Adumu Safaris

David Sanare Ngoseck Mollel is a social entrepreneur, environmental scientist, conservationist, wildlife safari tour guide, and leader in socially responsible travel. David, or Ole Ngoseck as he is known, was raised in the Maasai community of Lengijave north of Arusha, Tanzania and currently resides near Sacramento, California. Earning a diploma in wildlife management from the College of African Wildlife Management in Mweka, Tanzania, a bachelor’s in Geography from CSU Sacramento, and a Master’s in sustainable tourism from Colorado State University, David has worked in safari tourism and wildlife management since he was 20 years old. Recently, he joined his wife, an academic and social justice advocate, in founding Adumu Safaris, a social impact safari company established to restore land, rights, culture, and economic self-determination to the Indigenous Maasai people and other host communities in East Africa through regional tourism reform, ecologically sustainable community-based tourism, and wildlife conservation. 

The wildlife tourism industry impoverishes the Indigenous Maasai people of Tanzania and Kenya and threatens them with cultural extinction through land grabbing and forced evictions. Adding insult to injury, Maasai are objectified as tourist attractions and overlooked by tour companies for upper management roles and as field guides. We seek to ensure that Maasai are the primary beneficiaries of tourism occurring on their ancestral lands. Our solution is ecologically sustainable, community-based tours that restore land and culture, eliminate poverty regionally through fair practices, and conserve wildlife. Through our land restoration and empowerment program (Adumu Impact) funded with proceeds, we give the industry to the Maasai systematically and at scale for their own sustainable economic development, a model for transferring economies of wealth to populations that deserve them. Our model has a scalable, sustainable impact that can be employed to empower other host communities in East Africa and Indigenous groups globally.

Tourism impoverishes the Maasai and threatens them with cultural extinction. Maasai land rights are being snatched by an unsustainable and socially irresponsible travel industry that puts profits over people under the misleading guise of “ecotourism” (Mittal et al. 2017). Foreign operators reap huge profits by scoring Maasailand from the East African governments and using it for private tours (Gardner 2016). This action is part of a 75-year practice with roots in colonialism of persecuting Maasai and evicting them from their homelands. Over time, 75% of land has been lost, and currently 1.5 million Maasai are losing their traditions and ability to sustainably coexist with wildlife (MERC 2006). This case is an analogue for indigenous cultures worldwide. Pro-­poor philanthropic measures in Africa including those dedicated to Maasai Empowerment tend to take the form of agricultural charity, service and volunteering, and small-scale economic ventures. While these are well-meaning and have an impact, they are not able to reach the scale that tourism has the potential to do. Where tourism poses a crisis, it also brings an opportunity. Currently, there is a huge need to leverage the billions of tourism dollars pouring into East Africa to build generational wealth in local communities.

Of all the measures to restore land, rights, culture, and economic empowerment to the Maasai, the most effective and efficient is ecologically sustainable, community-based tourism. Tourism is an industry that outpaces the global economy and has generated 1/5 of all global net jobs in the last decade. Wildlife safaris and beach holidays comprise a billion-dollar industry in East Africa, generating over 9.7% and 13.6% of the GDP and 9.0% and 11.6% total employment in Kenya and Tanzania respectively, and these figures are projected to grow through 2027 (WTTC). Adumu Safaris offers socially responsible, social impact tours that restore local land and culture, eliminate poverty regionally through fair practices, and conserve wildlife. Through our Maasai empowerment land restoration program, Adumu Impact, we give the industry to the Maasai systematically and at scale for their own sustainable economic development. In the early years of Adumu, we focus on building the safari company and earning tourism revenue, training and employing Maasai women and men through our tours, and supporting Maasai communities to form cooperatively owned safari lodges. We will proceed to form community-managed Wildlife Management Areas in Tanzania, and ultimately generate enough revenue to buy back land where Maasai have been evicted.

