Raising The Village

What Raising The Village does

Raising The Village is a Toronto-headquartered, Ontario-incorporated registered Canadian charity (#821549391) that designs and operates a 24-month, village-wide program targeting ultra-poor households in last-mile communities of Uganda and Rwanda. Its program bundles agricultural training and quality inputs, Village Savings and Loans Association (VSLA) facilitation, WASH and gender-equity behavior change, and household coaching, delivered through regional field teams based in Kampala and Kigali. The organization positions itself as community-led—working with entire village populations rather than selected households—and reports reach of 2.4 million people, a 229% household income and production increase at 24 months, a 6X graduation ROI, and a 19X ROI at 60 months post-graduation.

The technology backbone is Venn, Raising The Village's proprietary data and learning ecosystem that supports household mapping, baseline surveying, intelligent village design, custom field applications for daily household visits, and longitudinal outcome tracking via an Annual Household Survey (AHS) with stratified random sampling and a Difference-in-Differences (DID) evaluation methodology against control communities. Data capture in the field is electronic (SurveyCTO) and feeds a custom Implementation App used by field staff to coach, track, and adapt in near real time across 100% of partner families. Sub-products include the Implementation App, the AHS research instrument, the VSLA facilitation model, and a digital storytelling platform for impact communication.

Raising The Village is a donation-funded nonprofit operating without a commercial revenue model: it does not sell products or services and issues tax receipts only in Canadian dollars to Canadian donors. Funding comes from a mix of individual donors, institutional funders, and a flagship partnership with the Government of Canada via Global Affairs Canada (GAC) supporting the 'From Last Mile Into Possibilities' (FLIP) project. Go-to-market is direct community delivery through field teams, paired with institutional partnerships at the enterprise/government tier, and donor acquisition via website storytelling, impact reports, email/newsletter, social media, earned media, and direct donation flows.

Name

Raising The Village

Legal name

Raising the Village Inc.

Website

https://raisingthevillage.org

Company type

Private

Founded year

2016

Operating status

Operating

Headcount range

11–50 employees

Short description

Raising The Village is a Canadian-registered charity that runs a 24-month, village-wide program delivering agricultural training, VSLA formation, and WASH coaching to ultra-poor households in last-mile communities of Uganda and Rwanda, supported by its proprietary Venn data platform and field Implementation App.

Ownership category

akta.pro rank

Product category

Poverty Alleviation Services

NAICS

Civic and Social Organizations (813410)

SIC

Services-Social Services (8300)

akta.pro primary industry

Rural Livelihoods & Economic Empowerment (BPAGABAA)

akta.pro secondary industry

Youth Mentoring & Positive Youth Development Nonprofits (BPAGADAD)

Keywords

• Poverty alleviation programs
• Agricultural training services
• Village savings associations
• Community development programs
• Rural development services

Headquarters

HQ city

Toronto

HQ country

Canada

HQ region

North America

Offices3 records

Markets served

GTM type

B2C

Offering type

Services

Cost components

Personnel, Operations, Technology or R&D, Marketing or Sales

Revenue model

1. Donations and Charitable Contributions: Raising The Village is a registered charitable organization (Charitable #821549391) that operates primarily through donations from individual donors, institutional funders, and government development programs. All donations are processed in Canadian dollars (CAD) and official tax receipts are issued only to Canadian donors.

Go-to-market motion1 record

Distribution channels2 records

Marketing channels6 records

Core offering

Raising The Village delivers a 24-month, village-wide community development program to ultra-poor last-mile communities in Uganda and Rwanda, combining agricultural training and quality inputs, Village Savings and Loans Association (VSLA) formation, WASH/health education, and mindset change sessions. Program delivery is powered by Venn, the organization's proprietary data and technology ecosystem that enables household-level tracking, real-time field coaching, and longitudinal impact evaluation up to 60 months post-graduation.

Product overview

Raising The Village operates a holistic 24-month village-wide program designed to move ultra-poor households in Sub-Saharan Africa toward economic self-sufficiency. The core offering centers on the organization's flagship intervention combining agricultural training, financial inclusion through VSLA facilitation, health outreach, and mindset change sessions. This program is powered by Venn, the organization's proprietary data ecosystem that connects household-level data, analytics, and custom digital tools throughout the program cycle. The organization also publishes annual impact reports and maintains a digital storytelling platform featuring beneficiary narratives.

