Funding partnerships

Alquity is an asset management business that invests in emerging markets across Africa, Asia and Latin America. By January 2019, our partnership will have created 1,680 jobs and improved almost 7,000 lives.

“Alquity invests in companies with sound environmental, social and governance structures. We also donate a minimum 10 percent of revenues to charitable projects on equally solid footing, tackling social and economic challenges that changes in corporate behaviour alone cannot address. By partnering with Hand in Hand and supporting grassroots entrepreneurship we’re enabling growth from the bottom up, building sustainable economies in the countries where we invest. We’re also offering our clients a connection to social progress alongside handsome returns.”

-Paul Robinson, Executive Chairman & Founder

Conrad Capital is an innovative principal lender offering highly competitive short- and medium-term business loans that are not available to clients from High Street lenders. In 2019, our partnership will support entrepreneurs in Afghanistan and Kenya.

“At the core of Conrad Capital’s ethos is an absolute focus on service levels, which complements our other strengths, but in truth there is nothing unique about these separate elements. Like Hand in Hand, it is the way in which we combine these elements that sets our proposition apart. On a day-to-day basis, we work with business partners with whom we have many synergies, so it’s little surprise that for our newly launched philanthropic arm we have sought charitable partners that share our core entrepreneurial ethos. The Conrad Team is excited by the prospect of contributing to an organisation that, through its focus on grassroots entrepreneurship, places the destinies of so many people back into their own hands.”

-John Clifford BSc. (Hons), Founder and Managing Director

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Cevian Capital is a Swedish investment firm with offices in Stockholm, Zurich and London, and a sponsor of our Village Uplift Programme.

“Cevian Capital is proud to support Hand in Hand. As one of their Village Programme sponsors, we are helping to transform life in Mai Mahiu, Kenya, by backing the creation of 300 micro-enterprises. We look forward to watching Mai Mahiu flourish, and encourage others to sponsor villages of their own.”

-Lars Förberg, Managing Partner and Co-Founder

The Hilti Foundation is a philanthropic non-profit organisation and joint-venture of the Hilti Family and Hilti Group based in Liechtenstein. The Foundation is funding a major project reaching 40,000 members in Kenya and Tanzania.

“Our goal as a Foundation is to enable people in need to become economically independent. We believe everyone should have the opportunity to develop skills, find sustainable jobs, start businesses and earn a living. With a sustainable and growing income, families can afford a better living standard and contribute to a socially inclusive and economically thriving local community. Through our initiatives with Hand in Hand, many people in East Africa get a chance to escape poverty and to become part of an up-and-coming middle class.”

-Werner Wallner, CEO

The IKEA Foundation‘s vision is to create a better everyday life for people across the globe. To that end, they have partnered with Hand in Hand twice: first to help thousands of women and young people create jobs that can stand up to climate change, and more recently on a major project to boost planet-positive agriculture in Kenya.

“We believe children have better futures when their families earn sustainable incomes, which is why we are supporting Hand in Hand with a major grant. Our partnership with Hand in Hand will help thousands of women and young people in Kenya create jobs and small businesses that can stand up to climate change. We are really excited to launch this partnership and begin our work together!”

-Jonathan Spampinato, Head of Communications and Strategic Planning

Instant Impact is an award-winning early careers recruitment company and Corporate Patron of Hand in Hand. Over the course of our two-year partnership, we’ve created more than 700 jobs and improved 1,000-plus lives.

“Instant Impact helps graduates and young professionals kick-start their careers in some of the UK’s most innovative businesses. Fitting, then, that we partner with Hand in Hand International – the country’s leading job creation NGO – as a Corporate Patron to create ‘Jobs Across the Globe’. Beyond bolstering our brand and company values, our partnership with Hand in Hand helps keep our young staff proud and motivated. As Instant Impact knows better than most, millennials favour employers that place mission alongside profit.”

-Rob Blythe, Founder and Director

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The Kewalram Chanrai Group of companies spans 14 countries and more than 5,000 staff, with interests in products and services as diverse as textiles, automobiles, agri-inputs, financial services and palm residue recycling. The Group has supported Hand in Hand to create thousands of jobs in Kenya and India.

“Philanthropy has always been at the core of our ethos. We have been mindful that the benefits of the success we have enjoyed should be shared with the local communities where our businesses operate and flourish. Our philanthropic efforts are aimed at helping to empower the less fortunate. Partnering with Hand in Hand helps us to further this goal because their initiatives are well thought out, targeted, measurable and evaluated to ensure the highest return.”

-Narain G Chanrai, CEO

Make My Day Better is the charity established by DialAFlight and the Lotus Group, one of the UK’s leading travel companies. The charity funds projects in the UK and around the world, guided by the principle that the majority of our funding should directly benefit people in need.

“We are pleased to support Hand in Hand to train women in Kenya to become ‘Mumpreneurs’. The emphasis on saving, training and entrepreneurship creates sustainable micro-businesses that will transform the lives of the women, their families and whole communities.”

-Dean Smith, Group Sales Manager

The National Postcode Lottery (Netherlands) has supported local and international causes since its inception in 1989.

“The Postcode Lottery supports organisations and programmes which make a sustainable difference to people’s lives. The Hand in Hand business creation model has a proven track record of enabling some of the poorest and most marginalised in Asia and sub-Saharan Africa to set up businesses and lift their families out of poverty.”

-Marieke van Schaik, Managing Director

Temenos is a banking software specialist that helps banks and other financial institutions process customer transactions more efficiently. In 2018, we partnered to move an entire village from subsistence to success.

“Partnering with Hand in Hand to support financial inclusion and the creation of jobs is helping Temenos meet our commitment to UN Sustainable Development Goals. In particular, we are contributing to SDG 1, ending poverty in all its forms everywhere, and SDG 8, promoting decent work and economic growth.”

-Kalliopi Chioti, Group CSR Manager

The UBS Optimus Foundation delivers breakthrough solutions to pressing social and environmental issues. That’s why they partnered with Hand in Hand to deliver essential training to women in rural India.

“The UBS Optimus Foundation works to ensure children are safe, healthy and educated. By working with Hand in Hand to empower mothers in rural India with essential skills such as early childhood development, financial education and basic literacy, that’s exactly what we’re doing. Empower mothers and their children will follow.”

-Maya Ziswiler, Program Director – Education & Child Protection

Boeing has partnered with Hand in Hand to transform the lives of women and young people in rural Tanzania, with the aim of creating 4,000 jobs for women and young people by 2025.

Roula Droubi, Boeing community, industry and government engagement director in the Middle East and Africa: “Boeing’s partnership with Hand in Hand is just one of the ways we are working to tackle gender inequality and help women in Africa reach their full potential. Across Africa, Boeing supports NGOs and universities to empower women to develop their skills and abilities, to help them build dynamic careers in aviation or open their own business. Such programs are a strong enabler to economic transformation in Tanzania and beyond”.