Maasai have co-existed with wildlife for hundreds of years. Our pastoralist way of life is very low impact on the environment. We are sustained by cattle which we graze in different green areas throughout the year. When we have access to the full range of our ancestral homelands, overgrazing is not an issue. Also, we do not engage in mass agriculture, leaving habitats unimpacted. When not threatened by poverty, we can maintain our traditional livelihoods while allowing wildlife to thrive.

Today, Maasai need land and jobs. We need hold of the industry that gives us most control of our economic and cultural future. We need the power to portray our image on our own terms and undo cultural stereotypes with roots in colonialism that generate inequity and injustice. We need environmental conservation to live traditionally, coexisting with with wildlife and with little carbon footprint--a model for humankind in this era of climate change. 

Adumu provides the land, financial stability, and community-based management that leads to these things. By restoring land and handing over upskill in tourism management, we create a Black­-owned African industry in the hands of the Maasai that sustains the people and the planet and fosters cross-cultural respect.

“Adumu” is the dance traditionally performed by the Maasai in which warriors enter a circle and repeatedly jump high into the air. The higher the warrior elevates, the more glory he receives and the more pleasure the community takes. We chose “Adumu” as an emblem of Maasai at the height of our cultural glory and of elevating out of poverty and land rights abuses linked to irresponsible tourism and the aftermath of colonialism. We are elevating opportunities for those left behind, building awareness around the crisis of irresponsible tourism and Indigenous land rights, and driving a scalable and replicable solution.

In 2018, I prepared to start a Master's in sustainable tourism while continuing to work on human-wildlife conflicts for California Fish and Wildlife. At the same time, my wife came across a study by the Oakland Institutedocumenting the erosion of Maasai culture through land rights abuses in the Serengeti, corroborating my own experience as a Maasai growing up in that area. In the context of my studies, my experience as a Maasai struggling to survive culturally and physically in the face of community land loss, and my wife’s work in Black Studies and social justice research, we began to brainstorm together how to lead safari tours in a way that not only avoids the problem but reverses it. We learned from Maasai activists that tourism poses a crisis but also an opportunity for Maasai attempting to hold onto their ancestral homelands. We learned from friends in the social impact world how social enterprises are efficient tools for scalable impact solutions. Soon, we came up with the idea of “Adumu Safaris”, a social impact safari company named after the “jumping dance”, en emblem of Maasai cultural pride, tradition, sustainable-coexistence with wildlife, and metaphor for Maasai uplift. 

As a proud Maasai raised near Tanzania’s game parks, I experienced the problem of land rights abuses as they eroded the wellbeing of my village. I have seen firsthand through my family the dire effects of tourism policies that put profits over people. My love of the region’s wildlife led me into safari tourism where I have seen a lack of Black African management/ownership and profits filtering out to white­ owned enterprises in wealthy countries. My studies in sustainable tourism have provided clarity around injustices in my homeland and tools to solve the problem. My passion for this issue has been heightened learning from my wife, an African American woman and accomplished scholar of Black culture who studied in Kenya and worked at a feminist activist organization in Tanzania. Together, with her social justice background working to uplift Black communities globally, we share a passion to end injustices in the name of tourism. We share a vision of Africa’s prominent role in the global future stemming from the community-based development of Africa. We share a love of the outdoors, wildlife, and Black culture, and we are bound by a responsibility to preserve the Maasai heritage for our children. 

I am an environmental scientist, having worked on conservation and human-wildlife conflict issues for California Fish and Wildlife, the University of California, and the College of African Wildlife Management. I am an experienced tour operator and field guide, having run a successful safari company in Tanzania before Adumu Safaris. I am educated in wildlife management and sustainable tourism from leading institutions in Africa and the U.S. My recent graduate studies have bolstered my industry knowledge and enhanced my network of social entrepreneurs in tourism and adventure travel. Most importantly, I am a member of the community being served, which grants me a level of respect, trust, and access to successfully engage in community-based projects. I am also a Tanzanian citizen with permanent residency in the U.S., granting me leverage to bridge resources from the U.S. to the local context in East Africa, something that smaller community-based tourism operations lack. Finally, I am part of a “package” that includes my co-founder and wife, a published scholar with a Ph.D. from Cornell University who earned grants and fellowships for social justice research. She has put her skills learned in climbing the academic ladder to building a team of social impact partners with overlapping missions, such as the Maasai Education, Culture, and Research Institute, and the Nashulai Conservancy. She has also used skills learned in university teaching to create travel experiences and to recruit and manage teams of student interns working hard under our instruction and leadership to build our organization. 

