Impact partner profile

Raising the Village

To end ultra poverty in our generation

Est. since

2012

Location of HQ

212 King St W. (6th Floor) , Toronto, ON. M5H 1K5, Canada

Partnership date with Thankyou

September 2020

Area of focus

Livelihoods, Economic Development, Agriculture

Regions

Uganda

Website

raisingthevillage.org

Raising The Village (RTV) is on a mission to end ultra-poverty in our lifetime. To do so, RTV partners with last-mile communities in rural Uganda to address ultra-poverty with a holistic, data-informed, and sustainable model that secures basic needs, raises household income and fosters community development.
Through a 24-month program, Raising The Village addresses multidimensional poverty by enabling partner households to increase their incomes through participation in agriculture and entrepreneurship.


1. Driving Income - by increasing agricultural productivity

  • Work with last-mile communities through training on Good Agronomic Practices, providing quality seeds and tools, forming local cooperatives and committees to build capacity and local support, facilitating group marketing and ensuring sustainability.


2. Enabling Participation - by addressing barriers and creating opportunities

  • Address the barriers to development to unlock time and resources; this includes: providing sustainable food sources, constructing and improving water sources, promoting good hygiene and sanitation practices and creating health awareness.
  • Formation of cooperatives, including Village Savings and Loan Associations and providing Financial Literacy Training as part of Healthy Household Training, ensuring communities can access resources and affordable credit for agriculture, livestock, and small businesses.


3. Ensuring Sustainability - by building local capacity and structures

  • Establishing local support structures for agriculture, livestock, water and other initiatives.
  • Training and utilizing local community members and government extension workers for program delivery.
  • Enabling communities to self-organize, identify opportunities, and implement development initiatives that contribute to incomes and local infrastructure and improve quality of life.


The program empowers communities to improve economic resilience. It enables all households—including women, youth, and the lowest income earners—to address immediate and long-term challenges so that they can build a stronger, more resilient future.
Since its inception, RTV has reached 812,216 people across 1,306 villages in rural Uganda, including over 225,000 people in 2022 alone. Through innovative technology and advanced data analytics, RTV has driven impact and sustainability by transforming how data is integrated into real-time programmatic decision-making. In doing so, RTV has seen a one-time investment of $100 per household return, an average cumulative ROI of 541% at Month 24 and an incredible 1799% at Month 60.

Core impact goals

Increase household income

Raising The Village aims to increase household incomes and earnings of last-mile, subsistence farmers to $2.25 USD/day within 24 months, with a particular focus on engaging women-headed households, youth-headed households, and the lowest income earners.

Increase agricultural crop production and income

Raising The Village looks to increase the annual household agricultural production value by $200 USD in 24 months. Increase capacities of women and youth - Raising The Village has a goal to increase the capacities of women and youth in partner villages, having them take on community leadership roles and actively participate in household and community decision making. Their goal is to see 40% of women, and 20% of youth, in leadership positions in each community.

Increase access to savings, loans, and credit

Raising The Village aims to increase diversified income streams and income-generating activities by fostering savings and access to loans, with a goal of increasing the number of households participating in Village Savings and Loan Associations and those able to access loans to 70%, respectively, in 24 months.

Increase capacities of women and youth

Raising The Village has a goal to increase the capacities of women and youth in partner villages, having them take on community leadership roles and actively participate in household and community decision making. Their goal is to see 40% of women, and 20% of youth, in leadership positions in each community.

Type of grant funding given

$678,333* AUD

*Unrestricted Grants funded from October 2020 to December 2023
  1. Reach 300,000 beneficiaries with Raising The Village's model by the end of 2023.
  2. Increase household income levels to USD $2.25 per day within 24 months.
  3. Reach an agreement with the Ugandan government on a direct input cost-sharing model for the 2023-2024 fiscal year.
  4. Direct Cost-Per-Beneficiary to be targeted at USD $27.20
  5. Secure $9.3M of funding in 2023 through a diversified mix of renewals, partnership growth, and new funding sources.
Reach 250,000 beneficiaries with Raising the Village's model, expanding to 3 new districts by the end of 2022.

Raising The Village (RTV) completed work across 9 districts during the reporting period, reaching 225,314 beneficiaries from 43,196 households in 327 villages. 2 out of 3 new districts were launched during the reporting period from September 2021 to September 2022, with the final new expansion taking place in January 2023.

In an interim report, RTV re-forecasted this milestone due to analysis of economic conditions (particularly macro-level impacts of inflation, such as agricultural input price increases and fuel costs).

Increase household income levels to $2/day within 12 months, and $3 per day within 24 months.

For the 2022 Graduating Cohort, the average partner household’s income and earnings rose from $1.03/day to $2.45/day at program graduation. Raising The Village found that for $100 invested, households unlocked $650 by Month 24. While the internal $3 per day target was not reached for this cohort, RTV has continued to use data-informed, community-led approaches to increase household income and earnings year-over-year and continues to strive to meet this target in the near future.

Reach an agreement with the Ugandan government on a direct input cost-sharing model for the 2022-2023 fiscal year.

