Creative agency pledges funding, content and communications expertise to support community-led charity tackling rural poverty in Tanzania.
Brandnation has announced a new long-term partnership with Mikuyu Tanzania, a community-driven charity working alongside rural communities in Tanzania to create sustainable solutions to poverty.
The partnership puts Mikuyu Tanzania and its work firmly at the heart of Brandnation’s charitable commitment. It begins with a substantial donation through the charity’s Big Give pledging mechanism with plans to build the relationship through future fundraising, creative support and content designed to help more people discover and support the charity’s work.
Founded in 2007, Mikuyu Tanzania works with communities to tackle three interconnected barriers to overcoming rural poverty: education, livelihoods and health. Its approach is built around partnership rather than prescription. Local communities help identify what is needed, invest in the development process and take ownership of projects from the outset. This can mean improving access to clean drinking water, building school sanitation facilities, classrooms or providing agricultural training and support.
For Brandnation, the partnership was inspired by team members seeing first-hand the impact of the charity. Alongside financial support, Brandnation plans to put its own skills to work for the charity.
As an integrated creative marketing and communications agency, the Brandnation team creates campaigns and content across PR, social media, influencer marketing, creative and performance marketing. The agency will explore how that expertise can help Mikuyu Tanzania tell its story to a wider audience, create engaging content around its projects and impact, and support fundraising activity with creative ideas and communications that encourage people to get involved.
The ambition is to build a partnership that grows over time, giving Mikuyu Tanzania access not only to funding, but also to the creative firepower and communications expertise of the wider Brandnation team to accelerate fundraising efforts.
Mary Killingworth, Managing Director of Brandnation, said: “What really stood out about Mikuyu Tanzania is the way it works. Communities are listened to, involved and empowered to shape the projects that will make the biggest difference to their lives. We can also see exactly where support is going and the tangible impact it can have.
“Our initial donation is just the start. We’re a business built around ideas, creativity and content, so we want to use those skills too. Whether that means helping Mikuyu Tanzania tell powerful stories from its communities, creating content that gets people talking or developing creative ways to support fundraising, there is a lot we can bring to the partnership beyond financial support.
“We want this to become something meaningful and lasting, with our team involved and Mikuyu Tanzania’s brilliant work reaching more people as a result.”
The Mikuyu Tanzania partnership marks a shift towards a deeper, ongoing relationship with Brandnation anticipating that its financial commitment will grow and ultimately be linked to annual profits.
The agency will also explore opportunities for employees to become directly involved in fundraising and the charity’s work including the potential for team representatives to visit Tanzania and support appropriate projects on the ground.
Federico Costanza, Partnership Officer at Mikuyu Tanzania, said: “Initial support from Brandnation has been a gratefully received donation to our Big Give pledging mechanism and we look forward to working with the team at Brandnation in growing our association with them and their staff team.”
About Mikuyu Tanzania
Mikuyu Tanzania was formed in 2007 and is a community-driven development organisation registered with the Charity Commission of England and Wales (No. 1119512). The charity works with Tanzanian stakeholders to dismantle barriers to rural poverty by addressing education, livelihoods and health together. Its model is designed, invested in and owned by the communities themselves, helping create sustainable change rather than short-term solutions.
Mikuyu Tanzania uses a co-production co-investment approach where community voices are heard from the outset and local people invest in and take ownership of the development process. Its work is focused primarily on villages in and around Babati, at the base of Mount Kwaraa in northern Tanzania.
About Brandnation
Brandnation is an award-winning, employee-owned creative marketing and communications agency in London, built on great people, big ideas and work that delivers real brand impact. Brandnation became employee-owned in December 2024, giving its team an even greater stake in the agency’s future and the success it creates together.
Today, Brandnation delivers integrated campaigns across PR, influencer marketing, social media, creative and performance marketing, combining strategic thinking, standout content and creative execution to help brands connect with audiences and drive results.