I was raised in a rural village with no electricity or running water. I started herding cattle at the age of 5, but my mother was committed to education, so she found a way to send me to school. I rose through form 4 (12th grade) and later graduated from CAWM. I sought out community college in the U.S. which I paid for by working multiple jobs. I transferred to Sacramento State, working toward my degree while giving tours in TZ to support myself and family back home. I finally “made it” when I was hired by Fish and Wildlife as an environmental scientist. I owe my positive attitude about the circumstances in my life to my mother, especially her faith that education would provide opportunities for her children, and my sense of perseverance and resilience to my father, the men in my village, and my culture, which trained me to be a strong warrior in everything I do. This trajectory demonstrates how my warrior attitude has served me well to rise up from poverty, but also how I fell into the right opportunities through fortune, a fortune I want extended to others from where I came.

I believe that leadership is about ambition, vision, audacity, responsibility, exemplarity, diligence, and drive. No act demonstrates my possession of these qualities more than the example of rising out of poverty and then returning to my community with a responsibility to the people upon whose shoulders I stand. I continue to lead by example, demonstrating through my present enterprise, Adumu Safaris, how a true leader only helps himself by helping others. Already, Adumu is gaining traction and recognition in the tourism industry, in the social impact landscape for our innovative intervention, and among local organizations and communities for the people we have already impacted. A leader is also only as good as the people he surrounds himself with. In this sense my leadership standards are maintained by the company of my co-founder and wife, who demonstrates the qualities mentioned above in her role as a college professor where she leads hundreds of students on semester-long learning journeys and ushers students through mentorship to design their best lives. Together we lead our team of volunteers and interns through inspiration, direction, and example, and we proudly take the reins of leadership to reform the safari tourism industry through action and example.  

The colonial model of safari tourism is unethical, and the local model lacks leverage to scale.

Large international tour companies are directly involved in land grabbing and evicting Maasai to make profits that sustain the individual wealth of owners. Many luxury safari companies have created charities that, through excellent PR, appear to be helping local communities. At best, these charities give back, but not in proportion to the wealth earned by owners and financial stakeholders and not in a way that challenges the status quo. At worst, these charities cover up egregious crimes against local people that the companies have committed. Oftentimes, companies legitimately contribute to species conservation through "ecotourism" and/or a conservation charity. Unfortunately, this model of conservation is done with blatant disregard for land/human rights. 

The ecologically sustainable community-based tourism currently offered in East Africa is run by local agents with limited exposure to international markets and thus cannot reach scalable impact. Adumu Safaris partners with these small enterprises who provide experiences on our tours. Other African owned wildlife safari companies are traditional enterprises not focused on social impact.

Adumu Safaris is the only safari company established to restore land, rights, and economic self-­determination to the Maasai through community-based and community-accountable tours and conservation efforts. Our actions include retrieving and securing Maasai lands with proceeds for Maasai communities' own sustainable use and development, training Maasai in tourism management and guiding, and creating nature-based livelihoods that conserve wildlife, using international leverage to compete and scale for greatest impact.

Adumu Safaris' Theory of Change visual diagram.

