Indaba Impact Partnerships
Building communities of excellence. Together.
Individual supporters join the movement. Institutional partners help build permanent human capability: prepared educators, local facilitators, and the systems that keep quality alive.
Who we partner with
For institutions that want to leave something permanent behind.
Corporate foundations, CSR and CSI programmes, South African B-BBEE socio-economic and skills development programmes, philanthropic foundations, family offices, employers, regional development organisations and institutional education partners.
Partnerships typically range from about US$30,000 to US$300,000 a year. Larger, multi-year programmes are possible.
Every partnership funds the same thing underneath: adults prepared to give young children an excellent start, and the local capability to keep doing it.
The framework
Five levels of partnership.
Each level builds on the one below it. Ranges are indicative and every partnership is designed with you; the components show what a level can include, not a fixed package.
Proposal under discussionA. Educator Excellence Partner
US$30,000–60,000 a year
Educators trained and mentored in a community you care about.
Potential components
B. Facilitator Capacity Partner
US$60,000–120,000 a year
The people who prepare educators: their formation, deployment and quality.
Potential components
C. Community Transformation Partner
US$120,000–300,000 a year
A tailored initiative in one community or township, over several years.
Potential components
D. Regional Capability Partner
Custom
Quality early-childhood capability established across a region.
Potential components
E. Strategic Systems Partner
Custom, multi-year
The systems that let quality travel, built over several years.
Potential components
Indicative, subject to programme design. A proposal under discussion, not a price list: no partnership at any level has been signed yet.
How a partnership works
From first conversation to lasting capability.
Eight steps, agreed with you in writing. The last one leads back to the first.
Design
Define priorities
Your goals, the place or population, and what success would mean.
Select scope
The level, geography and duration that fit them.
Co-design programme and outcomes
With local leaders, the Institute’s facilitators and you.
Commit
Budget and governance
An itemised budget, decision rights and reporting duties.
Fund implementation and capability
Delivery now, and the local capacity to continue it.
Deliver
Monitor delivery and quality
Attendance, mentoring visits and observed practice.
Reporting
Progress, spending and evidence, on the agreed schedule.
Renew
Evaluate and plan continued deployment
What worked, what did not, and what comes next.
Evaluation feeds the next round of priorities.
Proposal under discussionPartnership builder
Sketch a partnership in a minute.
Choose a budget, a focus, a place and a timeframe. You will see a suggested structure, an indicative scale with its assumptions, and the milestones, measures and reporting we would propose.
The partnership builder needs JavaScript. The framework above shows how budgets map to levels: about US$30,000–60,000 a year for an Educator Excellence partnership, rising to custom regional and systems partnerships.
Write to us with your priorities, budget, geography and timeframe, and we will reply with a suggested structure.
Suggested partnership structure
A Educator Excellence Partner
Educators trained and mentored in a community you care about.
B Facilitator Capacity Partner
The people who prepare educators: their formation, deployment and quality.
C Community Transformation Partner
A tailored initiative in one community or township, over several years.
D Regional Capability Partner
Quality early-childhood capability established across a region.
E Strategic Systems Partner
Multi-year investment in the systems that let quality travel.
Possible activities
- CoRE training for a cohort of educators: seven modules over seven months, one week a month
- Materials for the training and for each classroom
- Mentoring visits to every centre for at least five months after the modules
- Classroom implementation support
- Quality monitoring and reporting
- Facilitator-in-Training places and formation
- Supervised practice alongside experienced facilitators
- Deployment support: travel, time and centre visits
- Quality assurance of training delivery
- Several cohorts in one community, planned with its leaders
- A local facilitator team
- Support for a network of centres
- Community leadership and parent engagement
- Monitoring and an annual review
- Regional scoping and programme design
- Regional leadership and coordination
- A facilitator network across communities
- Quality assurance and data
- Coordination with local government and partner organisations
- A sustainability plan
- Institutional operating systems
- Training-of-trainers
- National partnerships
- Legal and financial architecture
- Standards, monitoring and evaluation
- Replication tools
Indicative deployment scale Model, not a result
Required institutional infrastructure
- A host community and a venue for the monthly training week
- A facilitator team assigned to the cohort
- A centre-visit schedule and practice checklist
- One named contact at the Foundation
- Facilitator-in-Training places and supervision
- A deployment plan across centres
- Quality-assurance visits and observation records
- Agreed budget lines for travel and materials
- A written programme design with community partners
- A local facilitator team and its supervision
- Coordination across a network of centres
- A monitoring plan agreed before the first cohort
- A regular steering conversation with the community and with you
- A scoping phase and a regional programme design
- Regional leadership and coordination
- A facilitator network across communities
- Quality-assurance and data systems
- Coordination with local government and partner organisations
- Institutional operating systems
- Training-of-trainers capacity
- National partnerships
- Legal and financial architecture
- Standards, monitoring and evaluation, and replication tools
Proposed milestones
- Months 1–2 Co-design, budget, governance and a baseline.
- Months 3–9 The seven-month CoRE course, one week a month.
- From month 10 At least five months of mentoring visits, which the partnership also funds.
- Month 12 Report and evaluation, and a decision on what comes next.
- Year 1 Co-design, baseline, a first cohort and its mentoring.
- End of year 1 Review against agreed completion and quality measures before year 2 is released.
- Year 2 Further cohorts; local candidates begin facilitator formation.
