Making an App to Make a Difference

Hundreds of millions of farmers in sub-Saharan Africa live on a mere two dollars per day, making it difficult to not only support themselves and their family, but also stay relevant in a market that requires expensive equipment. Hello Tractor, an "Uber-meets-Salesforce" app, helps smallholder farmers gain access to the use of fellow farmer's tractors and operators while also supporting the growth of the youth employment.

There is a substantial argument for increased involvement of private companies in venture philanthropy. Unlike large government bodies and NGOs, private companies are more nimble and experienced when it comes to strategies in marketing, R&D, creating pricing structures, and adapting to rapid social change. Three companies in India are seeing real results by serving India's poorest customers with a market-based approach.

The Social Innovation Summit, hosted in New York City, examines five key elements that allow the strategy of marketing to the base of the pyramid to actually succeed, and the companies big and small that are leveraging this approach to sustainably break the cycle of poverty in varied industries for communities around the world.

Despite the trillions of dollars of aid money, donations, and goods gifted to impoverished nations each year, the cycle of poverty fails to break, and conventional thinking has shifted to believing that the poor are best served through opportunity, rather than charity. The concept of "marketing to the base of the pyramid' - creating goods and services catered to the wants and needs of the poor that they purchase at an accessible price - started out as somewhat controversial, but is proving in many cases to be more sustainable and empowering than traditional methods of philanthropy.

A handful of entrepreneurial individuals in Kansas have found success in starting businesses during the pandemic by leveraging customer needs and pandemic relief funding. Although this business plan isn't "foolproof," in Kansas and nationwide, the number of entrepreneurs who filed applications increased significantly compared to previous periods.

Prime Coalition is financing clean tech startups and climate-focused technologies that often don’t get a lot of funding. These technologies can be expensive to build and don’t generate profits immediately. So far, the public charity has secured $89 million that it has given into 18 energy ventures. “What’s important here is that the climate crisis is such a large-scale problem that we need lots of different types of solutions,” says Sarah Kearney, founder of Prime Coalition, “and so we need to match up right-fit capital to each kind of solution.”

Philanthropies are funding “tough tech” startups that are developing technologies to cut greenhouse gas emissions and mitigate the effects of climate change. Since 2014, the nonprofit Prime Coalition has channeled more than $24 million from wealthy donors and foundations to 10 ventures focused on that goal. Not all of their investments, though, have paid off. Yet, some of these initial investments could lead to widespread solutions to the world’s climate crisis.

CNote has provided a source of funding for federally certified Community Development Financial Institutions by pooling cash from foundations, bigger banks, philanthropists, and donor-advised funds to counter the lack of available cash flow experienced by CDFIs, which are lenders but not banks. Federal COVID-19 funding set aside $30 billion specifically for CDFIs that overwhelmingly lend to women- and minority-owned businesses, which face persistent racial and gender biases and are unable to successfully tap into lending and grants such as the Paycheck Protection Program through traditional lenders.

A collective for Brazilian women artisans named Rede Asta provides training, production networks, links to consumers, and an online market to empower them to make a livable income. The group is also environmentally-conscious, focusing on creative waste reuse solutions that result in upcycled products. There are challenges as the collective grows, but they have supported more than 1,500 artisan women since opening.

In Cambridge, an app is helping connect restaurants with extra food to sell with customers who are looking for a less expensive meal. Although the app is limited to those who have access to a smartphone and the consumer has no say over what food they will be served when purchasing, the meals come at a significantly reduced price and the process is helping to reduce food waste.