Working with artists and cultural organizations to FINE-TUNE their practice
Consultations for fundraising and development strategies, training, and marketing services.
Consultations for fundraising and development strategies, training, and marketing services.
Founded in 2025 by Passant Elbadrawy, a cultural manager, consultant, and trainer, Dawzana is a consultancy that works with mid-career artists and cultural organizations to develop and plan their projects, offering strategic partnerships, guidance, and one-to-one consultancy services in project design, strategy, and fundraising efforts.
Across Egypt and the MENA region, talent is thriving; however, opportunities for hands-on training in arts management, particularly in fundraising, strategic planning, and communication skills, remain scarce; moreover, artists and cultural practitioners lack the practical tools to manage, sustain, and promote their work. As a result, the sector is gradually becoming less diverse and more exclusive to a few visible players. Dawzana addresses this gap by offering services that are artist-centered, empowering creatives to take charge of the administrative side of their practice without dismissing their artistic purpose.
Mission
To equip independent artists/collectives and cultural organizations with the strategic tools they need to grow and sustain their artistic practices while staying true to their creative vision.
Vision
A diverse artistic ecosystem, where artists and cultural organizations have the tools and knowledge to lead sustainable career paths.
Dawzana in Arabic refers to tuning musical instruments to achieve the perfect pitch. In Dawzana, we believe that artists need to be in tune with their goals, fully understand the challenges, and develop solutions that align practicality with the artistic vision.

Developing business strategies for cultural and artistic organizations/projects/initiatives, making sure they align with their goals and objectives.

Working with individual mid-career artists and cultural organizations to identify opportunities for growth and development and create a fundraising strategy to achieve success.

Delivering tailor-made training programs for the arts and culture sector in fundraising, project management and design, proposal writing, and communication skills, targeting artists of all levels.

Creating and developing clear, innovative, well-structured reports for institutions, including research, documentation, grant reporting, narrative, and analysis reporting.

Providing services in copywriting, translation, and subtitling in Arabic and English for artists and organizations to present their work in ways that resonate with diverse audiences locally and internationally, taking into consideration context and culturally sensitive aspects.

Collaborating with artists and cultural organizations whose project ideas align with Dawzana’s vision, in addition to offering strategic partnership and working side by side in project design, proposal development, and grant management.
On Track is a multidiscplinary hands-on training program under the umbrella of Dawzana. It offers training for artists to boost skills in Egypt's growing artistic scene.
Dawzana was founded by Passant Elbadrawy, a cultural manager, consultant, and trainer with 10 years of expertise in the field of arts and culture. Before 2015, Elbadrawy worked as a copywriter and a translator at MAD Solutions. From press releases to booklets, Elbadrawy created English for prestigious festivals, including the Cairo International Film Festival, Alexandria Film Festival, and Ismailia International Film Festival for Documentaries and Short Films. Her portfolio includes the festival press kit for Francois Verster's The Dream of Shahrazad (2014) and English subtitling of Hani Khalifa's Sukkar Mor (2015).
In 2015, Elbadrawy made a career shift into the field of cultural development, taking on the role of Program Officer at Tamasi Performing Arts Collective, which operated across Egypt, Jordan, Lebanon, and Palestine. At Tamasi, she led grants development, outreach while also managing coordination, developing training modules, and conducting training in communication skills, fundraising, and proposal writing. She worked closely with both funders and grassroots organizations to support the sustainability of independent performing arts initiatives.
In 2022, Elbadrawy received a grant from the EU's Med Dialogue for Rights and Equality to implement a common action, which included a masterclass on self-presentation for artists. The common action also included online educational episodes.
Elbadrawy later joined the Tahrir Cultural Center at The American University in Cairo (AUC) as a Project Manager until 2024.
Over the years, she has designed and facilitated trainings in collaboration with the British Council Yemen and the Goethe-Institut in Amman, Sudan, and Cairo, working directly with artists from Sudan, Yemen, Egypt, Palestine, and Jordan, with a special focus on project design, self-presentation, and fundraising in challenging and under-resourced contexts.
In 2025, Elbadrawy was awarded a grant by EUNIC Egypt to implement the first edition of "On Track," a capacity-building program designed to equip music managers with technical and managerial tools to support the independent arts ecosystem in Egypt. The program has evolved to include other discplines and artistic mediums to offer access to knowledge and put artists on the right track.