Our Team / Leadership
Laxmi Thanki
Co-Founder
Twelve years in nonprofit leadership. A heart shaped by her own childhood in Kumasi, where she watched a single mother — a widow — raise five children on a teacher’s salary.
Joined
2014
Based in
Accra, GA
Focus
Strategy & Vision
Languages
EN · GA · TWI
Biography
Why she serves.
Laxmi is the co-founder of CZ Foundation and the daughter of its founder, Rev. Nadia. She brings communications experience from award-winning U.S. agencies, including Fenton Communications and BerlinRosen, as well as volunteer work with RefuSHE in Kenya and the UN Foundation’s United to Beat Malaria campaign. With a BA in social sciences and a passion for women’s empowerment, gender, and development, she uses her communications expertise and knowledge of international development to guide the foundation’s storytelling and outreach.
We do not rescue people. We walk with them. There is a world of difference between the two.
Experience
- Executive Director — 2021–Present
- Director of Programs — 2018–2021
- Country Manager, World Relief Kenya — 2014–2018
- Field Officer, Compassion International — 2010–2014
Education & Credentials
- M.A., Nonprofit Management — Daystar University
- B.A., Social Work — University of Nairobi
- Certified Trauma-Informed Care Practitioner
- Board member, Kenya Association of Charitable Organizations
Off the clock
Parent of two, an avid reader of African literature (current favorite: Tsitsi Dangarembga), and a long-distance runner who once completed the Standard Chartered Nairobi Marathon in 4:12. She makes the best chapati in the office — a fact even her staff begrudgingly agree on.