Client: Harambee Youth Employment Accelerator
My role: Marketing Manager (promoted from Marketing Specialist)
Engagement: Full time | Full-stack ownership of marketing strategy, brand, digital platforms, campaigns, and stakeholder communications
Location: Johannesburg (Hybrid) | South Africa & Rwanda

The opportunity

Harambee Youth Employment Accelerator exists to tackle one of South Africa’s most complex and urgent challenges: youth unemployment, at scale. Operating at the intersection of government, business, technology, and civil society, Harambee needed marketing that could do far more than “tell stories.” 

It needed to support sales and partnership growth, enable fundraising, reach millions of young people, many accessing the internet for the first time, translate complex research and systems-change work into clear, compelling narratives, and build trust across corporates, funders, policymakers, and youth.

How the engagement worked

I joined Harambee in 2019 as a Marketing Specialist and was promoted to Marketing Manager in 2021, working as part of a compact, high-performing marketing team supporting a 400+ person organisation operating across South Africa and Rwanda.

I reported to the Head of Marketing and worked closely with the executive team, research and impact leads, sales teams, HR, and external partners. My role covered full-stack marketing ownership: from strategy and brand, to digital platforms, campaigns, analytics, and stakeholder engagement. This was hands-on, high-accountability work,where marketing had to directly support revenue, credibility, and impact.

What I delivered

Over four years, I owned and led marketing across multiple dimensions of the organisation:

  • End-to-end marketing strategy supporting financial and technology services, directly aligned to sales targets
  • Fundraising and grant support, working with impact and research teams to design campaigns that helped unlock R20m+ in grant funding in 2022 alone
  • Research communications, overseeing the production and release of 16 Breaking Barriers reports, Harambee’s flagship quarterly research and PR output
  • Digital ecosystem ownership, including the Harambee, SA Youth, and DigiLink brands
  • Mass-scale youth communications, ensuring content was accessible, inclusive, and action-oriented

My approach combined strategic clarity with operational execution, ensuring marketing didn’t sit on the sidelines, but actively enabled opportunity creation.

Leading a tour of delegates from municipal and provincial government at the Harambee offices in Braamfontein

Platforms, channels, and systems

A significant part of my role involved building and scaling the systems that powered Harambee’s reach:

  • Google Ads & analytics: Established and led Google Ads capability, driving 45,000+ conversions per year, with GA4 reporting used to optimise performance and ROI
  • CRM & marketing automation: Implemented HubSpot CRM, managing 14,000+ clean contacts, achieving a 97% delivery rate, 20% open rate, 18% click-through rate, 0.2% unsubscribe, and 0% spam complaints
  • Web & content platforms: Owned and managed Harambee, SA Youth, DigiLink, and sayouth.mobi, a platform serving 4 million+ South African youth
  • Social media: Grew and managed channels totalling 700,000+ followers, including leadership of the 3M3W COVID campaign, which reached over 3 million youth
Presenting the SA Youth platform to South African President Cyril Ramaphosa, Youth Day June 16th, 2022

Campaigns, culture, and stakeholder impact

Beyond channels and performance, I played a strong role in shaping Harambee’s public and internal voice:

  • Stakeholder engagement: Led tours and relationship-building that contributed to 10,000+ job opportunities secured for youth in 2022
  • Youth with Disabilities (PWD): Task Team Lead for education and demand-generation campaigns focused on inclusive employment
  • Employer brand & culture: Helped shape Harambee’s employee value proposition; served on the Employment Equity Committee and Change Champions Shadow Board
  • Internal communications: On-air host for Radio Harambee, acting as a culture connector and internal storyteller
  • CSI & volunteering: Spearheaded Leap Science & Maths school volunteering initiatives
On-air host for Radio Harambee, acting as a culture connector and internal storyteller

The impact

  • Marketing function supported millions of youth to connect with job opportunities
  • Harambee’s research and thought leadership gained sustained national credibility
  • Increased brand visibility and awareness at national scale
  • Marketing evolved from tactical execution to a strategic growth enabler
  • Built a stable, high-performing marketing function supporting all departments, embedding marketing as a strategic partner, not a support service
  • Supported increased funding outcomes through stronger fundraising and grant campaigns
  • Improved team efficiency through better systems, processes, and automation
  • Trained and mentored four marketing team members, including interns and graduates

What this says about how I work

This role captures the kind of work I do best, building marketing systems that operate at scale, under real pressure, and with real consequences. I translate complex, systems-level work into clear narratives that drive action, whether that’s funding, partnerships, or youth participation. I’m comfortable sitting at the intersection of strategy and execution, data and storytelling, impact and commercial reality. And I bring a strong people lens to everything, because when you’re working with young people’s livelihoods, trust and clarity are not optional.