In 2002, the African Wildlife Foundation assisted the community of Kijabe Group Ranch to establish its own charitable foundation to support the creation and management of its conservation area, the Ol Lentille Conservancy, The Kijabe Trust is a Kenyan charity devoted to improving the livelihoods of some 3000 Maasai people in the Laikipia District 50 miles northwest of Mt Kenya. But not just any ordinary charity.

Our Mission is to successfully balance Economic and Community Development with Conservation. This three-legged stool is often not well-constructed. Very often one leg is shorter than the other. We strive for equilibrium.

The official purpose of the Trust is: "to enable the Kijabe leadership, members and dependents to create and maintain a thriving, sustainable property in which people, livestock, tourism & other commercial enterprises, and wildlife harmoniously coexist, in an area of increasingly outstanding natural beauty".

In July 2005 Kijabe Group Ranch entered into a Management Agreement with conservation tourism company Regenesis Ltd. to invest in, construct, market and manage a small luxury tourism property. That property, The Sanctuary at Ol Lentille, Kenya’s most exclusive wilderness hotel, is now open.