In every partnership we find a vision and a challenge. Our portfolio showcases how we supported our clients, from a women's empowerment enterprise in Malawi to rainforest conservation in Indonesia, to successfully grown deeper, resilient roots.

Katundu - Likoma Island, Malawi

Empowering local artisans through international and ethical business

The Challenge: Katundu, a social enterprise empowering local artisans, faced a critical challenge: they needed to strengthen their operations and leadership capacity to successfully scale their customer and beneficiary base, with the goals of achieving long-term financial sustainability.

The Partnership: We partnered with Katundu to strategically manage this growth, significantly expanding their artisan base while securing and fulfilling high-value international orders, including a major contract with The Latitude Hotel Group across Africa. When the pandemic hit, our focus immediately shifted to crisis management. We rapidly transformed their entire business model to ensure survival, established efficient international logistics, built a resilient global brand, and successfully completed the transition to a fully Malawian-led team.

The Result: The enterprise not only achieved sustainable financials but demonstrated remarkable resilience by remaining fully operational during the height of the global pandemic. The successful leadership transition secured the long-term continuation of employment and empowerment for over 50 local artisans, solidifying Katundu's continued, impact in the Likoma community.

www.katundu.com

Marine Megafauna Foundation - Inhambane, Mozambique

Barefoot Conservation - West-Papua, Indonesia

Community engagement and capacity building for marine conservation

The Challenge: To ensure the long-term success of their marine conservation work in Raja Ampat, Barefoot Conservation needed to deepen its community engagement and build the capacity of local leaders who depend on the coral reefs.

The Partnership: We worked alongside their community development team to strengthen stakeholder relationships, enhance environmental outreach, and establish training programs to empower local Papuan community members as marine conservation officers.

The Result: The organization achieved deeper integration and trust within the local communities, leading to more effective conservation outcomes and the successful establishment of a sustainable, community-led monitoring program for their protected marine area.

www.barefootconservation.org

Carpets for Communities - Cambodia

Empowering families through income generation and education

The Challenge: Carpets for Communities (CfC) sought a robust strategy to scale its social enterprise, strengthen financial sustainability, and improve its community development efforts to end intergenerational poverty.

The Partnership: We supported CfC in developing and implementing a strategic plan that diversified income streams (product sales, grants, and fundraising) and expanded and transformed their community impact programs, including micro-loans, scholarships, and the "Child Friendly Schools" initiative.

The Result: CfC successfully transformed their impact model through establishing self-sustaining micro-loan programs that directly supported families transitioning out of poverty. In addition, through diversified funding we managed to start the implementation of "Child Friendly Schools" in 3 schools in the Poipet community. 

www.carpetsforcommunities.org

Orangutan International - Indonesia

Strengthening orangutan rehabilitation through donor relations and care

The Challenge: Orangutan Foundation International (OFI) was in need to strengthen key operational areas, from improving donor relations and communications, to building the capacity of local caregivers to protect wild orangutans and rehabilitate ex-captive orphans.

The Partnership: We partnered with OFI's local team to enhance caregiver motivation, increase operational support, and provide hands-on care for individual orangutans with medical conditions, while simultaneously strengthening donor engagement through the production marketing and communication materials.

The Result: OFI achieved greater operational efficiency in their rehabilitation programs and saw a noticable improvement in staff capacity and morale, resulting in higher quality care for the orangutans. Additionally, produced content such as blogs, adoption kits and photographs contributed to more compelling, successful international donor communications.

www.orangutan.org

Protecting ocean giants through science and community outreach

The Challenge: The Marine Megafauna Foundation (MMF) needed to optimize their Mozambican operations and develop a financially sustainable model for engaging volunteers that was fully aligned with their core conservation and scientific goals.

The Partnership: We optimized their in-country operations (including accounting, HR, and logistics) and designed and implemented the Underwater Africa program, a volunteer marine research initiative that supports data collection, community outreach, and revenue generation.

The Result: MMF established a reliable, self-funding income stream through the successful volunteer program, ensuring sustainable support for their core scientific research and increasing the data collection capacity for local marine conservation.

www.marinemegafauna.org

"A passionate advocate for social impact and ethical employment, Rowan instilled humility and adaptability within the workplace, prioritising the wellbeing and development of the team. Under his leadership, the company expanded training programs and implemented transparent management structures, culminating in a successful transition to a fully Malawian-led team. His ability to balance strategic vision with grassroots integrity made a lasting impact on the community and on the artisans he worked alongside."

Suzie Lightfoot, Founder, Katundu

"I can very strongly recommend Rowan Klaassen. He was a very valuable asset to us. He was able to get results with the limited resources that we had available and in terms of business development and managing stakeholders Rowan still holds the record for securing our biggest customer. He is engaging and professional in his work and consitently left relationships in a better state than they were."

David Bacon, Founder, Carpets for Communities