For Impact
Two sides of the impact-sector conversation.
Organisations operating impact programmes engage Future Lab across our full set of engagement modes, with RECAST as the structured pathway when the operating model itself is what must change. Organisations funding or commissioning impact work engage us to underwrite RECAST across a portfolio, partner on programme design, or refer organisations into the work. Read the side that fits.
Side A
You operate impact programmes
Foundations operating their own programmes, INGOs and African NGOs, government implementing agencies, sector institutions, research bodies with social mandate. Read this side →
Side B
You fund or commission impact work
Foundations, bilateral agencies, development finance institutions, philanthropic funds, family offices, pooled funds and impact-oriented co-investors. Read this side →
Building sector-wide infrastructure rather than engaging on a specific programme? See the ecosystem and Vantage Partner Programme.
Two sides of impact-sector work. Side A: Organisations operating impact programmes engage us across all engagement modes (Innovation Partnership, Venture Co-Creation, Capability Transfer), with RECAST as the structured pathway when the operating model itself must change. Side B: Funders and commissioners underwrite RECAST across a portfolio, partner on programme design, or refer organisations into the work. Read the side that fits.
Side A · Organisations operating impact programmes
Engage us on the work itself.
Every one of our engagement modes is available to organisations operating impact programmes, configured to your context. The right mode depends on the situation. RECAST is detailed further down: it is one structured pathway among several, not the whole offer.
Choose by situation
Three engagement modes, configured for impact-sector work.
Innovation Partnership
When Innovation Partnership fits
You run programmes that need continuous innovation capacity (challenge design, ecosystem mobilisation, venture pipeline development) but lack internal resource to run them at the cadence your mandate demands.
Common with: foundations operating thematic programmes; bilateral agencies running country windows; INGOs with innovation mandates.
Venture Co-Creation
When Venture Co-Creation fits
You have identified a specific opportunity, whether a market gap, a service-as-business spinout or an asset that should become a venture. You need a partner with the capability to build, the conviction to share risk, and a track record of doing it.
Common with: foundations spinning out programmes; INGOs commercialising tested models; development finance institutions structuring catalytic ventures.
Capability Transfer
When Capability Transfer fits
You want to own the methodology internally, to run innovation, build ventures, or rebuild your business model with your own team for the long term. Independence is the goal we design toward. RECAST is our structured Capability Transfer pathway for impact-sector clients.
Common with: government implementing agencies; sector institutions; organisations preparing the next generation.
Side B · Funders & commissioners
Underwrite, commission, or refer.
Foundations, bilateral agencies, development finance institutions, philanthropic funds, family offices and pooled funds engage Future Lab in a different mode: not as the organisation being rebuilt, but as the institution underwriting or referring change across a portfolio. Three relationships are most common.
Shape 01
Catalytic window for portfolio organisations
You commission a RECAST cohort across multiple portfolio organisations facing parallel funding-model disruption. We run diagnostics in parallel, cluster shared structural patterns, and design pathways with each organisation while maintaining a portfolio view for you as commissioner.
Common with: foundations winding down a thematic window; bilaterals managing transition out of a country programme; pooled funds underwriting grantee resilience.
Shape 02
Single-organisation underwrite
You underwrite RECAST for one named organisation in your portfolio, typically a flagship grantee whose post-funding viability matters strategically. Engagement structures align your contribution with milestone-based performance gates and documented graduation criteria.
Common with: family offices supporting an anchor organisation; development finance institutions preparing a grantee for blended-finance graduation; bilaterals supporting a successor entity.
Shape 03
Referral & panel relationship
You refer organisations in your portfolio to RECAST without underwriting the engagement directly, or include Future Lab on your approved-provider panel for portfolio organisations to draw on. The relationship is structural rather than per-engagement.
Common with: development finance institutions and bilateral agencies operating panels; philanthropic networks signposting transformation partners; impact-oriented funds advising on resilience.
What you can expect from us as commissioner
- A scoped diagnostic deliverable for each organisation, written for the situation rather than from a generic readiness template
- Portfolio-level pattern analysis where the cohort reveals shared structural conditions
- Milestone-gated engagement structures with named performance criteria, agreed up front
- Documented graduation evidence usable for your reporting and for downstream funders
- A defined exit. Independence is the goal we design toward.
RECAST · structured Capability Transfer for impact-sector clients
For organisations that need to own the methodology, not rent it.
