Developing a fundraising strategy for a coding-for-kids start-up

The Fourth Industrial Revolution (4IR) has led to a demand for digital talent and South Africa is no exception. However, South Africa has a shortage of digital talent, limiting its ability to capitalise on 4IR opportunities and losing jobs offshore. 

CodeNgwana offers a unique and sustainable solution to the challenges South Africa faces. CodeNgwana is an NGO initiative that provides foundational coding lessons to African children, allowing them to participate in the digital economy and take advantage of 4IR opportunities. This negates the need for band-aid solutions later on in a child’s schooling.

As part of the Genesis in Society initiative, Genesis Analytics’ Centre of Digital Excellence (C0DE) and Financial Services Strategy (FSS) teams partnered with CodeNgwana to support its growth objectives over the next three years. We facilitated several workshops with the organisation’s founder, Noluvuyo Gqadu, to determine the financial requirements of CodeNgwana and ascertain its current and future revenue potential. During these discovery workshops, Genesis also ideated on CodeNgwana’s unique value proposition to differentiate it from other coding initiatives.

The knowledge shared in these workshops, combined with desktop research and internal strategy discussions, allowed the team to develop a financial model, key narrative and investor presentation pack to assist CodeNgwana in attracting the funding to expand its operations. As a result, Genesis was able to deliver: (i) a clear view of the organisation's funding requirements for expansion, with an editable model that can be used to answer this question as CodeNgwana continues to evolve, and (ii) an articulation of the organisation's value proposition to funders in the crowded coding-for-kids space and a set of key messages to convince funders of the value of supporting this approach to coding pedagogy for foundation-phase students.

“The probing questions asked during the workshops made me shift my thinking about the broader opportunities for CodeNgwana" - Noluvuyo Gqadu

Genesis identified CodeNgwana's unique value proposition to be its focus on the African child, offering a lasting solution to building coding skills in South Africa’s future generation, and distinguishing the organisation from other coding initiatives. The diagram below illustrates the four contributing factors to this proposition. First, the programme is designed to be an affordable solution, making it appropriate for lower-income schools. Second, the coding curriculum is available in several African languages, making it accessible by teachers and students. Third, the curriculum includes bespoke case studies that are relevant to the African child. Finally, the initiative builds an emphatic community by involving tutors, teachers and students.

The culmination of this initiative was an investor dry-run workshop, facilitated by Genesis. This provided Noluvuyo the opportunity to present the curated key messaging pack and tailored “financial ask” developed by the team to members from other practices within Genesis who posed as potential investors. These “potential investors” have experience in start-up financing and investing in education initiatives and provided valuable feedback to Noluvuyo, adequately preparing her to engage with real-life funders in the near future.

Members of the Johannesburg C0DE team and the founder of CodeNgwana, Noluvuyo Gqadu (centre) at the investor dry-run workshop: (from left) Ceri Louise Scott, Chloe von Widdern and (right) Mark Schoeman, Korstiaan Wapenaar