Under our Evenlode Foundation Programme, we allocate a percentage of our profits each year towards charitable activities. In 2020, we wanted to create a more structured approach towards our philanthropic endeavours and that is why we started working with Greenwood Place.
Known as a ‘Philanthropic Accelerator’ they provide strategic advice and support to individuals, families, charitable organisations and businesses. They help clients connect with charities whose values and long term ambitions align. After surveying the whole of the Evenlode team, they helped us create our philanthropic mission statement of ‘Empowering communities to address global problems in a sustainable and a scalable way’.
In our philanthropic activities we therefore look to focus on charities that focus on environmental challenges including climate change and biodiversity loss, and those working on reducing poverty and inequality. Due to the overarching nature of the themes from our charitable endeavours and sectors in our investable universe, we can triangulate information and further increase our understanding of the positive impact companies are having on society, adding more colour to their ESG credentials.
Sasha Fisher is the Executive Director & Co-Founder of Spark Microgrants. She moved to East Africa in 2010 to develop the Spark Microgrant model and has been passionate about community-led development ever since. She explains the Spark Microgrants model below, its purpose and long-term ambition.
All too often, communities facing poverty are side-lined by the very programmes meant to uplift them. Spark flips development from prescriptive to community-led, so that every village can define their own future. For more than ten years, Spark Microgrants has worked with communities, civil society, and governments to activate the collective power of people facing poverty and advance their shared prosperity. Recognised by the media, development actors, and governments, including the national government of Rwanda, for its cost-effective and impactful approach, Spark supports communities to organize and drive local change.
Spark’s key innovation – the Facilitated Collective Action Process (FCAP) – pairs a village planning process with a seed grant to facilitate community-first solutions to poverty. The FCAP equips communities with the tools to set shared goals and the resources to pursue them. With these tools and the seed grant, communities go on to launch at least one project whether it be an agricultural business, a motorcycle-taxi service, or the construction of a new school building. Research shows that the FCAP results in families doubling the meals they eat and a sevenfold increase in women engaging in leadership roles. More than four in five communities establish inclusive governance structures that sustain.
Dollar for dollar, the FCAP outperforms other forms of aid. It provides a 6x return on every dollar invested. Indeed, compared to prescriptive models of aid that are high-cost and produce only short-term benefits, the FCAP is more cost-effective, at $23 per person, and more durable, sustaining for more than five years. In fact, for every one project catalysed by the FCAP, a community launches another, showing a 2x impact multiplier.
While most of its funding partners are from private philanthropy, since 2016, Spark has partnered with World Centric, a leading producer of compostable and zero waste products, to directly support more than two dozen villages in three countries across East Africa. In collaboration with this corporate partner, Spark has positively impacted the lives of more than 16,000 people facing poverty.
Spark has reached more than 500,000 people in over 500 villages in eight countries, including through our flagship programme with the Government of Rwanda, since its founding in 2010. Today, Spark trains partner organizations and works with governments to scale the FCAP as the system of choice to advance social and economic development, improve lives, and secure lasting change. As the need has increased, government demand has too. The governments of Ghana, Liberia, Malawi, Rwanda, and Uganda have all requested national programmes.
Spark currently works with the World Bank, Comic Relief, philanthropic partners, and the Government of Rwanda on an existing pilot to scale the FCAP nationwide. To accelerate growth in 2022, Spark is targeting countries that seek to replicate the Rwanda national programme. Spark’s accelerated strategy features a model to pilot national programmes over a three-year period that includes adaptation of the FCAP system by a local civil society organization, a 50-community pilot, and the establishment of a policy working group with national governments.
Sasha Fisher, Executive Director & Co-Founder of Spark Microgrants and Sawan Kumar, Head of Stewardship
2021
Please note, these views represent the opinions of the Evenlode Team as of 2021 and do not constitute investment advice. Where opinions are expressed, they are based on current market conditions, they may differ from those of other investment professionals and are subject to change without notice. This document is not intended as a recommendation to invest in any particular asset class, security or strategy. The information provided is for illustrative purposes only and should not be relied upon as a recommendation to buy or sell securities. Every effort is taken to ensure the accuracy of the data in this document, but no warranties are given.