Our Impact Partners and Ten-Year Growth Strategy

Ten Years of Protecting Wildlife. Strengthening Communities. Delivering What We Promise.

Ten years ago, Over and Above Africa began with a simple conviction: protecting Africa's wildlife requires protecting the people, communities and ecosystems that surround it.

Since then, that belief has taken us across nine African countries and into projects that are as diverse as the challenges facing conservation itself. We are soon to embark on a brand new hyena project in Tanzania!

We have supported the rangers standing between endangered wildlife and poachers. Helped relocate elephants to safer landscapes. Funded rhino dehorning as an emergency anti-poaching intervention. Provided bicycles to rangers who were walking as much as 17 kilometers a day on patrol. Supported wildlife rescue and rehabilitation, primate protection and habitat restoration. Released “Breaking Their Silence: Women on the Frontline of the Poaching War,” a film about the courageous female rangers that won 17 awards before Covid forced our festival run to end!

But conservation doesn't begin and end with wildlife.

We have helped bring clean water to communities. Built classrooms for children. Supported women-led conservation initiatives. Funded art and photography programs that gave children new ways to see and celebrate their natural heritage. We have helped bring children into game reserves they might otherwise never have been able to visit, introducing them to rangers, veterinarians and the extraordinary indigenous wildlife living in their own country.

Why?

Because the child who meets a rhino today may become the person who protects it tomorrow.

The ranger who can patrol farther is better equipped to protect an ecosystem.

The community that benefits from conservation has a reason to become its greatest advocate.

And the injured animal that can be treated locally has a far greater chance of returning to the wild.

This is conservation as we believe it should be: connected, practical, locally informed and built to last.

We Don't Decide What Africa Needs From a Desk Thousands of Miles Away.

One of the most important lessons of our first decade has been knowing when to lead—and when to listen.

Over and Above Africa works with carefully vetted Impact Partners already operating on the ground. They understand their wildlife, their communities, their challenges and the solutions most likely to succeed.

Our job is not to arrive with all the answers.

Our job is to identify extraordinary people doing important work, ask what they need to succeed, determine where our resources can make a meaningful difference, and help them get there.

Before committing funds, we require independent recommendations from trusted people or organizations with firsthand knowledge of the project. We evaluate the people behind the work, the need, its potential impact and our ability to see the project through.

Sometimes the need is enormous.

Sometimes it is surprisingly simple.

A bicycle.

A classroom.

Equipment for a ranger.

A clean water source.

Veterinary treatment.

A relocation.

Elephant prevention methods using bee hives and hot pepper fencing!

Being a relatively small, entirely volunteer-run organization gives us something we value enormously: the ability to respond and to the needs of our partners on the ground.

We are able to consider worthwhile projects that may be too small, too unusual or too immediate for larger organizations. We can pivot when circumstances change. And because we work closely with our Impact Partners, we can direct resources toward tangible needs rather than assumptions.

From Individual Projects to Lasting Infrastructure

Our first decade taught us what was possible.

Then came a project that represented everything we had learned.

In 2024 and 2025, Over and Above Africa joined forces with our partners at Wild and Free Rehabilitation Centre to help develop and build a dedicated wildlife rehabilitation facility in Nelspruit, South Africa.

It was an ambitious undertaking designed around an urgent problem: when critically injured wildlife needed diagnostic care, access to appropriate equipment could mean an extraordinary journey for an animal already fighting to survive.

Today, the SPCA-approved facility provides wildlife with dedicated rehabilitation capabilities, including surgical facilities and critically important X-ray equipment.

Animals that once faced limited options can now be diagnosed, treated, rehabilitated and, whenever possible, returned to where they belong:

In the wild.

For us, the center represents much more than a group of buildings, surgery center and enclosures.

It demonstrates what becomes possible when local expertise, donor generosity, strategic funding and long-term partnership converge around a clearly defined need.

It also represents the evolution of Over and Above Africa—from helping fund individual interventions to helping create conservation infrastructure capable of saving wildlife for years to come.

Transparency Isn't a Marketing Strategy. It's Our Promise.

Trust is one of the most valuable currencies in philanthropy, and one of the easiest to lose.

Over and Above Africa has therefore built transparency into our model from the beginning.

For seven consecutive years, we have received Candid's highest Seals of Transparency.

But we believe accountability should go beyond reports and numbers.

We are filmmakers and storytellers, so whenever possible, we show you.

We document the projects we support and create films and visual stories that allow our members, donors and partners to see the work, meet the people behind it and understand what their contributions accomplished.

When you help fund a project, we want you to feel connected to the outcome.