Differentiator

Problem solved

Functional benefit

Brands

• Venn: The data heartbeat and learning engine of the program model - an integrated data and technology ecosystem that combines household data, analytics and custom software to guide program design, delivery and refinement.

Products and services

• 24-Month Village-Wide Program A holistic 24-month intervention delivered directly to entire last-mile villages in Uganda and Rwanda, combining agricultural training and quality inputs, Village Savings and Loans Association (VSLA) formation, WASH (Water, Sanitation and Hygiene) education, and mindset change sessions. Designed for ultra-poor households surviving on less than $0.50/day, with program delivery guided by the Venn data platform and field-team coaching via the Implementation App.
• VSLA (Village Savings and Loans Association) Facilitation Training and facilitation support for community members to form and operate Village Savings and Loans Associations (VSLAs), providing affordable access to credit, promoting financial inclusion, and enabling collective investment in income-generating activities within last-mile communities.

Quantifiable outcome

• 229% increase in household income and production within 24 months
• +4 more outcomes

Named customers13 records

Segments1 record

Ideal customer profiles2 records

Technology focussed Yes

API detail

Has API

No

API docs

API detail

Core technology

AI maturity

App detail

Feature4 records

Scale indicators9 records

Recent moves5 records

Expansion highlights5 records

Broad incumbents

• BRAC: BRAC developed the original Graduation Approach for ultra-poor households and now operates the world's largest portfolio of such programs globally. It is a much larger incumbent operating similar rural livelihood graduation models across multiple continents.
• CARE International: CARE runs large-scale rural poverty and food security programs across East Africa, including graduation-style interventions. It is a broader incumbent that competes for the same institutional donor pool but operates across many additional sectors.
• Concern Worldwide: Concern Worldwide implements livelihoods and resilience programs in Uganda and Rwanda targeting ultra-poor and food-insecure households. It is a peer for institutional donor attention and field-level rural program delivery.
• Heifer International: Heifer International works globally on rural livelihood development through livestock provision, agricultural training, and cooperative formation. Its livestock and agricultural training components overlap directly with Raising The Village's farming and VSLA programming.
• Mercy Corps: Mercy Corps operates market-based rural development and food security programs in Uganda and other East African countries. It addresses overlapping beneficiary populations and competes for similar bilateral and multilateral funding.

Emerging players

• GiveDirectly: GiveDirectly operates unconditional cash transfer programs targeting ultra-poor households in East Africa, including Uganda. It addresses a similar end beneficiary population with a different (direct cash) intervention model, making it an adjacent reference point for funders.

Direct peers

• Trickle Up: Trickle Up pioneered the ultra-poor graduation approach and implements similar multi-year programs partnering with last-mile communities to lift households out of extreme poverty. The mission, methodology, and beneficiary profile closely mirror Raising The Village.
• One Acre Fund: One Acre Fund delivers a farm-input loan and training package to smallholder farmers in East Africa, addressing rural livelihoods through improved agricultural practices. It overlaps with Raising The Village on the agricultural training and inputs component of the model.
• Village Enterprise: Village Enterprise runs a similarly structured graduation program for ultra-poor households in East Africa, using a three-step model of business training, mentorship, and seed capital. It is the closest direct peer in geography, target population, and methodology to Raising The Village.
• The Hunger Project: The Hunger Project uses a community-led development model to address hunger and poverty in last-mile rural communities, including in Uganda. Its epicenter strategy closely parallels Raising The Village's village-wide, community-led program approach.

Market position

Strengths4 records

Weaknesses4 records

Competitive moat4 records

Key risks5 records

Key highlights6 records

Customer concentration

• Xx.com/RTVOrg
• Facebookfacebook.com/raisingthevillage
• LinkedInlinkedin.com/company/464836

Revenue estimate

Valuation estimate

Number of profiles

Profiles1 record

Funding overview

Funding rounds

Investors

Funding detail is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →

M&A

Investments

M&A and investment is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →

Frequently asked questions about Raising The Village