According to the WTTC, growth of the safari industry is expected to outpace the economy for at least another eight years. However, the majority of safari tourism profits go to foreign companies and not Indigenous Maasai communities, extending colonial legacies of exploitation. Some of those profits are used to purchase Maasailand, which degrades the environment, undermines Maasai land rights, and threatens traditional livelihoods. Adumu Safaris addresses the threats to Maasai land rights, culture, and economic self-determination through three initial activities: (1) designing, marketing, and selling social impact itineraries, (2) developing a Maasai guide training program, and (3) raising startup/seed funding to build our team and jumpstart growth. As we grow, those activities will allow for the building of zero-impact, cooperatively-owned lodges; the building of Maasai cultural centers; the increasing employment of Maasai as guides, lodge staff, chefs, and managers; and, ultimately, the purchase of land to be returned to the Maasai. In the short-term, supporting Maasai economically curbs rural poverty and allows them to remain in Maasailand. Long-term, returning land to Maasai allows them to sustain their semi-nomadic, pastoralist way of life which has been shown to be more sustainable for people and wildlife. In this way, Adumu Safaris will lead by example to create new standards for responsible ecotourism which conserves wildlife, preserves the traditional Maasai culture and pastoralist way of life, and increases Maasai self-determination as they become the primary benefactors of safari tourism. Through these activities and intermediate outcomes, Adumu Safaris can achieve its long-term goals of (1) creating an exportable model of empowerment-generating community-based tourism, (2) restoring Maasai ancestral homelands, human rights, and cultural and economic self-determination, and (3) preserving the Maasai pastoralist way of life and cultural knowledge to serve as a model for the sustainable coexistence of humans and wildlife around the world. Intermediate indicators of success for this theory of change include, but are not limited to: (1) recovering 12,000 acres of land for Maasai by 2028, (2) an increase in wildlife populations in Maasailand, and (3) yearly improvements in target communities’ sense of wellbeing.

Current Impact: 8,248

1 Year from now: 15,608

5 Years from now: 198,824

How we currently measure impact: For each tour that we sell, many people from the target community are served in different ways.

• Maasai guides employed (1 per group of 5 or fewer clients)
• 5 family members/guide impacted
• 15 Maasai per traveling couple impacted from use of our partner Maasai-owned lodge
• Homestays impact 5 people per group of two clients
• Voluntourism tours can impact up to 100 people per client
• Income earned and distributed to the community served aids in various forms of poverty alleviation, from buying food and clothing to paying for children's school fees. 
• Currently, we are using proceeds to aid communities during the COVID-19 pandemic by providing soap, washing stations, and masks made by Maasai women with Maasai cloth.

As our organization grows and we are able to take on the projects indicated in our theory of change, the number of people we meaningfully serve multiplies exponentially, particularly with projects that protect and restore Maasai land for sustainable living, nature-based livelihoods, and ecologically sustainable development.

The next five years will focus on scaling our reach and commitments to the economic empowerment of the Maasai community. We plan on selling 1,500 economically sustainable, community-based safaris and training additional 120 Maasai men and women (at least 50%) as field guides and provide them access to 4x4 vehicles so they can be employed by Adumu Safaris or contracted by other companies. We plan on building three zero carbon footprint, community staffed and managed lodges, cooperatively-owned by Maasai villages in northern Tanzania. Cultural centers will also be built to preserve Maasai culture for future generations and educate visitors. Purchasing/leasing land for lodges and cultural centers protects Maasai from being evicted from their villages as well. By the end of 5 years, we will begin the process of forming a new wildlife management area (WMA) somewhere in Northern Tanzania (a location that serves Maasai and augments wildlife migration corridors), providing thousands of nature-based livelihoods in the process, including training 200 warriors to serve as poaching security. To enhance our ground operations, we will open offices in Kenya, Rwanda, and Zanzibar and hiring two permanent staff members for each location. Additionally, we will continue supporting partner impact/conservation organizations with proceeds. Lastly, we plan to expand the training program to include management, hospitality, and culinary arts, which will allow Maasai to work in many areas of tourism and even begin their own enterprises. All of these goals support one another and also can provide income streams to sustain these impacts over time. 

