Scaling What Works: The Power of Personalised Coaching for Kenya’s Community Based Organisations
The Daraja – Shared Services Platform is an Africa-based localisation initiative incubated by the Global Development Incubator (GDI), designed to transform how international aid and philanthropic funding reach local organizations. At its core, Daraja addresses the persistent gap between donor ambitions to “localise” funding and the realities faced by community-based organisations (CBOs) and NGOs that continue to receive less than 10% of international assistance. By combining discovery, due diligence, regranting, and capacity building into a single platform, Daraja enables donors to confidently fund grassroots organisations while equipping local actors with the tools and systems needed to thrive.
Since its inception, Daraja has supported over 55 local non-profits to strengthen their governance, leadership, and compliance systems, helping them collectively secure more than $3.1M in additional funding. It has built partnerships with foundations, intermediaries, and bilateral donors, while piloting self-serve capacity platforms in partnership with Tiko across Kenya and other countries. Looking ahead, Daraja aims to expand its platform across Sub-Saharan Africa, including Tanzania, Ghana, and South Africa, while establishing donor advisory groups, publishing sector insights, and developing pooled funds and impact investment portfolios. Through this model, Daraja is redefining what locally-led development looks like in practice: shifting power and resources to African organisations, strengthening systems for sustainability, and ensuring that international aid is more inclusive, efficient, and impactful.
For more information, please reach out to kim.matu@globaldevincubator.org OR esther.ogol@globaldevincubator.org
In Kenya, over 45,000 community-based organisations (CBOs) are on the front lines, delivering essential services to their communities. Despite their vital role, many of these organisations are underfunded, under-resourced, and structurally fragile. They are often held back by a lack of strong internal systems for things like human resources, financial management, and governance.
The Tiko-Daraja (Daraja – Shared Services Platform) Capacity Building Project aimed to tackle this challenge head-on. Between 2024 and 2025, the project piloted a new approach to help 35 CBOs in Kenya strengthen their internal systems. The project combined group workshops with one-on-one coaching for a select group of 15 organisations, while a control group of 20 organisations received the group training. The results provide a powerful proof of concept. These improvements weren’t just procedural; they were transformational. CBOs reported clearer staff roles, stronger donor alignment, revitalised governance, and greater morale among staff and volunteers. Perhaps most importantly, coached organisations built the confidence to sustain and scale these systems long after the project ended.
The Transformative Impact of One-on-One Coaching
A comparative analysis of the two groups revealed that CBOs with personalised coaching consistently and significantly outperformed those who only attended group workshops across all key indicators. This tailored support helped organisations move beyond theoretical knowledge to practical, sustainable change.
Here are some of the key findings:
- Human Resources Management: Personalised coaching played a decisive role in helping CBOs implement new HR policies. An impressive 85% of coached CBOs updated or created a comprehensive HR manual, compared to only 50% without coaching. Similarly, 88% of coached CBOs clarified staff roles and job descriptions, while only 60% of the uncoached group did so. This support helped CBOs with limited administrative staff implement complex policies like performance appraisals, with 78% of coached organisations doing so versus 50% of those without coaching. The average confidence in their HR systems was also significantly higher for the coached group (4.4/5 vs. 3.8/5).
- Financial Management: The coaching was also crucial for strengthening financial transparency and accountability. 88% of coached organisations improved their bookkeeping systems, a notable difference from the 65% of CBOs who only attended group training. The coaching helped these organisations navigate unique funding streams and set up ledgers and reconciliation processes tailored to their needs. A standout success was audit readiness: 35% of coached CBOs initiated an external audit for the first time, whereas none of the CBOs without coaching did so. Overall, coached CBOs reported an 80% success rate in aligning with donor reporting requirements, compared to just 50% of the uncoached group. This demonstrates how one-on-one support builds not just technical capacity, but the confidence to manage grants responsibly and answer donor questions.
- Governance and Leadership: In an area often overlooked, personalised coaching helped CBOs formalise their leadership structures and boost board engagement. 75% of coached CBOs reported having more active and engaged boards, compared to 50% without coaching. The coaching provided a safe space to discuss sensitive topics and create realistic meeting schedules and agendas. This support was also vital in clarifying roles between the board and management, with 70% of coached organisations successfully doing so, versus only 45% without follow-up. Coaching also led to better succession planning, with 52% of coached CBOs developing a plan compared to 25% of the other group.
The Confidence Factor and Path Forward
Beyond the numbers, the most powerful outcome of the personalised coaching was a palpable boost in confidence. CBOs with one-on-one support rated their average confidence to sustain improvements at 4.3/5, while those without coaching averaged 3.7/5. This gap reflects a deeper sense of ownership and practical know-how among staff and leaders, ensuring that improvements are not just procedural but are truly embedded into the organisation’s culture.
The project’s findings make it clear that one-off training is insufficient for driving lasting systems change. To replicate this success and scale the model, the project recommends several key actions for future capacity-building efforts:
- Prioritise personalised coaching: It should be a core, non-negotiable component of all future programs.
- Strengthen peer learning: Create formal, structured platforms for CBOs to share tools, lessons, and provide technical support to one another.
- Expand support for fundraising: Provide practical assistance with grant writing and donor engagement.
- Partner with local governments: Embed this successful model into county-level civil society support plans to ensure sustainability and alignment with local priorities.
The Tiko-Daraja Capacity Building Project has shown that investing in tailored, context-driven capacity building with sustained mentorship significantly strengthens grassroots CBOs, making them more credible, accountable, and resilient partners in local development. This approach not only builds stronger organisations but also empowers local leaders to drive their own transformational change. By connecting and harnessing a network of developing CBOs, this enables shared learning, resource exchange, collective problem-solving, and mutual support, leading to stronger collective outcomes. As Tiko looks to expand its support to new CBOs and countries, it plans to continue partnering with Daraja- Shared Services Platform to build upon the strong foundations they have already established.
About Tiko
Tiko is a non-profit leveraging technology to transform sexual and reproductive health for underserved girls in urban and peri-urban Africa facing the ‘triple threat’ of unintended pregnancy, HIV and sexual and gender-based violence.
Tiko uses a community led, tech-enabled model to connect otherwise fragmented stakeholders on the ground, such as private and public medical service providers, community-based organisations and pharmacies, so that adolescent girls have access to high-quality health and wellbeing services and products, at no cost to them.
At the core of Tiko’s approach is working with existing, established partners and harnessing their community-level expertise and reach to create an enabling environment for the young people we aim to serve—our Tiko clients. In 2023 Tiko sought to go beyond only serving and doing more for our Tiko clients, but our invaluable community partners as well. Partnering with the highly experienced and capable team from Daraja – Shared Services Platform gave Tiko the technical skills and ability to do just that.
For more information please reach out to mitch@tiko.org