bespoke learning experiences
We work with incubators, accelerators, universities, NGOs, investment funds and foundations to help their learners build stronger brands for their products and services.
Training on branding and marketing is often too abstract and not the right fit to the needs and context of impact-driven entrepreneurs. As practitioners, we have honed a smart and practical brand building methodology that we share with others. This helps founders and their team to the foundational work while also seeing immediate results in their growth.
We offer:
brand workshops
brand and marketing courses
custom toolkits
coaching
Through our partnerships with Philanthropy University, Unearthodox, BOWIE, Alf Khair Foundation, Acumen Academy, Digital Opportunity Trust, and the Amani Institute, our work reaches over 10,000 learners worldwide.
Find examples of our work below.
BRAND WORKSHOPS (ONLINE AND ON LOCATION)
Webinar
Brand Thinking Learning Lab
Commissioned by Acumen Academy
We created a concise 90-minute Brand Thinking for Change Learning Lab to deep-dive beyond existing +Acumen content on general branding practices. It is a short but in-depth introduction to the specific challenges social impact professionals across the world face in building their brand, with tips and tricks to address them.
half-day sessions online and offline
brand thinking canvas workshop
Hosted at Growth Africa, Hiil, ImpactHub and others
Our half-day workshop teaches the foundational model underneath a strong brand: The Brand Thinking Canvas, and how to use it to build your own venture. We adapt the standard workshop to meet the needs of your learners, for instance, through custom case studies relevant to their geographical region, industry or cultural context.
custom brand and marketing courses
3-day course format + delivery
Brand Thinking for Changemakers
Commissioned by Amani Institute
Professionals in the social sector have a lot of challenges on the road to impact, and one of them is to sell their concepts for change effectively and compellingly. Branding, marketing and communication are often considered 'overheads' in the social sector, but Amani Institute believes that selling your vision for change is crucial to your success as a changemaker.
We created a custom, three-day Brand Thinking for Changemakers course, which trains participants to think like brand strategists and create a brand, value proposition and messages that are compelling, convincing and actionable. The course has been a core part of Amani’s Social Innovation Management curriculum since 2015.
Online course
Branding for Impact Online Course
Commissioned by Philanthropy U
Philanthropy University is an online learning platform where over 300,000 people from 180 countries come to learn how to change the world. PU trains, connects and funds local social impact organisations in under-resourced communities.
We created the ‘Branding for Impact’ online course outline and collaborated with the Philanthropy U learning design team to design a simple and effective learning flow, compact actionable assignments and relevant case studies.
2 week bootcamp-in-a-box + pilot delivery
Building brand bosses in Sierra Leone
Commissioned by Adam Smith International, funded by DfiD, developed in partnership with the Freetown Business School and SOBA - Sierra Leone Opportunities for Business Action
The lack of effective branding and marketing has been proven to limit the growth of Sierra Leonean businesses. That problem starts with a lack of knowledge and skills. Currently, marketing is a hustle, not a profession. And when it is not a profession, there is little space for professionalism.
We created a ‘branding boot camp in a box’: an intense two-week course that teaches the basics of branding and marketing, which can be delivered on an ongoing basis by local trainers. The boot camp focuses on Base of the Pyramid marketing practices and combines theory, practice, case studies, and local guest experts. The programme supports talent to grow in their profession as well as in their professionalism.
After we conducted a pilot in Freetown in 2017, the course is now delivered by the Freetown Business School.
custom brand toolkits
Toolkit + train the trainer programme
Personal brand coaching for Saudi ArabiaN WOMEN
Commissioned by Alf Khair foundation & Princess Reema Bindt Bandar Al Saud for Alf Darb
Since 2016 Saudi women have had the right to formal employment. Having the right is one thing: landing the job is quite another. Whether you are a developer looking for a job with the hottest tech company in San Francisco, or you are an aspiring fashion buyer in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, you need to know your strength, your career goals and where you might achieve them, and how you can stand out from other applicants.
After seeing our tools in action, Princess Reema Bindt Bandar Al Saud, founder of Saudi organization Alf Darb, commissioned us to create a custom version of our tools for their new professional preparation programme for women.
We created a personal branding kit that prompts women to formulate their own life and career dreams and articulate their strengths and talents. It creates awareness of self, awareness of the other, and provides insights into how you can express this to the outside world. The kit is developed in Arabic and used during a personal coaching process. Brand The Change trained 12 Saudi trainers to coach participants on using the tools during a career readiness programme.
Toolkit
Brand You: a branding kit for young leaders in Africa & the Middle East
Commissioned by Digital Opportunity Trust in Canada
Young people in countries like Tanzania, Ethiopia, Rwanda, Uganda, Kenya, Lebanon and Jordan don't yet have the reputation, the experience or the network to get support for their plans for change in their community. They need to articulate the change they want to see, define the influencers that need to know about it, and come up with strategies to build their support, all with little to no resources, connectivity or logistic support.
Brand You is a tailor-made kit for young people in urban and rural areas, with widely varying educational levels, sectors and professional experiences, with the users’ learning needs, restraints in terms of resources, and connectivity in mind. It is part of a broader online curriculum by Digital Opportunity Trust for their youth leadership development programme.
brand COACHING
For incubators like Unearthodox, BØWIE and SheBuilds, we provide support as coaches to provide feedback and support to their participants.
Testimonials
“We want people to be change makers not just change thinkers. The Brand Thinking for Changemakers course helps Amani Fellows to effectively sell the change they want to see in the world.”
— Roshan Paul, president of the Amani Institute
‘Our participants blossomed before our eyes within hours of working with the tools. It was a truly inspiring moment.’
– Princess Reema Bint Bandar Al Saud, philanthropist
interested in a bespoke learning experience for your changemakers?
What could your students, participants, fellows or mentees achieve if they would be able to sell their ideas better to the world? We’ve received some pretty amazing learning briefs over the past few years, for amazingly diverse audiences. Each one of these projects started with a meeting of the minds. Feel free to get in touch with us, even if you are in the early stages of an idea or challenge: we’d love to brainstorm what’s possible.