Building Bridges. Accelerating Locally Led Change.

Photo Credit: IZUMI Foundation

Daraja Partners is a nonprofit consulting firm dedicated to advancing locally led development and strengthening the leaders and institutions driving change across Sub-Saharan Africa, and around the world. Founded in 2024 by Solomon Makuza and Jessie Cronan, Daraja Partners serves as a bridge between funders and nonprofit leaders, helping both sides align around approaches that create more meaningful, equitable, and lasting impact.

At the heart of our work is a core belief: the communities closest to challenges are often closest to the solutions. Yet despite growing recognition of the importance of localization in international development, significant gaps remain in how resources, decision-making power, and support are structured across the development ecosystem. Daraja Partners works to help close those gaps by fostering stronger partnerships, elevating local leadership, and supporting models that shift power and ownership closer to communities.

Capacity Building for Locally Led Organizations

We design and facilitate leadership development programs, coaching initiatives, and organizational strengthening efforts that support nonprofit leaders navigating growth, uncertainty, and change. Our work emphasizes practical tools, peer learning, and long-term leadership development to help organizations build resilience and sustainability.

Learn more

Photo Credit: Our Sisters Opportunity

Strategic Consulting for Foundations and Corporate Partners

We partner with foundations, family philanthropists, and corporate actors seeking to strengthen the effectiveness and equity of their giving. Through strategic planning, theory of change development, donor education, and advisory services, we help partners align resources and strategy with locally driven approaches to impact.

Learn More

Photo CreditL: IZUMI Foundation

Thought Leadership and Community Building

We convene conversations and develop content that explores emerging questions facing philanthropy and international development – from localization and leadership transitions to the future of aid and systems change. Through our webinar series, writing, and speaking engagements, we work to bridge perspectives and foster stronger ecosystems of collaboration.

Webinar Series

The future of development is being shaped not in conference rooms or policy papers, but in the day-to-day decisions of local leaders building new approaches in real time.

We are living through a profound transition in international development. The abrupt shifts reshaping the funding landscape have created significant uncertainty for nonprofit organizations across Sub-Saharan Africa. Yet alongside these challenges lies an opportunity: to rethink longstanding assumptions and create a future that places greater leadership, decision-making, and ownership in the hands of local organizations and communities.

 "We can be in the driver seat. It is our time to build new ways of operating that empower communities rather than more dependence on foreign funding."

— Navigating the Moment Leadership Program Graduate

  • " There is growing consensus from both funders and nonprofits around the critical importance of investing in locally led development, but often the “how” of this shift can feel complex and overwhelming. Jessie and Solomon can help. They are competent, compassionate,and bring joy to the work. They’ve been at this a while -- 20 years altogether -- so they bring the lived experience on both sides of the donor-doer dynamic that is required to navigate complexity. You’ll want to work with them to dream up and dare to do great things.

    Andy Bryant, Executive Director, Segal Family Foundation

  • "Daraja – ‘bridge’ – perfectly represents what we've accomplished together."

    — Daniel Zoltani, Executive Director, Whole Foods Market Foundation

  • "The workshops Daraja Partners led provided us with useful tools, practical strategies, and meaningful peer connections that we will continue to use in our work."

    —Michel Musilikare, Executive Director, Health Builders 

Our Partners

We are proud to work alongside an extraordinary community of nonprofit and philanthropic leaders committed to advancing locally led change.

From the nonprofit leaders participating in our leadership programs, to the foundations we partner with on strategy and learning initiatives, to the practitioners and thought leaders who contribute their expertise to our webinar series, we are deeply grateful to be part of such a dynamic and inspiring ecosystem.