About us

Menjadi strengthens environmental NGOs and helps them get funded. We work with organizations that support community-based natural resource management across Southeast Asia, many of whom remain under-resourced despite the depth of their relationships, knowledge and impact.

Our story

Menjadi was founded on the knowledge that Indigenous Peoples and local communities are the best stewards of forests and coastal areas. In conversations with the local NGOs working alongside them, we often heard the same thing: they wanted to build stronger organizations, but they wanted to learn by doing. For us, this meant taking organizational strengthening outside of formal training and hotel ballrooms, and back to the offices and communities where these organizations live and breathe.

Stronger and better funded local organizations will lead to more community led conservation. This is why we exist. 

Our values

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Our team

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Executive Director

Marc is the founder of Menjadi and has spent the last few years working freelance for various great national and sub-national CSOs in Indonesia and for organizations in Africa and the US.

Marc Fruitema

  • Throughout his career, he has worked with various small to medium sized local and national CSOs from Indonesia, Comores, Kenya, Tanzania, Belize and the US. It is this diversity of experience and context that has formed his empathy and inquiry based approach in his work.

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Selma Hayati

Org. Development Manager

Selma is an international development expert specializing in civil society organizational development, monitoring and evaluation, gender and social inclusion (GESI), law, and advocacy.

  • She has worked with donors such as USAID, DFAT, the UN, and various international NGOs. Her skills include operations and program management, program analysis, reporting, grant management, monitoring and evaluation, and designing and implementing capacity-building strategies. Her career includes work in advocacy and organizational development across sectors including business associations and worker unions.

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Lugas Hakim

Monitoring, Evaluation & Learning Manager

Lugas is a Monitoring & Evaluation specialist with experience in small-scale fisheries and community-based natural resource management.

  • He has worked closely with local CSOs across Sumatra, Kalimantan, Nusa Tenggara, Sulawesi, and Maluku, supporting participatory fisheries monitoring, promoting evidence-based decision-making, and strengthening M&E systems as well as data literacy and management. Lugas’s grounded experience across diverse geographies and communities enables him to adapt his approach to local contexts and align effectively with partners on the ground—making him a trusted collaborator in driving impact through knowledge-informed decisions.

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Lucia Runggaeri

Org. Development Associate

Lucia is an experienced leader and community engagement professional, specializing in social enterprises, education, and local projects across Papua.

  • She champions people-focused strategies that blend conservation, livelihoods, and learning—such as helping coffee farmers boost their yields at Highland Roastery, managing development for the SAGU Foundation, and guiding youth-led initiatives with skills training and support. Lucia’s expertise includes designing programmes, conducting baseline studies, and facilitating participatory processes to empower communities and develop sustainable solutions. Her leadership style is reflective and driven by systems thinking, allowing her to build strong partnerships with communities, NGOs, and stakeholders, adapting effectively to different local environments. With over seven years working on sustainable coffee value chains in Papua, Lucia remains committed to fostering inclusive, culturally grounded projects that give local communities the tools to thrive and create enduring positive change.

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Adi Hartono

Finance Manager

Adi is a Grant and Finance Specialist with extensive experience managing grants and helping partners strengthen financial management systems.

  • Adi has worked with prominent international organizations, including RTI, FHI360, The Asia Foundation, DAI, PACT, Cowater, and MSH.

    In many roles he has supported the capacity strengthening of grantees and sub-grantees to strengthen their financial management systems.

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Anna Cynthia Dewi Maharani

Senior Org. Development Associate

Cynthia is an international development professional specializing in gender and social inclusion (GESI), climate and environmental safeguards, and inclusive project strategies and design.

  • She has worked with and supported programs and partners including USAID (Ber-IKAN), FAO/GEF programming, UN humanitarian coordination contexts, and international research/think tanks organizations such as Center for International Forestry Research/CIFOR, World Resources Institute Indonesia (WRI), Stockholm Environmental Institute (SEI).

    Her core skills include translating research into organizational strategies, program analysis and reporting, grant scheme and partnership management, results frameworks and indicator design, developing impact measurement tools, and designing and delivering capacity-building strategies. She also brings strong experience in participatory facilitation, stakeholder engagement, and integrating inclusive approaches into program design and implementation to ensure equitable outcomes for diverse groups.

Yolanda Parede

Org. Development Officer

Yolanda brings experience in operations and organizational support, combining analytical thinking with a people-centered approach to building effective organizations.

  • At Menjadi, she contributes to organizational development initiatives, learning experiences, and operational systems that help both the team and partners thrive.

    She enjoys creating systems that enable collaboration, streamline operations, and support organizations as they grow. Throughout her career, she has supported initiatives working closely with Indigenous communities, particularly in Papua, contributing to youth-led campaigns on marine and coastal conservation and raising awareness of children’s literacy.

    Alongside this work, she has coordinated complex logistics, strengthened internal systems, and supported finance, operations, project coordination, and organizational processes that enable teams and programs to run effectively.

Our Funders

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