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Frequently Asked Questions
For NGOs
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We focus on African-led organizations.
African leaders already have the ideas, skills, and vision to grow their impact. What’s often missing is access. With our team’s 35+ years combined experience in development, we bridge that gap. We connect you to the funders, peers, and specialist support that can unlock long-term growth, using relationships built over years in the sector.
We strengthen what funders look for—not just the pitch.
Fundraising doesn’t happen in isolation. Strong financial systems, credible data, compelling messaging, and a capable team all make your fundraising more effective. We focus on these foundations so the funding you raise can truly fuel growth.We partner, not parachute in.
Traditional consultants often deliver recommendations and move on. We stay engaged over the long term, working alongside your team to understand your goals, challenges, and context—and sharing both wins and setbacks as we go.We change who can afford great fundraising support.
Our shared cost model allows us to make senior-level expertise accessible at a fraction of traditional consultants.
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Our partners lead bold change across Africa in livelihoods, health, education, climate, gender equity, and human rights. We intentionally take “a portfolio approach” that balances areas of focus, gender, languages, and geographies, and actively pursue partners who have traditionally been left out of development conversations.
We find the most transformative partnerships involve organizations that are:
Rooted in the Community: We partner with organizations that are African-founded and African-led. We look for the doers: those who roll up their sleeves and represent their communities with curiosity, trust, and humility.
Understand the Why: We work with organizations deeply grounded in purpose—those who understand their “why” and the challenges they’re taking on.
Understand the How: Have a clear and defined theory of change or road map, and have started showing progress.
Have Big Potential: We don’t expect our partners to have everything figured out. We look for strong potential for impact, grounded in credible leadership, compelling ideas, and a clear sense of what it takes to make them happen.
Are Curious and Adaptable: We approach every partnership with openness and a willingness to learn, and we look for partners who do the same.
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We do our best work as partners, not consultants—working alongside your team to get the work done, not adding to your to-do list. Our core engagement is a 12-month partnership, with flexible timing and the option for ongoing support, designed to move at your pace while making meaningful progress.
We recognize that fundraising has natural ebbs and flows: periods of intense activity followed by quieter stretches of reflection, planning, and relationship-building. As a team, we manage our time and partner commitments with this rhythm in mind.
Our goal is balance: to stay responsive to each partner’s needs while managing our collective energy and ensuring the quality of our work remains consistently high. We see fundraising not as a constant sprint, but as a steady rhythm. That’s why we organize ourselves to move in time with it.
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Historically, our partners have secured new funding within the first 6 months of working with us.
That said, we do not have a magic wand (yet).
Fundraising timelines can vary a lot depending on the organization, the type of funder, and the stage of your work. While we’re here to help accelerate progress, there’s no guaranteed “speed.”
What we can promise is that we’re on the same team with you, working toward the same goals. We focus on building strong strategies, strengthening relationships, and positioning you for success—so when opportunities arise, you’re ready to move. Think of us as partners helping you set up for meaningful, sustainable funding rather than chasing quick wins.
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Engagement Costs: Backed by market research, each annual engagement is benchmarked well below market for the comprehensive strategy development, senior fundraising support, active donor engagement, and brand positioning provided.
Sliding Scale: NGO partners contribute what they can sustainably afford, to ensure commitment and co-ownership. While this usually falls at less than 50% of the actual costs, we operate on an honesty system that we hope will support the entire ecosystem. Each organization’s individual contribution and payment schedule is determined in conversation with our team.
Across partners, we’ve found that committing to some level of contribution, no matter how small, helps nonprofits advance organizational maturity, so they can actively work towards recruitment of a full-time development team.
Funder Subsidy: The remaining engagement costs are covered by an Access Fund — supported by individuals, foundations, and funding partners who believe in capacity building for African-led, high-impact organizations. We focus on funding partners who can contribute to the general subsidy pool, but also welcome discussions around underwriting specific partners, engagements, causes, or regions.
Transparency: Fundraising has too often been an undervalued and under-resourced investment. We ensure both our nonprofit and funder partners understand the true cost of the work, which intentionally reinforces the value behind investing in a strong fundraising team to fuel growth.
Measurement: Reporting and outcomes are regularly shared with both our nonprofit and philanthropic partners, demonstrating how investment in capacity yields long-term sustainability.
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We intentionally onboard new partners twice a year, so we can align our support with the natural cadences of annual fundraising cycles.