RECAST applies our Capability Transfer mode to impact-sector contexts. It is structured around a graduation outcome: certified internal capability, on a documented timeline, with a defined exit. RECAST is recommended in three situations.
Situation 01
When the funding model is structurally disrupted
Grant dependency, funder consolidation, or shifts in how funders deploy capital have made the existing operating model unsustainable. Process improvement buys time. The model itself is what must change.
Situation 02
When commercial capability needs to be acquired
The organisation is funded adequately today, but needs to acquire commercial capability (pricing, sales, fee-for-service positioning, ecosystem revenue) it has never previously held. The work is preparing for the next decade, not surviving the present.
Situation 03
When existing assets are under-monetised
The organisation sits on networks, IP, data, brand or infrastructure with commercial pathways that are unrealised. RECAST identifies and operationalises these earned-revenue routes alongside the grant base.
These three situations correspond to our strategic conditions of Reimagine, Build, and Unlock. See the underlying framework →
Self-qualification. RECAST is right when
- Operational scale of $2M+ annual budget and 30+ staff, with structurally Africa-focused operations
- A genuine commitment to capability ownership, not just consulting output
- Senior leadership accountability for the change, not delegation to a programme team
- Willingness to commit to performance-linked engagement structures
- Twelve to eighteen months of structured engagement available; or a strong existing baseline that supports a compressed timeline
Four-phase structure
Phase 01
Diagnose
Asset audit, structural diagnosis of revenue concentration, and a board-approved transformation blueprint. Quick wins delivered alongside the diagnostic. The phase pays its own way.
Phase 02
Redesign
Operating model redesign and commercial pilot launch. Earned-revenue pathways, programme-as-product structures, ecosystem revenue, fee-for-service positioning. Tested against your operational reality, not abstracted from it.
Phase 03
Scale
Proven approaches scaled to target performance levels. Independence built systematically through reduced involvement. Performance gates and revenue milestones documented. Capability is built in the doing.
Phase 04
Graduate
Certified independence across the agreed capability areas. Documentation transfer, platform handover, alumni network onboarding. We disengage on schedule, with a six-month post-graduation check-in retained at no cost.
Modular engagement pathways
RECAST is not a fixed package. The right scope is determined through Strategic Partnership Initiation, our discovery process. Four pathways are available depending on what discovery surfaces.
Diagnostic Pathway · 4 months
Phase 1 only
Transformation blueprint and quick wins. For organisations that need clarity before committing to full engagement, or where board approval requires a phased decision.
Strategy Pathway · 10 months
Phases 1–2
Diagnostic, business model redesign, and commercial pilot launch. For organisations with adequate operational foundations whose priority is the model redesign, not the full graduation lifecycle.
Full Transformation · 18 months
Phases 1–4
The complete RECAST lifecycle from diagnosis to certified operational independence. The standard pathway for organisations requiring full transformation.
Accelerated Pathway · 12 months
Compressed phases 1–4
For organisations demonstrating strong baseline capability on discovery: existing commercial revenue, functioning systems, and a capable team. Phases compressed in time, not eliminated in substance.
Performance accountability
Our return is tied to your outcomes.
A material share of RECAST fees is performance-linked: revenue-share arrangements, milestone-based performance components, and continuing-equity options where ventures emerge from the work. We commit alongside you because the only reliable signal of methodology is whether the model holds when we exit. Funder confidence in your post-graduation viability is built through evidence.
After graduation
Graduation is a transition, not an exit.
RECAST graduates frequently engage Future Lab in a different mode after independence is certified. Continuous innovation work runs through Innovation Partnership; ventures identified during redesign and scale phases are taken forward through Venture Co-Creation; lighter strategic guidance happens through advisory retainers. Alumni keep access to a peer network of other graduated organisations and to the institutional relationships built during the engagement.
If your impact organisation has built a venture
Market expansion is a different conversation.
Where an impact organisation has built a venture that has reached product-market fit and is ready to expand into new markets, whether new geographies, new customer segments or new product categories, there is a different route. The right answer is the Venture Market Access Programme, taken on its own terms.
VMAP is a six-to-twelve-month structured engagement that resolves the sequencing, go-to-market design, distribution partnerships, regulatory pathway, and capital plan together. It is open to impact-oriented ventures on the same basis as commercially-oriented ventures.
Start a Working Session
A first session about your situation.
Whether you operate impact programmes or fund and commission them, the first session covers the situation, the engagement shape that fits, and what discovery would look like.