Frank Julie is an organizational development practitioner, activist, consultant, advisor, strategist, facilitator and author. His journey in the development sector started in the late 1970’s as a volunteer, organizer and programs manager. In the early 1990’s he launched the Resource Action Group (RAG), a youth development agency focusing on building capacity amongst young marginalized youth to access sustainable livelihoods. He was the executive director for 10 years.

Frank acts as strategic advisor for many non-profit organizations. He is a founding trustee of the Youth Development Network (YDN), a consortium of 6 youth development agencies where he served for 5 years (www.ydn.org.za). Frank is the founder and mentor of YoungPeople@Work a group of young volunteers supporting unemployed youth to access sustainable livelihoods and serving their communities as well as a founding trustee of the Southern African Fundraising and Leadership Academy (SAFULA). He is also the co-founder and chairperson of People First Foundation, a group of  experienced development practitioners sharing their skills and experiences voluntarily with survivalist and marginalized community based organizations (www.peoplefirstfoundation.weebly.com).

Frank is the author of “The Art of Leadership and Management on the Ground” (A practical guide for leaders and managers to build sustainable organizations for permanent social change) and “The Roots of the NGO Crisis in South Africa – A look beyond the surface”. He regularly contributes articles on development to various magazines, journals and websites around the world. Some of the articles include “18 Ideas to Avoid a Funding Crisis”, “23 Sins of Management”, 13 Less Known Habits of Highly Effective Leaders”, “Effective People Development in a Non-Profit Organization”, "Networking by Design not by Default" and many more. 

Frank studied social science at the University of the Western Cape (UWC) in the early 1980’s, and adult education and learning at the University of Cape Town in the early 1990’s culminating in the completion of a Masters of Philosophy in Adult Education. His thesis focused on the NGO Crisis, Leadership Discontinuity and Learning over 3 Historical Periods in South Africa where he explored the evolution of the NGO sector and how different modes of learning impacted on leadership continuity over a period of about 40 years. 

He also studied the practice of development at the Community Development Resource Association (CDRA) and fundraising and development at the Centre for Development and Population Activities (CEDPA) based in Washington DC in the USA. Frank traveled extensively in different parts of the world to study development models on the ground over a period of 20 years.