Client: Botanical Education Trust My role: Marketing & Communications Consultant Engagement: Consulting | Brand rebuild, website strategy, design & copy, communications templates Location: South Africa
The opportunity
South Africa represents just 1% of the earth’s total land surface, yet it is home to the richest flora in the world. This extraordinary natural heritage is increasingly under threat, with indigenous plant species disappearing at an alarming rate due to human activity and environmental pressure.
Founded in 2009, the Botanical Education Trust (BET) plays a vital role in protecting this heritage by funding botanical research, conservation initiatives, and publications that advance public understanding of South Africa’s indigenous flora. As a registered Public Benefit Organisation, Botanical Education Trust is a respected and established funder in the environmental and research space.
However, while Botanical Education Trust’s impact was significant, its digital presence did not reflect the importance or credibility of its work. Botanical Education Trust’s core challenge was visibility.
As a funder of research, the Trust needed to:
Be discoverable to researchers seeking grants
Clearly communicate its mission, focus areas, and funding priorities
Present itself as credible, contemporary, and accessible
Provide a clear digital “shop front” for grant applicants and partners
At the time, Botanical Education Trust lacked a solid website and coherent digital identity. Its online presence made it difficult for potential applicants and stakeholders to quickly understand what the Trust funded, how to engage, or how to apply for support. While inviting donations via the website was a secondary objective, credibility and clarity were essential.
How the engagement worked
I was engaged as a marketing and communications consultant to help Botanical Education Trust modernise its brand and build a digital foundation aligned to its purpose.
The work focused on creating simple, sustainable, and future-proof assets, not flashy design, but clarity, relevance, and usability. Every decision was guided by Botanical Education Trust’s role as a research funder: credibility mattered more than noise.
In addition, differentiation was critical. Botanical Education Trust operates in a crowded conservation and research landscape, with several organisations carrying similar names and overlapping mandates. Part of the engagement therefore focused on sharpening Botanical Education Trust’s positioning, clarifying who they are, what they fund, and why they matter, so researchers, partners, and funders could immediately distinguish Botanical Education Trust from other players. Clear branding and precise messaging were essential to ensure Botanical Education Trust stood out for the right reasons.
What I delivered
I led a full brand and digital rebuild, ensuring Botanical Education Trust’s public presence matched the value of its work.
This included:
Brand evolution and identity refresh, updating Botanical Education Trust’s existing logo and creating a more relevant, contemporary brand identity
New Brand guidelines, enabling consistent use across communications
Website strategy, design, and copywriting, translating complex environmental and research work into clear, accessible language (https://botanicaleducationtrust.org.za/)
WordPress website build, designed to be lightweight, sustainable, and easy to maintain
SEO-friendly structure, ensuring Botanical Education Trust could be discovered by researchers and partners searching for funding opportunities
I handled the design and copywriting end-to-end, working to ensure the site felt authoritative without being academic, and accessible without oversimplifying the work.
A digital platform built for purpose
The new website was designed first and foremost as a functional funding platform, a place where researchers could quickly understand:
What Botanical Education Trust funds
Why the work matters
How to apply for support
Secondary to this, the site also created space to:
Invite funding and support
Share the Trust’s story and values
Strengthen Botanical Education Trust’s visibility within the conservation and research ecosystem
Simplicity was a deliberate choice. The result was a platform that reflects Botanical Education Trust’s quiet authority and long-term commitment to conservation.
A new website was created for Botanical Education Trust
The impact
Botanical Education Trust now has a credible, modern digital presence aligned to its role as a research funder
Researchers can clearly understand funding priorities and pathways
The Trust is more visible and discoverable within the conservation and academic ecosystem
Communications are more consistent, streamlined, and easier to maintain
Botanical Education Trust’s impact is now supported by a digital platform that works as hard as the organisation does
What this says about how I work
This engagement reflects my approach to organisations doing serious, long-term work behind the scenes. I specialise in helping impact-driven institutions modernise their brand and communications without compromising credibility, depth, or integrity.
I build platforms that are purposeful, restrained, and sustainable, especially where trust, clarity, and reputation matter more than volume or visibility for its own sake.
Client: Rainbow Children’s Village My role: Marketing & Communications Consultant Engagement: Consulting | Brand transformation, website refresh, fundraising communications, CRM setup Location: West Rand, Johannesburg
The opportunity
Founded in 2005, Rainbow Children’s Village is a registered non-profit and public benefit organisation supporting vulnerable children in Johannesburg’s West Rand. Through three core initiatives, a Safe House for abused and abandoned children, a neurodiverse education partnerships with Sparrow Schools, and the Igugu Education Centre for after-school care, Rainbow Children’s Village helps children feel safe, learn with confidence, and build brighter futures.
While Rainbow Children’s Village was strong in its core service delivery, it faced a familiar challenge for purpose-driven organisations: the work was powerful, but the brand, website, and communications didn’t reflect the credibility and trust required to grow fundraising sustainably.
