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## Najam is a justice-driven consultancy that partners with funders to translate their commitment to equity and justice into concrete strategies and practices. Through strategy, evaluation, and facilitation services, we enable our clients to walk the justice talk and get things done.
## Recent partners
### Najam is a consulting firm that partners with funders to walk the justice talk, share power, and get things done. We strive to center clarity, authenticity, and joy in everything we do.
* ## Clarity
  Many challenges stem from unclear language, unchecked jargon, or vague purposes. Building on that observation, we seek clarity in terminology, purposes, and processes whenever possible, and name ambiguity if that’s where we are at. Our belief is that seeking clarity leads to more intentional collective purpose and action.
* ## Authenticity
  To us, authenticity means the ability to say what we mean and mean what we say. At times, it also means openly discussing diverging opinions or values, and deeply listening. In everything we do, we strive to seek authentic relationships and design authentic spaces because we believe that authenticity allows groups and individuals to move through conflict, find the most creative solutions, and grow.
* ## Joy
  We think progress and transformation come when there’s joy in the process, so why not aim for that? By joy, we envision a practice rather than a feeling. A practice of remembering to engage our whole bodies (not just our minds) when having difficult conversations, connecting data to stories, or simply remembering to laugh.
#### Kheira Issaoui-Mansouri, Founder and Managing Director
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#### Kheira Issaoui-Mansouri is a philanthropic advisor, facilitator, and advocate for racial and economic justice. Over the course of her 15+ years career, she has supported dozens of organizations and leaders in clarifying their goals, interrogating their assumptions, and acting with intention.
#### When a vision is present but the plan for action is fuzzy, Kheira excels at illuminating the way to thoughtful implementation, designing processes to get things done, and ensuring there’s community accountability and learning along the way. As the founder and managing director of Najam Consulting, she leads a portfolio of work across sectors including gender and reproductive justice, environmental justice, and democracy. Kheira’s prior roles include serving as Director and Equity Lead at Arabella Advisors, leading an early childhood mental health portfolio as Program Officer at the Irving Harris Foundation, and navigating the waters of corporate social responsibility at the Ford Center for Global Citizenship.
#### Kheira holds a MA in political science from University of Montreal and a BA in economics from Laval University. She is an alumna of the  and serves on the boards of the  and .  When she’s not supporting clients and volunteering, she enjoys watching stand-up comedy, eating carbs in all their variations, and having impromptu existential conversations.
#### “I have worked with many consultants and Kheira was the most proactive communicator and effective collaborator I have had the privilege of working with. She is thoughtful, perceptive, and deeply rooted in equitable, liberatory, and decolonized practices that make working together a truly transformative experience!”
-Makkah Ali, former Director of Racial Equity Initiatives at Borealis Philanthropy
## Client Love
### We are prepared to offer you a range of services depending on your current needs. Through our consultation process, we will work together to clarify your needs and design thoughtful, tailored solutions.
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  ## Program Strategy & Design
  Najam can work with you to define or clarify the goals, strategies, and activities of an initiative/program, and develop the tools that allow you to implement your vision. For us, strategy goes beyond having a compelling framework with energizing goals. We help our clients translate macro strategies into plans and tools that guide day-to-day decision-making and lead to real results.
  ## Evaluation & Learning
  Najam can help you assess the impact of a program and/or understand what works and what doesn't work with a program or initiative you run. We strive to make evaluation work engaging and nourishing, rather than dry and extractive.
  ## Equitable Facilitation
  Najam can help your team design engaging meetings that lead to clear decisions, strong relationships, and greater alignment. We put a particular emphasis on equity, using technology and anti-oppressive facilitation techniques to design meetings that feel awesome to everyone.
  ## Equitable Grantmaking
  Najam can support you at any stage of your grantmaking journey, and is particularly well versed to support you if you have a desire to embed values of equity and justice into all aspects of your grantmaking. We can help you select a grantmaking strategy that aligns with the needs of communities and your values, design RFP and other grantmaking tools that are user-friendly and accessible, and shape grantmaking processes that are clear, effective, and nourishing for all involved.
  ## Governance Design
  Najam can help you design the decision-making structure and procedures that will guide a new initiative, fund, or program. Our team will help you find the balance between policies and culture that create the foundation for effective collaboration, creativity, and accountability. To do this, we engage in authentic conversations about power, strive to center those most impacted by systemic inequities into decision-making structures, and interrogate traditional models of governance.
  ## Action-oriented Research
  Najam can help you define research questions that will inform a specific decision you are hoping to make or an initiative/program you hope to launch. From there we conduct the research, develop recommendations, and help you make thoughtful decisions.
### “Kheira is thoughtful, insightful, a pleasure to work with, and a crucial partner in our work.”
- Ryan Strode, Senior Program Officer, Builders Initiative
## Why Najam?
### Najam ( نجم) means “star” or “making visible” in Arabic, which represents two core elements of the firm’s value add: helping clients find their north star and overcoming unnamed/invisible barriers.
## Contact us.
kheira@najamconsulting.com
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#### “Kheira has taught me invaluable lessons on intentionality. She has taught me how to navigate a world of false urgency and hollow analyses with sitting quietly and intentionally with the fundamental questions - what are we doing, why we are the right group to do this, and who are we actually accountable to. Because of Kheira, I am able to so much more strongly help a group be collectively clear on its purpose and work and construct guiding tools/documents that help us to adhere to and intentionally test our work.”
-Amanda Hwu, she/her, NFG Midwest Organizing Infrastructure Funders