Years ago, I sat in a foundation director’s boardroom in Lagos and asked her one question. Almost every fundraiser before me had asked her “will you fund me?” I asked something else: “How can I help you achieve your goals?”
She paused, and it was a real pause, the kind that tells you someone is actually thinking rather than waiting for you to finish.
On paper, we had nothing in common. She ran a foundation focused on environmental conservation and the green economy. I worked in government, focused on creating jobs for young people. But as she talked, her real constraint became clear: she needed access to spaces to scale her work. My office controlled infrastructure across the state. We already had exactly what she needed.
I didn’t pitch her. I asked more questions, took notes, and came back with a solution instead of a proposal: here’s what we discussed,
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