet their fundraising ambitions, and connect them with a growing portfolio of international and local philanthropic partners.

We believe the success of any organisation rests on the culture and the attitudes of its people. They are both the agents of change and the first line of investment for sustainable impact. Sustainable models work best when they are driven by, and carry the buy in of, the very people and communities they serve.

We are a private sector partner with a non-profit heart, and we are useful from the first meeting.

02 — Who We Serve

A Partner Across the Ecosystem

RARC is a full spectrum advisory partner for the entire NGO and development ecosystem, not a single sector. Our experience spans conservation, social development, humanitarian response, health, education, youth and livelihoods, and we bring the same rigour to each.

• Community organisations: Grassroots and community based organisations building their first structured fundraising function.
• National and regional NGOs: Established organisations seeking to diversify income and professionalise their systems.
• International NGOs: Global institutions and conservancies localising strategy and strengthening African led delivery.
• Funders and foundations: Philanthropic circles seeking well prepared, high impact African partners.
• Private sector partners: Corporate and private sector teams designing credible social investment and shared value programmes that stand up to scrutiny.

03 — Our Approach

Assess. Build. Grow.

We connect philanthropy with the organisations best placed to use it. Working with non-profits and the private sector alike, we identify and deliver positive development outcomes in conservation, social impact and humanitarian programmes. Strategically, boldly, and with certainty.

• Assess: We start by understanding the problem, the organisation and the environment it operates in. That means an honest read of income, pipeline, people, systems and reputation, and a clear statement of what is actually holding growth back.
• Build: We construct an evidence based resource mobilisation infrastructure. Strategy, systems, skills and relationships, designed for the organisation you are rather than the one a template assumes you to be.
• Grow: We execute against agreed goals and embed the capability inside your team, so that growth continues long after the engagement ends. We measure ourselves on what happens after we leave.

We do not hand over a document and wish you well. We stay in the room until the money moves.

04 — What We Guarantee

Our Commitments

• 15+ Proven experience: African talent with more than fifteen years of experience across the global development and non-profit landscape, on both sides of the funding table.
• USD 30M Demonstrated results: Resource mobilisation agility that catalyses growth, with more than thirty million United States dollars raised in support of development causes in Africa.
• 01 Lasting capability: Increased institutional capacity that drives innovation, efficiency and sustainability inside your organisation, held by your own people rather than by a consultant.

We go the extra mile. We guarantee continuity.

05 — Our Services

Six Practice Areas

Engaged singly or as one programme of work. Most clients start with one and grow into three.

• ONE - Resource Mobilisation and Fundraising: Fundraising strategy and counsel, sustainer and regular giving programme design, major donor cultivation, fundraising events, and special project planning and management.
• TWO - Strategy and Advisory: Strategic planning and development, organisational reviews, strategic partnerships, collaborations and consortium giving. Counsel for leaders who need a candid second mind.
• THREE - Communications and Brand: Communications, marketing and branding for non-profits. Positioning organisations to be seen, understood and funded, with a case for support that reads as though a human wrote it.
• FOUR - People and Capability: Team skill advancement, coaching and capacity building that equips staff as confident agents of change rather than reluctant askers.
• FIVE - Governance and Board Support: Non-profit board development, institutional governance and organisational strengthening, including the board's own role in resource mobilisation.
• SIX - Systems and Learning: Constituent relationship management solutions, and monitoring, evaluation, adaptation and learning structure and architecture that funders trust.

Six practices, one outcome. An organisation that can fund its own ambition.

06 — The Vision

To lead invaluable, disruptive and perpetual change in impact giving and investment in African led change.

Our Goals

• A conduit for opportunity: To enable not for profit models to generate knowledge, create linkages between opportunity and identified need, and promote the learning, innovation and investment that leads to positive developmental outcomes.
• Translating success: To drive success by working alongside organisations and their teams, translating strategies, innovations and social policy ideas into life changing, mobilising and sustainable initiatives.
• A shared commitment: To inspire humanity and to let ourselves be inspired. To offer ethical, professional, transparent and limitless service to every organisation that trusts us with its ambition.

07 — The Team

The People Behind RARC

A small senior team. You work with the people whose names are on this page, not with a delegated junior.

• FOUNDER - Ruwaydah Abdul-Rahman: Leads client partnerships and the resource mobilisation practice, with deep experience across the African non-profit, conservation and social development landscape. She has built fundraising functions from nothing, rebuilt them under pressure, and sat with boards through the decisions that follow.
• CO-FOUNDER AND SENIOR ASSOCIATE - Mustafa Paul Oimbo: Strategy, governance and organisational strengthening across the public and non-profit sectors. Mustafa works with executives and boards on the structures that decide whether a strategy survives contact with reality.
• SENIOR ASSOCIATE AND ADVISOR - Wanjiru Murage: Communication development, brand and impact. Fifteen years across consulting, healthcare, FMCG and technology, and more than 40 transformation projects worth close to Kes 1 billion. Wanjiru builds the platforms and the language that move an organisation from product messaging to real behaviour change.

Behind the core team sits a bench of senior and junior associates, each aligned to one of our practice pillars and brought in to suit the shape of your portfolio.

08 — Clients and Partners

Trusted By

Organisations that came to us with a funding question and stayed for the rest of the conversation.

• Human Needs Project
• Lewa Wildlife Conservancy
• WildlifeDirect
• Local Ocean Conservation
• Uvumbuzi Africa
• Kenya Association of Fundraising Professionals
• Nature's Pitch
• Water is Life
• Global Diversity Foundation
• Il Ngwesi Community Conservancy
• Kijiji Solutions
• Alphome Community Farms
• MatsaRigi CBO
• NyukiNiMali
• Kenya Wildlife Service
• Roho Voyage

I am not African because I was born in Africa, but because Africa was born in me. — KWAME NKRUMAH

09 — Get in Touch

Start the conversation

Tell us what you are trying to fund and what is standing in the way. The first conversation costs nothing and usually clarifies more than a proposal would.

Book an introductory call and leave it with one clear next step, whether or not you work with us.

• EMAIL: ruwaydah99@gmail.com
• TELEPHONE: +254 716 217 494
• WEB: www.rarc.consulting

FOLLOW OUR JOURNEY

RARC

RUWAYDAH ABDUL-RAHMAN CONSULTING

The possibilities are endless.

Ruwaydah Abdul-Rahman Consulting, Nairobi, Kenya