- Year 3 Local facilitators take on more of the training; evaluation and a plan for continued deployment.
- Years 1–2 Co-design, baseline, first cohorts, and facilitator formation begins.
- Each year end A review against agreed measures before the next year is released.
- Years 3–4 A local facilitator team leads most of the training; quality checks run locally.
- Year 5 Evaluation, and the transition to local leadership and other funders.
Measurement framework
- Educators enrolled, attending and completing, reported as separate figures
- Mentoring visits and hours, with a practice checklist at each visit
- Classroom practice quality, observed
- Child development, with an independent ELOM 4&5 assessment where agreed
- Educators still practising a year later
Plus: facilitator progression on the Facilitator-in-Training pathway.
Plus: centres in the network and community partners engaged.
Plus: local facilitators, leaders and partner organisations in place across the region.
Plus: system measures agreed with government and partners, such as standards adopted and trainers prepared.
Reporting structure
- A short note at the start, the mid-point and the end of the course
- An end-of-year report: enrolment, attendance, completion, mentoring visits, and spending against budget
- Quarterly progress updates
- An annual report with delivery figures, facilitator progression and a financial statement
- Quarterly updates
- An annual report with a financial statement and the evidence gathered
- An annual review meeting to agree the next year
- Quarterly reports in a format agreed with you
- An annual review, independent where agreed
- A joint steering group
- A steering committee, an annual plan and budget
- An evaluation design agreed at the start
- Financial reporting in the format set by the grant agreement
Documented Indaba’s documented delivery is in the Cape Winelands, Western Cape. A programme elsewhere in South Africa starts with a scoping phase.
Proposal under discussion A regional programme begins with scoping: local leadership, venues, centres and candidate facilitators, then a written design.
Future opportunity Delivery outside South Africa is a future opportunity, not current operations. An international partnership would begin with a feasibility and design phase.
Indicative, subject to programme design. Nothing here is a quote, an offer or a promised outcome.
South African CSI and B-BBEE
Turn your social investment into lasting local capability.
For companies and corporate foundations in South Africa, a partnership can build capability that stays in the community long after the programme year ends.
- Professional developmentEducators prepared through a seven-month course and mentored in their own classrooms.
- Community economic opportunitySkilled early-childhood work, led by people from the community.
- Early-childhood qualityBetter prepared rooms and adults for the children in them.
- Women’s professional advancementCoRE was built for women who already run early-childhood centres.
- Local leadershipA pathway from practitioner to facilitator, so training is led locally.
- Measurable developmental outcomesMeasures agreed at the start, including independent child assessment where agreed.
Tailor-made partnerships
Your priorities. Our expertise. One shared ambition.
Some partners come with a place, a population or a strategy in mind. We design around it.
- A township
- A municipality
- A network of early-childhood centres
- A corporate operating region
- A teacher population
- A government initiative
- An NGO portfolio
- A multi-year philanthropic strategy
- A regional or international programme
The Foundation builds institutional capability: people, standards and systems that stay. It is not a training vendor.
International programmes are a future opportunity: Indaba does not deliver outside South Africa today.
Partnership accountability
What exists, what we agree, what we are building.
Programme design, budget governance, financial reporting, quality assurance, monitoring and evaluation, milestones, safeguarding, institutional accountability, progress communication and sustainability planning. Here is which of these exist today, which we agree with each partner, and which are still being built.
What exists today
Documented- Mentoring visitsFacilitators visit each centre during CoRE and for at least five months after it. In 2023: 892 centre visits.Indaba records
- Independent assessmentA once-off ELOM 4&5 assessment by an accredited assessor, June 2026, in Kayamandi. A snapshot, not proof of cause.Independently assessed
- The facilitator teamFive active facilitators deliver CoRE (June 2026).Indaba records
- ReceiptsStripe issues a receipt for every online payment to the Foundation.
- A US 501(c)(3)The Indaba Foundation, U.S. Federal Tax ID #47-1713004.
What we will agree with you
Proposal under discussionSet out in writing for each partnership.
- Programme design and milestones
- Budget governanceAn itemised budget, and how changes are approved.
- Financial reportingFormat and frequency set in the grant agreement.
- Monitoring and evaluationIndicators, baselines and who measures.
- Progress communicationWho reports, when, and to whom.
- Sustainability planningWhat remains when the funding ends.
- Safeguarding arrangementsAgreed in writing for each partnership until a published policy exists.
Being built
Future opportunity- A safeguarding and child-protection policyBeing prepared. Not yet published.
- Governance documentsThe Foundation’s governance and institutional accountability framework is being formalised; we share what exists at due diligence.
- A fuller quality-assurance frameworkWith the Indaba Institute, building on the practice checklist used at every visit.
- Baseline-to-endline evidenceAssessment at the start and end of cohorts, instead of a single snapshot.
We do not claim certifications, audits or compliance systems that do not exist. If you need a document we do not yet have, we will say so.
Further reading
Where to go next.
- The national capability programmeFor major funders: four funding tracks to build national capability, released year by year against gates.
- Evidence and accountabilityThe evidence register: every claim with its source and the kind of evidence behind it.
- Friends of IndabaFor individuals: monthly or one-time contributions, and a relationship with the work.
Start a conversation
Tell us what you want to build.
Your priorities, your budget, your timeframe. We will reply with what exists, what the evidence shows, and how a partnership could be designed.