Platform Who We Serve Values Vision Get Access
Collaboration in Development
Nigeria & West Africa  ·  Development Sector

Connecting
Capital to Cause

CoDev is the verified digital marketplace connecting donors and foundations with credible NGOs and civil society organisations across Nigeria and West Africa. Think of us as LinkedIn for the development sector, where every organisation is verified, every connection is trusted, and capital flows to where it creates the most impact.

Become a Founding Member How It Works
Nigeria
Starting Point
West Africa
Our Region
Verified
Every Organisation
Verified Profiles
Every NGO on CoDev has passed rigorous verification: legal, governance, programme credibility, and impact reporting.
Discover With Confidence
Donors search and filter verified organisations by mission, geography, sector, and impact, with no guesswork and no wasted outreach.
Direct, Trusted Connections
Reach out directly within a curated environment. Every conversation on CoDev starts from a foundation of credibility.
Capital Deployed to Impact
Reduce due diligence burden, shorten grant cycles, and deploy capital to the organisations best placed to use it.
The Problem

Underfunded not for lack of merit,
but for lack of visibility.

Across Nigeria and West Africa, grant-making institutions spend enormous time and resources trying to identify organisations that meet their criteria, often with limited success. Organisations go underfunded not for lack of merit, but for lack of visibility.

01
NGOs Remain Invisible
Credible civil society organisations lack the infrastructure to present themselves to donors in a way that builds trust and invites investment.
02
Donors Cannot Find Them
Foundations and funders struggle to identify mission-aligned organisations with verifiable track records, leading to inefficient capital deployment.
03
Capital and Cause Misalign
Without a trusted, curated environment, the most well-resourced donors and the highest-impact organisations miss each other, not for lack of alignment, but lack of infrastructure.
Mission

To be the trusted digital infrastructure that connects capital to cause, ensuring no credible organisation goes undiscovered, and no donor deploys blindly.

Vision

A West Africa where every NGO with genuine impact has the visibility, connections, and support it needs to thrive, and where every donor can give with confidence.

The Platform

Not a directory. A verified
digital marketplace.

CoDev is not a passive listing. It is a curated, actively managed environment where credibility is the entry requirement, not an optional extra.

CoDev Ecosystem
NGOs
Donors
Research
CSR
Field
Rigorous Verification
Every organisation listed on CoDev has been assessed against legal registration, governance standards, programme credibility, and impact reporting. Credibility is the baseline, not the exception.
Verified Profiles
NGOs and CSOs build comprehensive profiles showcasing mission, programmes, impact evidence, and funding needs, all searchable by every active donor on the platform.
Intelligent Discovery
Donors search and filter across a trusted pool of verified organisations by mission, geography, sector, and impact data, finding the right partners with confidence.
Confident Grant Decisions
Reduce due diligence burden and shorten grant cycles. The verification CoDev has already done means donors spend less time on process and more time on impact.
The Process

From application
to funded in four steps.

Designed for NGOs and CSOs who are serious about visibility. Built for donors who are serious about impact.

01

Apply

Submit your organisation for review. Share your mission, governance documentation, programme history, and impact story.

02

Get Verified

Our team reviews legal registration, governance records, programme credibility, and impact reporting. Credibility is the baseline, not the exception.

03

Build Your Profile

Your verified profile goes live, showcasing your mission, programmes, impact data, and funding needs to every active donor on the platform.

04

Connect & Grow

Donors discover you. Conversations begin. Funding follows. Every connection made on CoDev is built on a foundation of verified trust.

Credibility is the baseline, not the exception.
Who We Serve

Four audiences. One
trusted platform.

Whether you fund change, deliver it, or champion it in your community, CoDev is built for you.

NGOs & CSOs
Nigeria & West Africa · Civil Society
  • 1 verified profile that signals credibility to every donor on the platform
  • Direct exposure to foundations and funders seeking organisations in your sector
  • Weekly grant alerts matched to your geography, sector, and focus area
  • 48-hour application review turnaround for eligible organisations
  • Optional 1:1 advisory support from grant-making professionals
$49/mo
Founding member rate · Standard rate $79/month
Apply for Membership →
Donors & Foundations
International · Foundations · Bilateral Funders
  • 1 trusted source of verified NGOs, searchable by sector, country, and impact
  • Every profile includes legal, governance, and programme documentation, pre-verified
  • Up to 60% less time spent on due diligence per grant decision
  • Curated alerts for organisations matching your priority areas and geography
  • Zero cold searches, 100% of listed organisations independently verified
Free to join
Free for founding donors · Invite-only launch period
Become an Anchor Donor →
CSR & Private Sector
Corporate Responsibility · ESG Programmes
  • Verified NGOs aligned to your ESG priorities and reporting requirements
  • Independently verified social impact data ready for CSRD compliance reporting
  • Multi-year partnership structures with documented outcome milestones
  • Employee engagement via curated skills-sharing and volunteering programmes
  • Your investment, fully visible, measurable, and audit-ready
$249/mo
Billed annually · $299 month-to-month
Request Access →
Community Champions
Individuals · Churches · Grassroots Groups
  • A home for individuals and groups doing meaningful community work, registered or not
  • Connect with established NGOs and amplify the impact of your existing programmes
  • Partner with others running similar community initiatives across West Africa
  • Access resources, knowledge, and a pathway to formalise your organisation
  • Be part of a network where every effort, big or small, counts
Free to join
Community tier · Free during launch period
Join the Community →
Our Values

The principles that
guide everything we build

C
Collaboration
The most effective solutions emerge when diverse organisations and individuals work together across boundaries.
E
Excellence
We maintain the highest standards of quality, professionalism, and reliability across every feature and partnership.
I
Integrity
Trust is the foundation of meaningful collaboration. We operate with full transparency, accountability, and honesty.
I
Innovation
We embrace new ideas, technologies, and approaches that genuinely strengthen development outcomes on the ground.
S
Stewardship
We recognise the profound responsibility that comes with managing relationships, resources, and opportunities affecting communities.
I
Impact
Everything we do is measured against one question: does it contribute to meaningful and sustainable change in the world?
Why We Built This

Built from the
inside out.