Rainbow Children’s Village needed marketing support that could:
Strengthen donor trust and confidence
Support fundraising with clearer, more consistent communication
Modernise the brand without losing warmth or integrity
Build systems that a small team could realistically maintain
How the engagement worked
I was brought in as a marketing and communications consultant, working on an hourly basis and partnering closely with Rainbow’s Children’s Village leadership and operational team.
The primary objective was to improve their fundraising ability by ensuring the organisation looked, sounded, and operated like a fundable organisation: consistent, credible, and trustworthy across every touchpoint.
This required:
A brand overhaul to ensure consistency and professionalism
Clearer and consistent messaging aligned to their three initiatives
A refreshed website that could function as a central storytelling and donation platform
Stronger fundraising communications and templates
The right systems to manage donors and supporter relationships
What I delivered
I led an end-to-end brand, digital, and communications transformation, ensuring Rainbow Children’s Village had the foundations needed to grow with confidence.
This included:
Brand evolution and identity refresh, including a new logo and updated corporate identity (CI) that honoured Rainbow’s legacy while modernising its look and feel
New Brand guidelines, enabling consistent use across all communications
Website refresh, including design, structure, copywriting, and content flow, making the site clearer, warmer, and more donor-friendly (https://rainbowchildrensvillage.co.za/)
Fundraising and communications strategy, aligned to donor engagement and trust-building
Reusable proposal and communications templates, reducing friction for a small team
Marketing materials and flyers, supporting campaigns, events, and appeals
All assets were designed to be practical, reusable, and sustainable, not dependent on constant external support.
I created a refreshed website for Rainbow Children's Village
Digital, social, and systems foundations
To support ongoing engagement, I also:
Set up Rainbow’s social media accounts, establishing tone, structure, and content direction
Developed content frameworks and templates for ongoing use
Worked with a contracted social media resource (via Janana Banana Consulting) to manage content creation and community management
Alongside the creative and strategic work, I helped Rainbow Children’s Village set up HubSpot as their Customer Relationship Management (CRM) system.
I supported them to implement and manage their HubSpot CRM, maintaining donor records and running personalised email campaigns. It supported centralised, structured management of donor records, and allowed us to use the platform to send bulk, personalised email campaigns to donors and supporters. This allowed fundraising communications to become more targeted, measurable, and effective.
This model allowed Rainbow Children’s Village to benefit from professional marketing execution without needing a full in-house team.
The impact
Rainbow now has a clear, cohesive, and credible brand aligned to its mission and values
The refreshed website supports storytelling, trust, and donations more effectively
Fundraising communications are more consistent, professional, and donor-ready
Donor data and communications are now structured, trackable, and scalable
Marketing shifted from ad hoc support to a foundational function enabling fundraising and growth
What this says about how I work
This engagement reflects how I support purpose-driven organisations that are strong at delivery but need help becoming fundable. I bring strategic clarity, hands-on execution, and systems thinking, ensuring marketing doesn’t just look good, but actively enables trust, funding, and long-term sustainability.
I’m particularly drawn to work where credibility matters deeply, resources are constrained, and the stakes are human. My role is to build marketing and communications foundations that allow organisations like Rainbow Children’s Village to focus on what they do best: caring for vulnerable children and changing lives.
Client: Cross the Divide My role: Marketing & Communications Committee Member Engagement: Consulting | Brand strategy, identity design, marketing assets, website design & copy Location: Johannesburg (Ward 90 and surrounds)
The opportunity
Cross the Divide was born in 2020 as a community-led COVID-19 feeding scheme, responding quickly to urgent need during a moment of crisis. As the initiative grew, so did its ambition: to move beyond emergency relief and build longer-term, holistic pathways for displaced and homeless individuals rooted in dignity, rehabilitation, and community connection.
At this turning point, Cross the Divide needed more than ad hoc communication. It needed:
A clear identity and story that reflected its values
A credible, recognisable brand to support fundraising and partnerships
Digital foundations that could grow with the organisation
Communications that honoured lived experience without exploiting it
I joined the Cross the Divide committee to support the organisation’s marketing and communications as it evolved from a grassroots response into a structured, community-driven nonprofit.
How the engagement worked
As part of the committee, I worked closely with founders and volunteers to help clarify Cross the Divide’s strategy, theory of change, and public-facing identity. This was highly collaborative, values-led work, balancing limited resources with the need to look credible, trustworthy, and professional to donors, partners, and the broader community.
My role spanned strategy, creative direction, and hands-on delivery, ensuring ideas didn’t stay on paper but translated into usable tools.
What I delivered
I led the development of Cross the Divide’s brand and digital foundations, creating assets the organisation could use consistently and confidently.
This included:
Brand strategy & positioning, helping articulate Cross the Divide’s shift from crisis response to long-term community impact
Logo design and complete corporate identity (CI), grounded in the organisation’s values of community, collaboration, and care
Marketing and communications materials, supporting fundraising, donor engagement, and events
Website design and copywriting, shaping the structure, language, and storytelling
Website build collaboration, working with a developer to bring the site to life on WordPress
Built Cross the Divide’s social media presence from the ground up, setting up channels, creating and publishing content, and shaping the organisation’s online voice
I owned the design and copy end-to-end, ensuring the site was clear, human, and accessible, and that it worked for both community members and potential supporters.