Our primary barrier to attaining impact at scale thus far has been raising startup/seed funding to build our team and jumpstart growth. We have been able to gain some traction with safari sales which have enabled us to engage in basic operations. However, for Adumu Safaris' co-founders to be able to work full time on the project and to retain our talented team members who are volunteering, interning, or working on a temporary part-time basis, we need seed capital. While we are able to generate revenue to support our impact projects, we will continue to seek out grants and investments until we are self-sufficient. In order to begin building our training camp in 2021, three co-op lodges in 2022 - 2025, and organize Maasai communities to form a new Wildlife Management Area in Tanzania, all which will also eventually generate additional revenue, we will need grant funding. 

We also need pro bono legal support to help establish our legal structure internationally in ways that are congruent with our hybrid social enterprise. We have connected with a pro bono organization that supports social enterprises, but we are not eligible to receive their support until later this year. 

It is well known that the current COVID-19 pandemic has hit the tourism industry very hard. Our booked trips for 2020 have all been postponed and safari sales have come to a halt. Fortunately, we are able to keep going. Tourism is a notoriously fickle industry when it comes to being affected by disasters. 

We are aggressively targeting seed funding and grants for future projects with the support of our dedicated team of interns, volunteers, and temporary staff. Attracting human resources without the ability to hire has been a challenge, but now that we have a team committed to Adumu Safaris based on shared principles and belief in our organization, we are working hard to apply for grants, pursue social impact/traditional investments, and drive sales. We believe we these efforts will produce enough of a financial boost to propel us forward by October.  

We are applying for accelerators and competitions that can give us access to pro bono legal support and tabling any major structural changes in the meantime.

The COVID-19 pandemic's effect on our ability to generate revenue for building capacity at a pivotal time in our growth is indeed a barrier. However, we are utilizing this time in many ways: We have capitalized on stay-at-home orders and the cancelation of many activities by recruiting student interns who would otherwise be occupied. We are building up our marketing strategy to target socially-conscious travelers and European travelers, since European travel to Africa is resuming this week and will likely be more open than U.S. travel markets in the coming months. We have also been following the WTTC's recovery scenarios, which predict a return to the multi-year trend of tourism outpacing the global economy once certain measures are put in place to allow freer travel during the pandemic and/or when the pandemic is over.

Our work depends on partnerships that we have been building from the start. These generally fall into the categories of:

• Social impact partners with whom we collaborate on our project goals, seek out for community-accountability, support with proceeds to impact communities (especially at this stage when our own major impact projects are in-progress), and occasionally include in our tourism experiences. 
  • Maasai community activists and Maasai organizations with overlapping missions (Nashulai Conservancy, Maasai Education Research and Culture Institute, Mara Guides Association, Ebeneza Maasai Children Center, South Rift Association of Land Owners, Future Warriors Project, and others)
  • Other social impact partners with overlapping interests in land rights and community-based conservation in East Africa (ICCA Consortium, Tanzania, UCRT, Landesa (whose corporate accountability team will be using to keep us on mission)
• Research and academic organizations that connect us with current information on our issue to hone our mission (College of African Wildlife Management, Maasai Education Research and Culture Institute, and other independent projects)
• Community-based tourism enterprises whom we support and include in our tours (Osiligalai Maasai Lodge, Tengeru Cultural Tourism Programme, Colors of Zanzibar, and others)
• Camps and lodges that we use in our tours--we try to work with camps that are more eco-sustainable and community-responsible, but there is a great need for these in the industry. Until we can offer our own options, we do our best to partner with the lodges and camps that come closest to meeting our standards. 
• Universities (UC Davis Study Abroad Program)

Adumu Safaris is an international social impact safari tour company with a hybrid social enterprise structure. We offer wildlife safaris, gorilla treks, beach holidays, mountain treks (Kilimanjaro, Mt. Meru, and others), community-based cultural tours and immersion experiences (including "voluntourism" and homestays), and expert-led educational trips in Tanzania, Kenya, Rwanda, and Uganda. Proceeds from our tours go to fund our social impact projects and programs (Adumu Impact). The majority of our tours are customized to each traveler or group and range from budget to ultra-luxury offerings, with most falling in the mid-range/luxury category. Our target client is the socially-conscious traveler (an increasing trend in the industry) who is seeking socially and environmentally responsible travel, authentic cross-cultural experiences, and who finds value in having their tourism dollars go to meaningful impact work where they are visiting. 