Because these aren't simply our projects.

They are yours too.

Every ranger better equipped for patrol.

Every animal rehabilitated and released.

Every child introduced to conservation.

Every community strengthened.

Every acre or species given a fighting chance.

Someone made that possible.

Very often, that someone was a donor who simply decided to help.

The Next Ten Years

From Proven Impact to Strategic Growth

Our tenth anniversary isn't a finish line.

It's a launching point.

Our first decade established the model: find exceptional partners, listen to local expertise, vet carefully, fund strategically, document transparently and measure what happens next.

Our next decade is about taking what works and expanding its reach.

With an established Advisory Board, trusted field relationships and completed projects spanning nine African countries, Over and Above Africa enters its second decade with greater knowledge, stronger partnerships and a far clearer understanding of where a nimble organization like ours can make the greatest difference.

Our Ten-Year Growth Strategy

Protect more endangered wildlife.
We will continue supporting targeted interventions where resources can directly protect threatened species, from anti-poaching and ranger support to rescue, rehabilitation, relocation and emergency conservation initiatives.

Expand wildlife rehabilitation capacity.
Our experience in Nelspruit demonstrated the extraordinary value of investing not only in individual rescues, but in infrastructure that allows skilled local teams to save animals year after year.

Invest in the people protecting Africa's wildlife.
Rangers, veterinarians, rehabilitators, researchers and community conservationists are the human infrastructure of wildlife protection. We will continue identifying practical ways to make their work safer, more effective and more sustainable.

Champion women in conservation.
From our filmmaking to our field partnerships, we have seen firsthand the extraordinary role women are playing in protecting Africa's natural heritage. We intend to continue identifying and supporting women-led and women-helmed conservation initiatives.

Bring conservation to the next generation.
A child cannot be expected to protect something they have never experienced. We will continue creating opportunities for children to encounter their indigenous wildlife, meet the people protecting it and understand that conservation belongs to them too.

Strengthen communities living alongside wildlife.
Wildlife conservation cannot succeed in isolation from human need. Where appropriate, our projects will continue addressing practical community challenges—from education and clean water to programs that create a stronger relationship between conservation and local opportunity.

Remain nimble.
Some of our most meaningful projects began with a need we could never have predicted. We will preserve the flexibility to say yes when an extraordinary opportunity arises and our due diligence tells us we can make a measurable difference.

Tell the story.
We will continue documenting the work because visibility creates understanding, understanding creates connection, and connection inspires action.

Why Your Support Matters Now

Africa's endangered wildlife faces enormous pressures: habitat loss, human-wildlife conflict, illegal wildlife trafficking, poaching, climate pressures and limited resources for the people trying to protect it.

The challenges can feel overwhelming.

But ten years have taught us something else:

Individual actions compound.

A bicycle can change a ranger's patrol.

An X-ray machine can change the outcome for an injured animal.

A classroom can change a community.

A day inside a game reserve can change the trajectory of a child.

The right funding at the right moment can save an animal, strengthen an organization or turn a promising idea into infrastructure that continues creating impact for years.

That is where Over and Above Africa intends to remain:

where a need is real, where an exceptional partner is ready, and where your support can make a measurable difference.

Become an Impact Partner

Our next decade will be built by people who believe, as we do, that the loss of Africa's wildlife is not inevitable.

Whether you give $25, $250, $2,500 or fund an entire initiative, you become part of the chain of people making this work possible.

You help us say yes to the next ranger who needs equipment.

Yes to the next animal fighting for its life.

Yes to the next community with an idea worth backing.

Yes to the next child discovering that Africa's wildlife is part of their inheritance—and perhaps deciding to spend their life protecting it.

Ten years have shown us what we can accomplish together.

Now imagine what we can do with the next ten.

Help us write the next chapter.

Protect Wildlife. Empower Communities. Invest in the People Who Make Conservation Possible.

[DONATE TO OUR NEXT DECADE]

[EXPLORE OUR PROJECTS]

[BECOME AN IMPACT PARTNER]

I particularly like “Ten years have shown us what we can accomplish together. Now imagine what we can do with the next ten.” That could become the centerpiece of the anniversary campaign, not just this page.

And strategically, Kerry, I would not call this simply an “Impact Page.” You've reached the point where the website needs to communicate that O&AA has matured from a passionate conservation nonprofit into an organization with a track record, operating philosophy, field network and next-decade strategy. That's much more compelling to major donors, foundations and corporate partners than a collection of past projects.

You can watch some of our mini-documentaries here - and all it takes for you to participate is a minimum donation of $5 a month!