CoDev was not built from a boardroom. It was built from years of watching credible organisations deliver genuine impact, and then fade, because nobody saw them.

"I kept seeing the same thing: small NGOs doing real work in communities, and donors with real money, completely missing each other. Not because of misalignment, but because there was no infrastructure connecting them."
Boladale Bakare, Founder & CEO, CoDev

Experience from the Inside

Our founding team brings direct experience within major grant-making institutions, including work with the Ford Foundation, alongside hands-on practitioner knowledge of the challenges facing African NGOs and CSOs.

The Gap We Saw

Well-resourced donors and high-impact organisations consistently missed each other, not for lack of alignment, but for lack of infrastructure. CoDev is that infrastructure.

Starting in Nigeria

We are beginning where the need is most immediate, Nigeria and West Africa, with an ambition to grow into the trusted development infrastructure for the entire continent.

Now Accepting Applications

CoDev is currently in early access, onboarding a founding cohort of NGOs, donors, and researchers who will help shape the platform from the ground up.

EarlyAccess Open
48hResponse Time
FreeTo Apply
Our Journey

Building the future of
development collaboration

A phased approach to creating the most trusted ecosystem in international development.

Phase I
Foundation & Discovery
Launching the core matching engine, connecting NGOs with funding opportunities and strategic partners through intelligent, mission-aligned discovery. Building the foundational trust infrastructure of the CoDev ecosystem.
Partner Matching Funding Discovery Profile Builder
Phase II
Collaboration & Coordination
Introducing structured collaboration tools, enabling NGOs, donors, and researchers to co-design projects, manage partnerships, and align around shared goals without organisational boundaries getting in the way.
Project Rooms Donor Coordination Shared Reporting
Phase III
Impact & Evidence
Deploying standardised M&E frameworks and a knowledge exchange layer that bridges academic research with field implementation, creating a virtuous cycle of evidence-based practice across the sector.
M&E Framework Research Bridge Impact Reporting
Phase IV
Sector Operating System
CoDev becomes the trusted connective fabric of the entire development sector, where resources, knowledge, and expertise flow freely to where they are needed most, powered by a global community of change-makers.
Global Scale Policy Integration Sector Intelligence
The Vision

A world where no credible
organisation goes undiscovered.

Our ambition extends far beyond a digital platform. Within three years, CoDev will be the known name in West Africa development, hosting conferences, running training workshops, and serving as the knowledge hub where academia, practitioners, and funders converge to drive sustainable change.

Join the Ecosystem
Donors discover verified, high-impact organisations with complete confidence
NGOs gain the visibility and connections their work has always deserved
Researchers connect evidence with on-the-ground implementation
West Africa's development sector operates with shared infrastructure
Organisations collaborate beyond borders, multiplying impact
From the Field

Real organisations.
Real impact.

CoDev works with organisations on the ground doing the work that matters. Every connection made on our platform has the potential to change a life.

Partner Organisation

Let it Shine Academy

Lagos, Nigeria

Let it Shine Academy provides free secondary boarding school education to underserved children in Lagos, ensuring that financial circumstance is never a barrier to a child's future.

Education Youth West Africa
Follow on Instagram
Why CoDev

More than a grants database

Tools like Instrumentl reduce administrative burden. CoDev goes further, strengthening the entire ecosystem that makes development possible.

Feature
CoDev
Others
Intelligent partner & donor matching
Cross-sector collaboration tools
Grants database & opportunity tracking
Research-to-practice knowledge bridge
Donor portfolio coordination
Impact measurement & M&E framework
Sector thought leadership & insights
Sector Insights

Knowledge that moves
the sector forward.

Practical guidance for NGOs, donors, and development practitioners, from the people who know the sector from the inside.

For NGOs

How to Structure a Grant Application That Actually Gets Read

Most grant applications fail not because the work is unworthy, but because the case isn't made clearly. Here's how to change that.

CoDev Editorial Coming soon →
For NGOs

Visibility Before Funding: Why Donors Can't Find You

Having great impact is not enough. Understand the infrastructure gap between credible organisations and the donors who are actively searching for them.

CoDev Editorial Coming soon →
For Donors

Deploying Capital in West Africa: What Donors Get Wrong

The most common failure in philanthropic grantmaking is not a lack of funding. It is a failure of infrastructure to connect capital to the right causes.

CoDev Editorial Coming soon →
"Development works best when trust moves freely, capability finds its match, and every actor, however small, can see what's possible."
Before We Talk

A few quick questions before your call.

Two to three minutes, all quick taps. This means our call together can go straight to what matters, instead of starting from scratch.

2 to 3 minutes All quick taps

Four Ways to Join

Become a founding
member of CoDev.

We are building something the development sector in West Africa has never had. There are four ways to be part of it from the very beginning.

01
Anchor Donor
Foundations & funders · Free during launch
02
Founding NGO Member
Civil society orgs · $49/month founding rate
03
CSR Partner
Corporate & private sector · $249/month
04
Church & Faith Partner
Congregations & faith-based givers · Free during launch
Applications reviewed within 48 hours