Profits benefit host communities in East Africa, primarily the Maasai, through a number of impact programs and projects related to the mission of the social enterprise (Adumu Impact). These projects also help drive funding for social impact work by creating a brand-compatible labor force and tour infrastructure that increases sales through brand-building and profit margins by reducing the net cost of tours. For example, the training program provides our tours with guides who have access to camp vehicles (acquired through fundraising for the camp), saving on the high cost of purchasing or contracting vehicles ($250/group of 1-6 clients/day); and co-op lodges, while primarily benefiting community co-op members, provide at-cost tour operator rates for Adumu Safari tours.

Adumu Safaris uses a combination of embedded and integrated business models. Through an embedded employment model, Adumu Safaris will hire and train Maasai to work in the tourism industry. Through an integrated low-income client model, we will purchase land for Maasai and build lodges and cultural centers. Finally, an integrated service subsidization model will fund our other social programs including the guide training program and COVID-19 relief efforts. To achieve our goals, Adumu Safaris will need to leverage several revenue streams. Investment capital will help in the early stages to grow the business and become competitive within the industry. Similarly, social impact grants will help to fund one-time expenses such as the building of lodges and cultural centers. However, in the long-term, financial sustainability will rely on safari sales. The relatively large profit margins of safaris will allow us to leverage excess profit to fund social programs.

To date, we have generated working capital from sales revenue, owner investment, and business debt.

Past 12 months sales revenue: $141,905

Owner investment: $11,000

Business Loan: $46,000, U.S. SBA

Business credit: $12,000, U.S. Bank

TEAM GROWTH (all through grants and/or investments)

• Program Director (U.S.) will continue with $500/month intern stipend until September 2020, $45,000
• Managing Director (U.S.) will continue volunteering until January 2021, $60,000
• Lead Tour Coordinator (U.S.) will continue volunteering until January 2021, $60,000
• Internship Stipends x 7 (U.S.) September 2020 - May 2021, $31,500
• Reservations Agent (Tanzania) January 2021, $8,400
• Accounting and Legal Team (Tanzania) January 2021, $8,400
• Maasai Community Ambassador (Tanzania) May 2021, $5,400
• Office Assistant (Tanzania) May 2021, $2,400

TOTAL FUNDRAISING FOR TEAM GROWTH: $221,100

NB: By January, 2022, revenue should support the salaries above

Operations and Equipment (all through grants and/or investments)

• Office space, U.S., will continue to work virtually until January -December 2021, $9,600
• Office Space, Tanzania, September 2020 – December 2021, $11,200
• Computing, Photo, & Video, U.S. and Tanzania, December 2020, $12,500
• 2 used 4x4 safari vehicles, purchase as soon as possible to benefit from current low market prices (Tanzania) $60,000 USD
• Website and Marketing, September 2020, $8000

TOTAL FUNDRAISING FOR OPERATION AND EQUIPMENT: $101,300

NB: By January, 2022, revenue should support these expenses

Impact Programs (all through grants and donations)

• Maasai Guide Training Program (Lengijave, Tanzania) May 2021 $90,000 USD
• Cooperatively owned lodge #1 (Karatu, Tanzania area) May 2022 $120,000
• Cultural Center (Karatu area or Lengijave, Tanzania) May 2022, $10,000

