Be Lumin in action

I met Christie by chance at the Skoll World Forum in Oxford in April 2024, and to this day, I tell her she was my best ROI from Skoll—and I mean every word. As founder and CEO of a young grassroots organization with extremely limited resources, no leadership teammates at the time, and a skeleton team trying to change the world, I desperately needed someone like Christie. I knew it the moment we met, and investing in her services was one of the best decisions I've made for WAJAMAMA.

Christie became far more than a fundraising consultant—she was my thinking partner, a critical role I desperately needed as a solo founder. She was fully invested in our mission and vision, often feeling like an extension of our team rather than an outside consultant. Beyond fundraising support, Christie and her team helped refine our organizational strategy, communications, and content—efforts that directly contributed to securing funding, including our first catalytic grant, and ensuring our foundation was strong enough for funders to invest in us.

Be Lumin was worth every single penny, and my only regret is not investing in more hours with them. We simply would not be where we are today without Christie and her team. Because of them, our future looks bright—rare for such a young organization.

- Nafisa Jiddawi | Founder and CEO, WAJAMAMA

We needed someone who could support our strategy development and fundraising. We found that and so much more in Christie and the Be-Lumin team! Christie and her colleagues immediately grasped who we are, what we are trying to do and where we could be, and have expertly guided us with our strategy, scoping grant opportunities, writing, submitting and winning grant applications! Through virtual and in person work together, Be-Lumin have become vital partners in our organisational growth and development. I can’t recommend them more highly.

- Nicola Willis | Founder and Executive Director, Zvandiri

Working with Christie has been a consistently positive experience. She brings a strategic mindset and strong communication skills to every project—both in writing and facilitation. Christie excels at synthesizing complex information into clear, well-structured deliverables and has a talent for breaking down overwhelming projects into manageable, actionable steps.

What I particularly appreciate is her ability to understand funder perspectives while genuinely valuing our organization and our current stage of development. She has a strong fluency in global health and quickly gets up to speed on new contexts, then effectively applies and connects that knowledge across different projects. Christie creates clear processes and timelines that help teams stay aligned and focused on shared goals, and she's reliable and thoughtful in her approach.

I'd recommend Christie for projects requiring strategic thinking, funder engagement, and clear communication—especially in global health contexts where understanding both organizational needs and funder expectations is critical.

- Rachel Hoffman | Director of Program Excellence, D-tree

“The strategy exercise can be time consuming, chaotic and with vague output. Be Lumin customised the process to our pace and needs, built a nice framework and above all took us to a result (i.e. the Strategy) that everyone is excited and proud of, and ultimately eager to implement.”

- Riccardo Lampariello | CEO, D-tree 

"I first brought Christie into Gray Ink as she had particular experience working with for profits, especially pre-profit startups, and with international opportunities. Christie immediately started working with a select few clients who had never fundraised before and required additional training and coaching. She was incredibly patient with them. Her ability to support high-level strategy work, manage both the clients and their partners, and produce high-quality outputs was uniquely valuable. She could be trusted to just run with things. Together, we won major bids for Gray Ink clients totalling over $55M."

- Sydney Gray | Founder, Gray Ink

“Working with Christie is a real pleasure. She's the perfect collaborator: considered, insightful, but also full of energy and an endless ability to just get stuff done. I would strongly recommend her to anyone looking for the right partner to make a project, or even an idea, happen.”

- Matt Oliver | Executive Director, Campaigns in Global Health

“It was brilliant to work with Christie on a series of leadership workshops for our Business Development managers. Christie made it easy for us to consult and collaborate, ensuring she really understood our culture and how we work together, so was able to tailor the workshops carefully to fit our specific needs. The workshops were incredibly engaging and interactive, Christie's warm persona put everyone instantly at ease, enabling the team to share their experiences, challenge each other in a safe environment and get the most out of the experience.”

- Jo Clark | Head of Business Development Operations, What3Words

“We were looking for a consultant to help shape and accelerate our new mental health initiative. We got that and so much more with Christie. She quickly became a trusted, embedded and essential teammate. I have to remind myself she is part time, given how responsive and productive she is. She’s been fully committed to our success and mission. She’s made us more organized and expanded our scope considerably. And she’s remarkably versatile with great intuition and a wide range of skills, and is also very willing to jump in and learn new things. She’s done everything from producing high-gloss outward-facing collateral to developing prototype digital solutions to interviewing stakeholders. I hope to work with Christie for a long time to come!"

- Neal Lesh | Chief Strategy Officer, Dimagi