Home About Us
Our Story

Built on Trust.
Driven by People.

TCSC was founded on a simple conviction — that lasting change happens when communities are not the subjects of development, but its architects. We exist to resource that belief.

 Our Journey
2018
Founded in Kakamega by three community workers with a shared vision
2020
Expanded into 3 counties; launched first women's SACCO
2022
Hit 5,000 lives impacted milestone; opened Accra field office
2026
Operating in 7 counties with 4 active projects
What guides us

Mission, Vision & Purpose

Our Mission

To empower communities across Africa by providing the resources, skills, and partnerships they need to drive their own sustainable development — on their own terms.

Our Vision

A continent where every community has the agency, capacity, and opportunity to shape its own future — free from poverty, exclusion, and dependency on external aid.

Our Purpose

We exist to bridge the gap between community ambition and community capacity — providing the infrastructure that turns local conviction into lasting, measurable change.

2018 Year TCSC was founded
How it started

From a Conversation
to a Movement

TCSC was born in 2018 from a conversation between three community development workers who kept seeing the same problem — well-funded NGOs arriving with programmes designed thousands of miles away, missing the nuance, the trust, and the lived knowledge that communities already held.

We started by listening Our first 18 months were spent embedded in communities across Kenya — asking questions, not delivering answers.
We partnered, not prescribed Every programme we run is co-designed with the community it serves, ensuring local ownership from day one.
We measured what mattered From the start, we tracked outcomes that communities themselves defined — not just outputs that look good in donor reports.
We grew slowly, then together Seven years later, we operate across 7 counties — always led by the communities we serve, never ahead of them.
Our impact in numbers

Eight Years of Measured Change

14K+
Lives Directly Impacted
4
Active Projects
7
Counties of Operation
96%
Fund Efficiency Rate
What we stand for

Our Core Values

Six principles that shape how we work, who we partner with, and every decision we make in the field.

01

Community First

Every programme begins and ends with the community. We do not prescribe — we listen, co-design, and follow where communities lead.

02

Radical Transparency

We publish our finances, impact data, and even our failures openly. Accountability to communities is not optional — it is structural.

03

Long-Term Thinking

We refuse to design programmes that create dependency. Every investment we make is evaluated by whether it will still be working in ten years.

04

Equity & Inclusion

We actively centre those most marginalised by existing systems — women, youth, rural communities — not as an afterthought, but as the starting point.

05

Partnership Over Aid

We work alongside communities, governments, and local organisations — never above them. Power-sharing is not a slogan; it is how we operate day to day.

06

Evidence & Learning

We test, measure, fail, adapt, and share what we learn. We believe the sector gets better when organisations stop pretending everything always works.

Who we work with

Our Partners & Supporters

We collaborate with organisations that share our commitment to community-led, evidence-based development.

African Development Bank
UNDP Kenya
Gates Foundation
GIZ East Africa
University of Kakamega
Kenya Red Cross
Safaricom Foundation
USAID East Africa
Get involved

Become Part of
the TCSC Family

Whether you want to volunteer, donate, or explore a formal partnership — we'd love to hear from you. Every connection matters.