TOTAL FUNDRAISING FOR IMPACT PROGRAMS: $220,000

TOTAL FUNDRAISING GOAL THROUGH DECEMBER 2021: $524,400

Adumu Safaris Operating Budget Jan - Dec 2020

• Admin (US) 500.00
• Accounting (US)30,00.00
• Vehicle Purchases (TZ) 60,000.00
• Automobile (US) 500.00
• Telephone (US) 1,200.00
• Advertising and Promotion 8,000.00 
• Business Licenses and Permits (TZ) 2,000.00
• Business Licenses and Permits (US) 600.00
• Computer and Internet Expenses 4,000.00
• Tanzania Temporary Staff 2,400.00
• Contract Labor and Interns (US) 42,000.00
• Dues and Subscriptions 600.00
• Meals and Entertainment 2,500.00
• Office Supplies 2,500.00
• Postage and Delivery1,500.00 
• Printing and Reproduction 3,000.00
• Professional Fees 500.00
• Rent (TZ) 8,400.00
• Rent (US) 720.00
• Airfare 15,000.00 

Total 158,920.00

NB: The net cost of services (Safari Tours) is included in the sale price of the tours and is kept separate from our operating budget.

My co-founder and I have been volunteering for Adumu Safaris while holding full-time jobs, squeezing out hours in the day to dedicate to building our dream, creating an impactful organization out of nothing but our imaginations, passions, and drive. However, in order to truly elevate Adumu Safaris to the place it needs to be to achieve self-sustaining impact at scale, we need to be able to work for our organization full time and secure a talented team with the same dedication to our mission and spirit of hard work. The Elevate Prize would enable us to do this through funding and also through access to industry mentors, social impact networks, and resources like workshops and conferences to build our skills and knowledge in social entrepreneurship, social impact organizational strategy, and foster our professional growth. Legal support will help us choose the best organizational structure to function smoothly across borders and to move forward with our plans to open a training camp in Tanzania next May. Media exposure that comes with being a "Global Hero" will not only bring more global attention to Maasai land rights and tourism, but also will bolster our international recognition among potential clients, enabling us to meet our revenue-driven impact goals on or ahead of schedule. Finally, as mentioned before, leaders are only as good as the company they keep, so we are excited about how our growth as changemakers and leaders will be positively affected by being in community with other Elevate Prize Global Heroes.

We have been fortunate to attract amazing talent to our organization in the form of volunteers, interns, and temporary staff. We have used our partnerships to set community-accountability systems and measures in place. 

While we have a funding strategy, we would welcome formal and informal guidance.

We have formed some great mentorships close to our social impact mission, particularly among Maasai and land rights advocacy organization leaders. However, we could use more mentorship in entrepreneurship and business, including in tourism if possible. 

We need guidance on if, how, and when to form a board, of whom this should consist, and how much and at what point they are compensated. 

Legal support is essential for establishing our international structure and navigating our local land-based projects. 

Marketing and media exposure is essential not only to raise issue awareness, but also brand awareness, which is needed to meet our revenue goals. 

We would like to partner with every organization or social enterprise in East Africa that has an impact mission which overlaps with ours, if we are not already connected. 

We are working on deepening our Maasai community partnerships, particularly in and near my home village of Lengijave, to ensure we have the trust and respect needed for community participation in our planned projects.  

Maliasili is at the forefront of supporting orgs like Adumu Safaris in Eastern and Southern Africa, and we strive to make it into their partner portfolio one day soon, as all of their regional partners are known for being the best African (generally community-based) conservation organizations.

We are aware of organizations that support social entrepreneurs to create big impacts in the Africa such as Ashoka and Amani Institute and the Mulago Foundation. 

We want to partner to offer trips with San Diego Zoo global and the Global Heritage Fund.

We are looking to forge streams of clients through partnerships with alumni travel groups, educational institutions, and faith-based organizations.

We seek partnerships with Black travel groups. Black travelers are an untapped market for safari tourism, partly because of the colonial dynamics of the industry. We believe that as a Black-owned company offering tours that celebrate African culture with respect and that empower local communities, partnerships of this sort will contribute a dynamic angle to our tourism reform agenda.