Raising The Village successfully negotiated a cost-sharing model with the Government of Uganda through the Agriculture Cluster Development Program (ACDP) – a $250M initiative funded by the World Bank. As part of ACDP’s Value Chain Productive Alliance, an inputs cost-sharing arrangement will see ACDP support 67% of seed inputs and 50% of other agriculture input costs in relevant districts.

Direct Cost-Per-Beneficiary to be targeted at USD $26.25

Raising The Village's annual Cost-Per-Beneficiary figure for 2022 was USD $25.73.

As inflation continued across the globe, RTV felt the impacts of increased costs, especially fuel prices, which rose 30% in the year. In response, RTV budgeted a 12% increase in overall operating costs in Q2, with a combination of operating efficiency activities, accelerated deal shares, and a revised inflation figure of 8.5% for 2022 contributing to a cost per beneficiary ‘beat’ for the year.

Secure $6.15M of funding in 2022 through a diversified mix of renewals, partnership growth, and new funding sources.

Raising The Village raised $6.7M through a diverse system of support. In addition to successful renewals of existing funding partners, RTV added seven new foundation partners in 2022.

Reach 90,000 new beneficiaries in 17,500 families in Western Uganda.

Raising The Village completed work across 90 clusters during the reporting period, reaching 260,739 beneficiaries from 50,952 households in 479 villages. 83 out of 90 clusters were launched during the reporting period from September 2020 to September 2021.

Expand Raising The Village programs into 2 new districts of Mitooma and Kyenjojo District.

New offices were opened in the two new districts of Mitooma and Kyenjojo districts in September and December, respectively.

See 40% of women, and 15% of youth, in leadership positions in each new partner community.

New community leadership positions: 4,519
Women in leadership positions: 2,492 (43% of the organisation)
Youth (male and female) in leadership: 1,155 positions (20% of the organisation)

Increase household incomes of new partner villages to at least $1.25 USD within the first 12 months and $2 USD per day in 24 months.

Raising The Village increased daily household incomes and earnings in partner villages from $0.95 to $2.20 within 24 months.

Distribute 35,000 ‘Ready To Eat’ Garden Kits to 200,000 beneficiaries in their COVID response.

In total, the 'Ready To Eat' initiative was able to assure food security for a total of 1,220,000 beneficiaries from 246,000 households (1 kit per household) from last-mile communities.

Achieved
Achieved
On-track
Milestone on-track for completion within specified timeframe, outside of Thankyou’s grant period.
Mostly achieved
>90%+ milestone completion.
Partially achieved
Milestone <90% completed within grant period.
Delayed
Milestone delayed, not completed within grant period.
FY2023 Impact Milestones

Funded grant: $83,333 AUD
12 month unrestricted funded grant (October 202 - September 2023)

1. Reach 250,000 beneficiaries with Raising the Village’s model, expanding to 3 new districts by the end of 2022. 2. Increase household income levels to $2/day within 12 months, and $3 per day within 24 months. 3. Reach an agreement with the Ugandan government on a direct input cost-sharing model for the 2022-2023 fiscal year. 4. Direct Cost-Per-Beneficiary to be targeted at USD $26.25. 5. Secure $6.15M of funding in 2022 through a diversified mix of renewals, partnership growth, and new funding sources Funded grant: $95,000 AUD 12 month unrestricted funded grant (October 2021 - September 2022)
FY2021 Impact Milestones

Funded grant: $500,000 AUD

12 month (Oct 2020–Sep 2021) unrestricted

Reach 90,000 new beneficiaries in 17,500 families in Western Uganda.
Raising The Village completed work across 90 clusters during the reporting period, reaching 260,739 beneficiaries from 50,952 households in 479 villages. 83 out of 90 clusters were launched during the reporting period from September 2020 to September 2021.
Expand Raising The Village programs into 2 new districts of Mitooma and Kyenjojo District.
New offices were opened in the two new districts of Mitooma and Kyenjojo districts in September and December, respectively.
See 40% of women, and 15% of youth, in leadership positions in each new partner community.
New community leadership positions: 4,519Women in leadership positions: 2,492 (43% of the organisation)Youth (male and female) in leadership: 1,155 positions (20% of the organisation)
Increase household incomes of new partner villages to at least $1.25 USD within the first 12 months and $2 USD per day in 24 months.
Raising The Village increased daily household incomes and earnings in partner villages from $0.95 to $2.20 within 24 months.
Distribute 35,000 ‘Ready To Eat’ Garden Kits to 200,000 beneficiaries in their COVID response.
In total, the 'Ready To Eat' initiative was able to assure food security for a total of 1,220,000 beneficiaries from 246,000 households (1 kit per household) from last-mile communities.
Achieved
Milestone complete.
On track
Milestone on-track for completion within specified timeframe, outside of Thankyou’s grant period.
Partially achieved
Milestone <90% completed within grant period.
Mostly achieved
>90%+ milestone completion.
Delayed
Milestone delayed, not completed within grant period.

Impact Reports

RTV FY2021 Impact Report RTV FY2022 Impact Report

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