My Nonprofit Reviews

As a donor, I am increasingly impressed with Global Press Institute's work and the way they are building a cadre of trained journalists to cover under reported parts of the world. Their 'duty of care' for their journalists has been rated as the best in the industry. And the stories that are produced, with first-rate editorial processes around them, highlight local and regional events and issues across the spectrum of issues - poverty, education, refugees and migration, environment, and on and on. Their journalists get at what is really happening in their own geographies and cultures in a way that no outside reporter could possible cover.

Village Enterprise continues to innovate and improve its impact by increasing incomes and savings for people living in extreme poverty in East Africa. They accomplish this by providing business training, mentoring, grants and a savings program for the poorest in rural villages. The organization has strong data that they improve the savings, household assets, and consumption spending for the very poor that it serves -- and this is both from internal data and from external, independent researchers.

There are two things I find most impressive about Village Enterprise. First is the tremendous passion and devotion of the staff. The front-line business trainers and mentors come from the rural villages they serve and know the local context, traditions, and languages. Second is the way they continually look for ways to improve. For example, they revised all of the business training modules using a 'human-centered design' approach. The result is a pictorial approach to every lesson, allowing those with the lowest literacy rates to learn and increase their understand of how to start and run a successful business. Another example is that they are testing an increase grant amount of over $400 (vs. the $150 they've been giving), and an outside research firm will compare the impact of both sizes of grants against a control group.

Village Enterprise is my top pick nonprofit for poverty alleviation.

This summer (June, 2016) I visited Village Enterprise's field work in Uganda. The biggest 'aha' for me was seeing the long-term impact of the organization. We met a Savings Group that is in its FIFTH year of saving together, meaning they have continued saving together for four years after completing the Village Enterprise program. After collecting the week's savings deposits, and each member of the group had nearly $700 per person in the collective pot! This is amazing for a group who qualified for the Village Enterprise program because they lived below the $1.25-a-day level five years ago. (Around this time, a report came out that the average US household would be hard pressed to pay for a $400 emergency.) One member, Grace, was eager to show us her new 6-room brick home with an iron sheet roof. When I asked what she'll do with her $700 when the savings are distributed out soon, she said she is looking for the right opportunity for starting her fifth business, and she is raising 6 grandchild-aged children. To me, this is a great testimony to the power of Village Enterprise's program and staff to help people move up and out of extreme poverty.

More Feedback

Village Enterprise continues to deserve my contributions of time, talent, and financial support because of the impact they have in ending extreme poverty and for it's commitment to continual program assessment and innovation. In the past two years, the organization has developed several impressive new tools and processes.

Some of these improve their efficiency -- like the use of smart phones for in-field data collection. But others increase their IMPACT by helping the very poor who are starting businesses choose the most profitable opportunity. Their SMART tool provides a village-based assessment of the costs, risks, and revenue potential of a variety of rural business options -- cash crops such as Irish potatoes, kale, onions, peppers, sunflower seeds (for cooking oil), etc.; small livestock such as chickens, pigs, and goats; various retail businesses; and semi-skilled businesses like bicycle repair, carpentry, and tailoring. With knowledge of the risk-reward profile for different businesses, and of the markets they can access, poor villagers choose what business to start from the most profitable options.

This is but one example of how Village Enterprise innovates to maximize the resources provided and significantly improve the lives of those they serve. This particular innovation won Village Enterprise recognition from the Rockefeller Foundation as a Next Century Innovator. See:
http://villageenterprise.org/archives/news/the-rockefeller-foundation-has-recognized-village-enterprise-as-a-next-century-innovator

More Feedback