Model & Positioning
Q: How is SCN Kenya different from a normal NGO?
SCN Kenya is a connected, active alliance—not a single NGO. All members work directly with vulnerable communities and generate collective impact through shared action, joint portfolios, and needs‑driven coordination that enables scale.
As SCN core members, we act as a coordination and knowledge‑sharing backbone: we enable and strengthen implementation through vetted partner organizations while providing shared measurement, learning, and portfolio design.
At the same time, core SCN NGOs directly implement solutions with communities living at the poverty line—including farmers, informal urban settlements, and fisher communities.
Q: Why is a backbone platform needed?
A backbone platform is essential because SCN Kenya works as an alliance, not a single NGO. Vulnerable communities face multiple, interconnected basic needs—from livelihoods to food security, housing, more health and resilience—so isolated interventions are not enough. A backbone ensures these needs are addressed in parallel and in a coordinated way, rather than through fragmented, one‑off projects.
Impact & Measurement
Q: How do you measure impact across partners?
We use shared KPI frameworks across partner portfolios, combined with outcome tracking and aggregated reporting. In addition, the SCN Impact & Collaboration Index captures both results and the quality of partnership and knowledge‑sharing – because strong collaboration is a proven driver of lasting, sustainable impact. Reach, adoption of key practices, and ecosystem‑level effects are core to how we assess progress – capturing how many people or communities benefit, how widely solutions and behaviors are taken up and reinforce each other, and how the broader system shifts through stronger cooperation networks or the replication of effective solutions.
Financial Structure & Risk
Q: How are funds and donations used?
Project‑earmarked donations go directly to the projects themselves—supporting implementation on the ground with vulnerable communities.
Donations made to SCN are used to strengthen and expand the backbone of the alliance. This includes developing and maintaining platform coordination, improving shared measurement and reporting systems, enabling joint learning, and building thematic partner portfolios that help scale effective solutions.
Together, this ensures that project funding creates maximum impact in communities, while SCN donations build the shared structures that make system‑level, cross‑partner impact possible.
Q: Can funding be earmarked by theme or region?
Yes. Partners can support specific thematic portfolios (e.g., agriculture, health, youth livelihoods) or regional clusters within the SCN ecosystem.
Scalability & Replication
Q: What makes your model scalable?
Shared tools, portfolio logic, partner networks, and coordination methods are replicable.
Q: Can this model expand beyond Kenya?
Yes. The SCN model is designed for regional replication through local partner networks and backbone structures.
Q: How do you work with your stakeholders?
We work with stakeholders through a coordinated, partnership‑driven approach that combines local implementation, shared learning, and system‑level collaboration.
1. With communities
We collaborate directly with vulnerable communities—farmers, fisher groups, and informal urban settlements—to co‑design solutions that address multiple basic needs in parallel, not in isolation.
2. With partner organizations
We enable vetted local partners to implement high‑quality projects by providing coordination, shared measurement systems, joint learning spaces, and portfolio design support. This strengthens partner capacity and ensures consistent standards across the alliance.
3. With funders and donors
We maintain transparent communication on progress, insights, and results. Project‑earmarked funds go directly to implementation, while SCN contributions support the platform backbone: coordination, shared measurement, and ecosystem‑level portfolio development.
4. With government and local institutions
We align with national and county development priorities, share data and insights, and coordinate where our projects complement public systems. This helps ensure sustainability and scale.
5. With businesses and private‑sector actors
We collaborate around inclusive value chains, market access, and practice adoption—combining business incentives with community needs.
Across all stakeholder groups, we prioritize collaboration, transparency, and shared accountability, ensuring that every actor contributes to and benefits from collective impact.
Value & Visibility
Q: What is the value for a partner beyond impact numbers?
Partners help build lasting ecosystem infrastructure, enable SDG 17 partnerships, and create scalable collaboration models — not just project outputs.
Q: What visibility can partners receive?
Co-branded portfolios, flagship pilots, learning reports, ecosystem events, and anchor partner recognition — always aligned with partners visibility guidelines.
General questions
What sustainability means to us: SCN Kenya creates lasting impact by empowering communities to drive their own development, strengthening their resilience, and co‑creating scalable, self‑sustaining solutions—so progress continues for generations.
Is there financial sustainability?
Yes. We build financial sustainability at three levels:
the network through a membership‑based model,
core NGOs through income‑generating and cross‑financing mechanisms, and communities through basic business skills and livelihood‑building activities that strengthen long‑term self‑reliance.
What about innovation?
SCN Kenya drives innovation by integrating social entrepreneurship, sharing solutions internationally—such as through our partner alliance SCN India—and collaborating with national and international NGOs, universities, companies, and volunteers. Through leadership programs, exchange opportunities, and corporate engagement, we bring fresh ideas, global perspectives, and collaborative problem‑solving to local challenges.
What makes partnerships with SCN more sustainable, collaborative, and impactful for everyone involved?
We focus on win–win partnerships where every stakeholder gains value—communities, NGOs, companies, volunteers …and the SCN network. When all parties benefit from empowerment, social impact, innovation, or returns, commitment grows, trust deepens, and collaboration becomes long‑term. This ensures impact that lasts beyond individual projects—both in communities and across partner organizations.
How do we work with social entrepreneurs?
We partner with social enterprises worldwide based on community needs—many of them Ashoka Fellows. They train our local trainers on innovative solutions such as income generation, water, and health. Some entrepreneurs have even scaled their models into Kenya by building connections and piloting training through SCN Kenya’s win–win partnership approach.
What makes the SCN Kenya approach unique? SCN Kenya drives sustainable change by working as a connected alliance that combines multiple solutions, sectors, and actors—centered on the priorities of vulnerable communities. Key strengths of our approach include:
- Holistic impact
We address interconnected needs—livelihoods, water, health, resilience—in parallel, creating stronger and more sustainable outcomes. - Community‑driven priorities
Solutions are co-created with local stakeholders, ensuring relevance, ownership, and long‑term uptake. - Network‑based implementation
Instead of one organization acting alone, we activate a network of networks with peer‑to‑peer training and shared expertise. - Long‑term, adaptive engagement
We work beyond project cycles, strengthening systems and enabling partners and communities to continue progress independently. - Meaningful measurement
We combine outputs with outcomes—resilience, collaboration quality, and long-term change—captured through shared KPIs and the SCN Impact & Collaboration Index. - Open sharing and learning
Knowledge flows across partners, sectors, and countries, creating a powerful culture of collaboration and innovation. - Catalyst role
SCN serves as a connector and facilitator—aligning partners, reducing duplication, and maximizing resources.
In essence: SCN Kenya creates impact that is integrated, locally led, and designed to last—turning individual efforts into collective, system‑level change.
Isn’t this impossible?
SCN Kenya proves that what often seems impossible is achievable when communities, partners, and social innovators work together. Our model is an evolution of past approaches: instead of treating symptoms in isolation, we link solutions, actors, and sectors around community‑driven priorities. By aligning many partners around shared action, shared learning, and shared measurement, SCN Kenya turns the “impossible” into sustainable, community‑led change.
SCN Kenya 