Alumni stories
22 founders, educators, health innovators and nonprofit leaders on camera. Every quote is transcribed from their own video, best stories first.
Featured story · Coached by Blessing Mene at FRACAD
“Blessing Mene prepared me to win. He can help you too. Join the Fundraising Academy.”
Nelly Agbogu Founder, Come Again Foods · NSIA Prize for Innovation (NPI 4.0) winner
Won a US$20,000 prize with FRACAD's support, now reaching 3,000+ children.
“Some months back we got another grant to do a big project. We’re working with a little above 3,000 students now in Kano State.”
“After the academy I took everything that I learned and used it to refine my proposal. I saw where I was making mistakes, and it led me to successfully secure a grant.”
“We’ve been doing a lot of things wrongly, and we felt we needed some external help. We’ve been able to secure about two to three grants.”
“We all came in to learn fundraising, but you learn a whole lot more than fundraising.”
“I didn’t even know there were formulas that the judges use to evaluate grant applications. Fundraising Academy gave me that insight.”
“Now I know how to talk to investors. I know how to explain what our business is about in a minute, even less than a minute.”
“Apart from helping you win a grant, he taught us to build an organization that was fundable.”
“I am an alumni of Fundraising Academy cohort 4. We learned so much about grant writing and how to pitch, and the most interesting part was when we had to pitch our business.”
“It helped simplify our story. I could easily narrow the problem we were solving.”
“I got to know about equity investments, grant writing, how to approach funders and donors, from spotting funders down to the application and tailoring proposals.”
“I was made to know that even my laboratory can go for funding. The only thing is for me to package what I do.”
“We learned about the whole road leading up to raising funds for your business: equity, debt financing, corporate partnerships and grant winning itself.”
“We pitched our businesses to one another and got critiqued. That for me was just the highlight of the day.”
“What stood out for me was the emphasis on clarity: how important it is to be really clear in how we present our ideas to funders and investors.”
“One thing I’ll pick from the class is speaking the language of the donor. It’s time and money well spent.”
“It is one of the best decisions you can make for your business, because it will open up your eyes to position your business for the kind of funds that you need.”
“It brings grant funding at par with seeking investment from investors. We now understand how to approach donors.”
“It has helped me get clarity, with a clear, explicit path to scale up and pitch my deck.”
“It has helped me to refine my business. I’ve learned a lot about my pitch deck, fundraising and equity investments.”
“I’ve gotten a lot of ideas on how to move my pitch deck to another level, and I’m going to implement all of it in my next pitching session.”
“I will implement all the strategies I learned and use them to expand my impact and accelerate my business capacity.”
“I will be able to put all the things I have learned into my businesses. We shared ideas to see how we could get better funding.”
Quotes are lightly trimmed for filler words only. Where a speaker’s name was not clear on the recording, we show their role instead. Funders make the final decision on every grant.
Innocent Waziri, US$20,000 prize winner · Kano
★“Some months back we got another grant to do a big project.”Innocent Waziri
★“After the academy I took everything that I learned and used it to refine my proposal.”Favor Ogedigbe
★“We’ve been doing a lot of things wrongly, and we felt we needed some external help.”Alhassan Atanga
★“We all came in to learn fundraising, but you learn a whole lot more than fundraising.”Sunday Agbonika
★“I didn’t even know there were formulas that the judges use to evaluate grant applications.”Stella Amarachi Justin
★“Now I know how to talk to investors.”Founder team, AI tech startup
★“Apart from helping you win a grant, he taught us to build an organization that was fundable.”Jennifer Tokula
★“I am an alumni of Fundraising Academy cohort 4.”Founder, food products brand, FRACAD Cohort 4 alumnus
★“It helped simplify our story.”Omawumi Christine Emmanuel Ogah
★“I got to know about equity investments, grant writing, how to approach funders and donors, from spotting funders down to the application and tailoring proposals.”Executive coordinator, community mental health foundation
★“I was made to know that even my laboratory can go for funding.”Njideka Chuks-Oguine
★“We learned about the whole road leading up to raising funds for your business: equity, debt financing, corporate partnerships and grant winning itself.”Gloria
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