Volunteer Fundraising & Donor Partnerships Lead to Help Grow and Sustain Work Creating Pathways to Economic Opportunities with Tendo Social Development Group

This is an opportunity to work with an Ashoka Fellow

Ashoka Fellows are leading social entrepreneurs that have been taken through a rigorous selection process, testing the quality of their ideas and character, to become part of the Ashoka Fellowship and Network. Ashoka Fellows take on the challenges of building innovative system change ideas to make and spread social impact in a world wrought with challenges. They refuse to let the ‘impossible’ stand in their way to creating a better world.

This is an unpaid, volunteer opportunity

About The Affiliated Organization

Tendo Social Development Group was founded to address a challenge we see repeatedly in Kenya: women and young people often have the ability and determination to improve their lives, but lack viable pathways to income and economic opportunity. This can make migration—particularly from rural areas to informal urban settlements—feel like the only option. We work primarily with women and young people in underserved rural and urban communities, including Kendu Bay in Homa Bay County and Mukuru in Nairobi. Tendo helps them turn local skills, resources and market opportunities into livelihoods. We provide practical skills and enterprise support through TendoPreneurship, climate-smart agriculture and value chains such as cleaning and body-care products. We are also developing circular-economy innovations that turn banana agricultural residue into natural hair extensions. Alongside livelihood creation, our Female Migrant Preparedness work helps young women understand their rights, assess opportunities and risks, and make safer, better-informed migration decisions. Our work is important because poverty is not only about lack of income; it is also about lack of choices. We want people to have genuine options—to build a livelihood where they are, or to migrate from a position of greater knowledge and preparedness rather than necessity.

For more information, please visit Tendo.co.ke

Job Description

Tendo Social Development Group is seeking an experienced volunteer to help us build a structured and sustainable fundraising system that will strengthen our ability to finance and scale our work with women and young people in underserved communities in Kenya. The goal is to move from responding to individual funding opportunities as they arise to having a proactive, well-organised fundraising function with a strong pipeline of prospective funders, clear priorities, reusable proposal materials, systematic follow-up and stronger donor relationships. The volunteer will work with Tendo’s leadership team to:

Review our current fundraising approach and recommend improvements. Develop a practical fundraising strategy and donor pipeline. Research and identify foundations, corporates and other funders whose priorities align with Tendo’s work. Establish a system for tracking prospects, deadlines, submissions, follow-ups and donor relationships. Help develop strong reusable fundraising materials, including organisational narratives, project summaries, budgets and proposal templates. Support the preparation and review of selected grant applications and partnership approaches. Help us develop a longer-term approach to donor cultivation and relationship management.Where appropriate, help strengthen the fundraising skills of the Tendo team so that the system can be sustained after the volunteer assignment.

Your work is important because Tendo has developed promising programmes in livelihood creation, enterprise, climate-smart agriculture, circular-economy innovation and safer, informed migration, but our ability to expand them depends on building a stronger and more diversified funding base. We are therefore not simply looking for someone to write grant proposals. We are looking for someone who can help us build the fundraising capability and systems that will remain with Tendo long after the volunteer assignment ends.

Volunteer Logistics

Estimated hours required per week: 10-15

The estimated duration of the project is: 1-3 months

This position is Virtual (Remote)

Language Requirements

English

Desired Skills And Experience

We are looking for a volunteer with experience in one or more of the following areas:

Nonprofit fundraising and resource mobilisation Fundraising strategy and systems development Donor research and prospect identification Grant writing and proposal development Donor pipeline and relationship management Foundation, corporate and institutional fundraising CRM or other fundraising tracking systems Strong written communication and storytelling Budgeting and presenting projects to funders Experience working with African NGOs, social enterprises or international development organisations would be an advantage.