Why Funders Must Go Beyond Grants: Embracing Strategy to Build Sustainable Community Enterprises

Across Africa and much of the Global South, funders are pouring significant resources into enterprise development—especially for women, youth, and marginalized communities. These investments are often made with the best of intentions: to stimulate job creation, reduce poverty, and empower communities through entrepreneurship.

But here’s a difficult truth that too few funders confront:

Many of these businesses collapse shortly after the funding ends.

Despite robust training programs and well-meaning grants, community-based entrepreneurs are often left without the strategic guidance they need to survive and scale. If funders want their investments to create lasting change, they must begin to see business strategy not as a luxury—but as a core component of enterprise development.

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The Missing Link: Strategy as a Development Tool

Donor-funded entrepreneurship programs tend to focus on access:

• Access to capital

• Access to skills

• Access to networks

These are all critical. But without a clear, context-aware strategy, even well-capitalized, well-trained entrepreneurs can fail. Why?

Because rural and marginalized entrepreneurs face unique challenges:

• Highly localized, often informal markets

• Limited infrastructure and inconsistent demand

• Cultural and gender-related barriers

• Low resilience to economic shocks

In such settings, a one-size-fits-all business approach doesn’t work. What’s needed is tailored strategy support—from business modeling and financial planning to go-to-market strategies and risk management.

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What Funders Can Do Differently

To bridge this gap, funders must evolve from simply financing programs to co-shaping them strategically. That means:

1. Investing in Business Strategy Capacity

Provide budget lines for NGOs and implementing partners to engage business strategists or enterprise development consultants who understand local markets.

2. Co-Designing Sustainable Models

Work with grantees to co-create business support interventions that go beyond training—ones that include long-term planning, value chain development, and market systems analysis.

3. Embedding Strategic Milestones in M&E

Measure not just activity outputs (e.g., number of businesses started), but strategic progress: customer retention, profitability, reinvestment behavior, and resilience during downturns.

4. Funding Knowledge Partners

Support consultants, researchers, and local advisors who can generate insights, frameworks, and models that NGOs and entrepreneurs can apply and adapt.

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Real Impact Requires Strategy

When funders embed business strategy into the DNA of enterprise development programs, they shift from “launching businesses” to building business ecosystems. They invest not just in activity—but in outcomes that last.

As someone working to support NGOs and CBOs at this intersection—particularly in Kenya—I believe it’s time we treat strategy with the seriousness it deserves in the development space.

Because ultimately, when entrepreneurs in rural or marginalized communities succeed sustainably, everyone wins—the funder, the NGO, and most importantly, the community itself.

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Let’s stop funding collapse. Let’s start funding capacity.

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If you’re a funder, NGO, or implementing partner working with rural or youth-led enterprises and want to explore how strategy can strengthen your impact, I’d love to connect: harriet@elev8network.co.ke | +254 714 160 902

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