Khanya Strategy
Strategy, Systems, and Social Impact
Why Khanya?
I drew inspiration from a treasured book from my South African childhood, The Wood-Ash Stars by Marguerite Poland, based on a San myth. A young girl helps a lost hunter find his way home by throwing embers from her fire into the night sky. The embers scattered across the heavens, creating a trail of stars to light his path.
That story stayed with me. Khanya means “light” in Zulu and Xhosa. It captures what I believe good advisory work does, not prescribing a single route, but helping organizations see their options clearly and choose their own path forward. And for me personally, it felt right to transform the embers of one chapter into the light of the next.
What I Do
I partner with small and growing nonprofits as a consultant or fractional senior leader, providing the strategic horsepower of a seasoned executive without the full-time price tag. For organizations that have outgrown their infrastructure but aren’t ready for a permanent C-suite hire, I step in as an embedded partner, building systems, leading change, and serving as the trusted advisor executive teams turn to when things are complex, stuck, or scaling faster than the infrastructure can support.
I bring systems thinking and people-first problem solving in equal measure. I’m most useful in complex, ambiguous environments where someone needs to create order, build trust across functions, and keep strategic priorities from getting lost in the noise.
Fractional Leadership
I work with organizations in three primary capacities, sized and structured to meet you where you are:
Fractional Chief of Staff: Serving as the strategic right hand to your Executive Director or CEO, translating vision into execution, facilitating leadership team alignment, preparing board-level communications, and managing the cross-functional initiatives that keep slipping to the bottom of everyone’s list.
Fractional COO / Operations Lead: Aligning your operational systems to what your organization actually needs, diagnosing where infrastructure is creating friction, designing processes that fit your team’s size and stage, and building the day-to-day systems that allow people to do their best work.
Fractional Development / Fundraising Lead: Designing and leading your fundraising strategy, building competitive positioning, managing institutional funding pipelines, and creating the systems that support sustainable revenue generation.
Project-Based Advisory
For organizations not ready for an ongoing engagement, I also take on discrete projects:
Strategic Planning & Implementation: From landscape analysis and competitive positioning to translating strategy into actionable roadmaps your team will actually use.
Organizational Change & Systems Design: Diagnosing dysfunction, designing human-centered solutions, and building internal capacity that holds after I step back.
Facilitation & Convening: Designing and leading strategic planning retreats, cross-functional workshops, and multi-stakeholder sessions that build consensus and produce decisions that stick.
My Background
I’m Kiera Derman, a strategic operations leader with 14+ years building systems, leading change, and serving as the trusted partner that executive teams turn to when things are complex, stuck, or scaling faster than the infrastructure can support.
My career spans Save the Children US, NCBA CLUSA, FHI 360, and the National Women’s Shelter Network, across nonprofit and international development contexts. I’ve led the operational turnaround of a $75M high-risk USAID project, built organizational infrastructure from scratch in startup environments, and served as C-suite strategic advisor facilitating board-level planning and cross-functional alignment.
I bring the same energy and rigor to a three-person team navigating its first strategic plan as I do to a 150-person international portfolio.
I hold an MPA from George Washington University and have worked across Africa, the Caribbean, and beyond. I’m based in the DC metro area and work with clients remotely and in person.
When I’m not working, I write, practice yoga (RYT-200), and am raising one fierce and fiery kid in the DC area.
Let’s talk
Whether you’re considering fractional support, scoping a project, or just want to think out loud about where your organization is stuck, I’d love to hear from you.
Between Home and Away 