I created a new website for Cross the Divide, executing the design and copywriting, shaping the structure, language, and storytelling.
Brand and digital transformation
A key focus of this work was helping Cross the Divide look like the organisation it was becoming, not just the one it started as.
The new brand and website:
Clearly communicated Cross the Divide’s mission, programmes, and impact
Provided a credible platform for donor and partner engagement
Gave the organisation practical tools it could maintain internally
Balanced professionalism with warmth, dignity, and respect
Importantly, everything was designed to be fit for a small, volunteer-driven nonprofit, simple to update, easy to use, and sustainable over time.
The impact
Cross the Divide established a clear, recognisable brand identity aligned to its evolved strategy
Communications shifted from ad hoc to coherent and intentional, supporting growth and trust
The website became a central hub for storytelling, fundraising, and engagement
The organisation gained stronger footing to engage donors, partners, and the local community
Brand and messaging now reflect long-term impact, not just short-term relief
What this says about how I work
This work reflects my approach to purpose-driven organisations at grassroots level: meeting people where they are, respecting constraints, and building foundations that last. I combine strategic thinking with hands-on delivery, from brand and copy to websites and practical tools, so organisations can move forward with clarity and confidence.
I’m especially drawn to work where community and real-world impact matter more than polish for polish’s sake, and where marketing exists to enable people, not overshadow them.
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
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.
Client: Coursera My role: Course Developer & Instructor: Generative AI for Marketing Engagement: Contract | End-to-end content creation and presenting practical online GenAI marketing courses
Location: Johannesburg (Hybrid) | Global
The opportunity
In early 2023, when generative AI was exploding into the mainstream, Coursera faced a familiar problem for fast-moving platforms: everyone was talking about AI, but very few people could explain how to use it well. Coursera wasn’t looking for hype merchants or theoretical futurists. They needed credible, hands-on practitioners who could help marketers understand what GenAI actually means for their work, their brands, and their audiences. Coursera needed courses that were clear-eyed about both the power and the risks of GenAI, relevant and accessible to learners or various skill levels, and useful to learners across industries and geographies. I was one of the first movers and early experts to help shape this new learning frontier.
I was approached by Construct Education, Coursera’s course development partner, and worked closely with their learning design team to shape, structure, and refine GenAI marketing courses, ensuring the content met Coursera’s global standards while remaining practical, engaging, and grounded in real-world marketing use cases.
What I delivered
I designed and presented a suite of five global GenAI marketing courses, each built to help learners move from curiosity to confidence. I combined deep marketing and communications experience, my practical, real-world understanding of how teams actually work, and a strong ethical lens grounded in inclusion, trust, and human impact. I approached this work with a simple principle: use AI to accelerate, support and complement human thinking, not replace it. That philosophy has now reached over 17,000 learners globally(Learner numbers accurate as of 9 February 2026), proving that marketers are hungry for AI training that is practical, and rooted in real-world experience.
Together, the courses I developed and presented form a practical, well-rounded introduction to using generative AI in modern marketing, from content and copywriting to campaigns, presentations, and personalised communication. The courses blend guided, hands-on projects with theoretical frameworks, ensuring learners don’t just understand what GenAI can do, but how to apply it thoughtfully in real work. Three of the courses are built as step-by-step guided projects, where learners follow along and actively create outputs as they go. The remaining courses take a more theoretical approach, while still embedding practical exercises so learners can test tools, refine their judgment, and build confidence through practice. This mix of doing, thinking, and applying has helped learners worldwide move beyond experimentation and into meaningful, responsible use of GenAI in their day-to-day marketing work.
Content Creation with Generative AI 9,386 learners A practical foundation for using GenAI to ideate, structure, and refine marketing content, without losing voice, quality, or authenticity.
Copywriting with ChatGPT: Crafting High-Quality Blog Content 4,004 learners Shows marketers how to use ChatGPT as a strategic writing partner for long-form content, SEO-aware structure, and editorial consistency.
Social Media Campaigns with AI: From Strategy to Design 1,733 learners A hands-on guide to building AI-assisted campaigns that still start with strategy, insight, and audience understanding.
Professional Presentations: Canva AI Magic Studio 1,040 learners Explores how AI-powered design tools can speed up presentation workflows while improving clarity, storytelling, and polish.
Using GenAI for Tailored Customer Emails 384 learners A focused application course on personalisation that respects trust, relevance, and customer relationships.
I both developed and presented each of the courses.
The impact
Over 17,000 global learners equipped with practical, responsible GenAI skills
Coursera strengthened its position as an early, trusted authority in AI education
Learners consistently report increased skills, confidence, and clarity around AI usage for marketing
Courses continue to grow organically, reflecting sustained relevance
What this says about how I work
This collaboration reflects the kind of work I’m best known for: translating complex, fast-moving ideas into clear, usable action that teams can actually apply. I focus on teaching in a way that respects people’s intelligence, without talking down or dumbing things down, while helping organisations move early and with confidence. Above all, my work keeps people and real-world impact at the centre of innovation, ensuring new tools are adopted thoughtfully and responsibly.