If you’re interested in exploring a partnership during one of these cycles, send us an email at hello@quiet-giants.com or fill out the contact form linked on this page.
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Absolutely!
We believe trust is built through transparency and shared experience. While some of our projects are confidential, we’ve found that direct conversations with our partners are often the best way to get a feel for how we work and what it’s like to partner with us.
For Funders
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Senior-level consultants are too often engaged only by the largest, best-resourced organizations—not because they need them most, but because they can pay for them.
Growing, African-led NGOs are often locked out of the very support that would allow them to scale responsibly.
That gap is where Quiet Giants focuses its work. Quiet Giants’ Access Fund is a philanthropist-supported pooled subsidy that enables us to offer our services to high-potential NGOs at below-market rates.
While the fund is pooled by design, we welcome discussions around targeted underwriting aligned with shared priorities, partners, and/or geographies.
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The conversation around locally led development has gained momentum, but many of the same obstacles persist, constraining African-led organizations’ ability to grow.
These patterns point to the need for collective action, which is why we have chosen to focus our work entirely on supporting African-led organizations. By no means is this meant as a commentary on the work being done by impactful organizations of all shapes and sizes.
Rather, we decided to follow the data. According to a survey conducted by the African Philanthropy Forum and the Bridgespan Group, the following key barriers remain for African leaders seeking to grow their revenue:
Strategic Alignment: Many grantmakers lack clear strategies or goals for funding African NGOs effectively.
Sourcing: Donors struggle to identify and find African NGOs, with over 70% of survey respondents citing this as a top barrier.
Diligence + Selection: Even when sourced, African NGOs often fail to advance due to exclusionary criteria or decision-making norms.
Funding + Support: Funding is frequently small, short-term, and restricted, limiting sustainability and organizational growth.
Bias: 70% of respondents acknowledged bias—including familiarity, cultural, language, and racial bias—as a major barrier to trust and funding.
We’re here as a bridge to change that.
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We welcome you supporting our partners in any way you can!
That said, we think it’s important to listen to our partners on what their needs are, and what services they think will be most helpful in bringing their impactful ideas to life. Market research indicates over 80% of organizational capacity-building grant requests they receive are asking for support with fundraising.
On average, the NGO partners we work with see a 10-20X Return on investment from our strategic advisory services.
Our role isn’t to sit between you and the organizations you care about, but to make your giving more effective and efficient. By investing in our fundraising advisory, you’re not just covering “fundraising costs,” you’re enabling a system that connects high-impact organizations with the right partners sooner, and more strategically, than would normally be available to them.
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Of course!
We welcome recommendations from our peers. That said, we feel the most fruitful partnerships are based on trust, transparency, and a shared vision of the road ahead. Accordingly, final decision-making on NGO partners only happens after a due diligence process that ensures both NGOs and the Quiet Giants team has a chance to get to know each other before moving forward.
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We know that for many things, money makes the world go round. But for us, success isn’t just hitting a fundraising target—it’s setting organizations up to thrive in the long term.
That said, money is important, and data and evidence helps us all learn. We track and report on key metrics along the way to ensure progress is clear and measurable, and we share that information with both our NGO and funding partners.
Select metrics include:
Funding Outcomes: Total income secured, diversification of revenue base, and pipeline value generated.
Funder Engagement: Number and quality of donor meetings, introductions, and follow-up opportunities facilitated.
Visibility and Influence: Invitations to speak at high-profile events, mentions or features in sector publications, and growth in digital or media visibility with relevant audiences.
Organizational Readiness:
Improvements in fundraising strategy, proposal quality, data systems, and clarity of value proposition.Leadership Confidence and Capability: Feedback from leaders and teams on confidence engaging with funders, storytelling, and negotiation.
Partnership Momentum: Collaborations formed with other funders, peer organisations, or ecosystem actors as a result of the work.
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Our team is based in New York, the UK, and Nairobi, and brings decades of hands-on experience working with leaders, organizations, and funders across diverse contexts.
We also have a strong network of on-call advisors stationed across Africa, enabling us to provide partners with bespoke technical support tailored to their specific needs.
Our global positioning is intentional. At this moment, the majority of funding available for African initiatives still comes from the markets where we are based. Our cultural diversity helps us navigate the complex landscape of philanthropy and fundraising, connecting people, ideas, and resources to drive meaningful impact.
