Innovations for Poverty Action

What Innovations for Poverty Action does

Innovations for Poverty Action (IPA) is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit research and policy organization founded in 2002 by Dean Karlan and headquartered in Washington, DC. The organization designs, runs, and disseminates randomized controlled evaluations — the same experimental methodology used in clinical trials — to determine which poverty-reduction programs work, which do not, and why. IPA maintains 15 country offices across East Africa, West Africa, Asia, and Latin America and the Caribbean, and has conducted more than 1,400 evaluations in over 60 countries since inception.

IPA's core products are its randomized evaluation methodology, its network of Embedded Evidence Labs stationed inside partner government ministries (in Ghana, Zambia, Rwanda, Côte d'Ivoire, and others), and country-specific intelligence platforms such as the National Poverty Intelligence Lab developed with the Federal Government of Nigeria. Adjacent offerings include the Poverty Index, a measurement and advisory tool published at povertyindex.org, and the Right-Fit Evidence unit, which equips partner organizations with data and evaluation capacity. The portfolio spans sectoral expertise across agriculture, climate and environment, consumer protection, education, financial inclusion, health and nutrition, human trafficking, intimate partner violence, peace and recovery, and social protection.

IPA generates revenue through charitable donations from individuals and foundations and through restricted research grants from multilateral institutions (World Bank, UNICEF, Inter-American Development Bank), bilateral government donors, and philanthropic funders. Pricing is not applicable — IPA does not sell products or services. Its go-to-market is enterprise field sales into governments and policymakers, complemented by a community-led academic network of researchers from top universities (Northwestern, MIT, Harvard, UC Berkeley, among others) who serve as principal investigators on evaluations. Distribution occurs through embedded labs, academic publications, public datasets, advisory engagements, and events. Leadership comprises Founder Dean Karlan (Northwestern professor and J-PAL Executive Committee member) and Executive Director Annie Duflo.

Name

Innovations for Poverty Action

Legal name

Innovations for Poverty Action

Website

https://poverty-action.org

Company type

Private

Founded year

2003

Operating status

Operating

Headcount range

501–1,000 employees

Short description

Innovations for Poverty Action is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit that designs and runs randomized controlled evaluations to test which poverty-reduction programs work, operating 15 country offices and partnering with governments, multilateral institutions, and academic researchers across more than 60 countries.

Ownership category

akta.pro rank

Product category

Development Research and Policy Advisory

NAICS

Research and Development in the Social Sciences and Humanities (54172)

SIC

Services-Commercial Physical & Biological Research (8731)

akta.pro primary industry

Research, Monitoring, Evaluation & Learning (MEL) Partnerships (EDADALAK)

akta.pro secondary industries

Global Health Research, Evidence & Technical Assistance Organizations (HLAJAKAN), Education Policy, Research & Advocacy Organizations (Nonprofit) (BPAGADAN)

Keywords

• Randomized impact evaluations
• Poverty research
• Policy advisory services
• Evidence-based development
• Embedded government research

Headquarters

HQ city

Washington

HQ country

United States

HQ region

North America

Offices16 records

Markets served

GTM type

B2B

Offering type

Services

Cost components

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

Revenue model

1. Donations and Charitable Contributions: As a registered 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization, IPA receives donations from individuals, foundations, and organizations. They offer multiple giving options including one-time donations, monthly recurring donations, and legacy giving.
2. Research Funding and Grants: IPA receives funding from government agencies, international organizations (World Bank, UNICEF), foundations, and bilateral donors to conduct research and evaluations. They manage open and closed funding opportunities for researchers.

Go-to-market motion2 records

Distribution channels5 records

Marketing channels6 records

Core offering

Innovations for Poverty Action designs and conducts randomized evaluations of anti-poverty programs in partnership with governments, academic researchers, and implementing organizations. It embeds research teams inside government ministries through its Embedded Evidence Labs to generate and use evidence for policy in real time, and complements this with advisory tools such as the Poverty Index and the National Poverty Intelligence Lab for poverty measurement and program targeting.

Product overview

Innovations for Poverty Action (IPA) operates as a research and policy nonprofit offering a platform of evidence-generation and advisory services rather than a singular commercial product. Its core offerings include conducting randomized evaluations (over 1,400 evaluations in more than 60 countries) and providing embedded research capacity to governments through Embedded Evidence Labs. The organization complements its research operations with advisory services including the Poverty Index for poverty measurement and the Right-Fit Evidence unit for equipping partners with data skills. IPA also partners with governments to build specialized intelligence infrastructure such as the National Poverty Intelligence Lab, which represents a distinct data platform offering. The portfolio spans sectoral expertise across agriculture, climate, education, financial inclusion, health, and social protection.

Differentiator

Problem solved

Functional benefit

Products and services

• Embedded Evidence Labs Government partnership model in which IPA embeds research and evidence-generation teams directly inside ministries and government agencies to produce and use evidence for policy decisions in real time, enabling evidence-based policy formulation, coordinated resource allocation, and measurable outcomes. Designed for national and local government partners seeking to institutionalize evidence use.
• Poverty Index A poverty measurement tool and advisory service that equips decision-makers with data and methodology to identify, measure, and track poverty. Available publicly through povertyindex.org and used to support government and partner decision-making.
• National Poverty Intelligence Lab A data-driven platform developed in partnership with governments to serve as the central intelligence hub for anti-poverty interventions, enabling evidence-based policy formulation, coordinated resource allocation, monitoring, evaluation, and performance assessment of poverty reduction programs.
• Right-Fit Evidence An advisory service line that equips IPA's government and implementing partners with the skills, tools, and methodologies needed to use data and evidence in their own decision-making, supporting scaling of what works.

Quantifiable outcome

• 5.9 percentage point increase in STEM course enrollment among low-income students in Costa Rica through targeted text messages (Deciding My Future campaign)
• +3 more outcomes

Named customers3 records

Segments4 records

Ideal customer profiles4 records

Technology focussed No

API detail

Has API

No

API docs

API detail

Core technology

AI maturity

App detail

Feature3 records

Partnerships

13 partnerships are on record, tiered core and secondary.

• Federal Government of NigeriacoreStrategic or Co-development Partner · 25 June 2026IPA partnered with the Federal Government of Nigeria to develop the National Poverty Intelligence Lab, a data-driven platform designed to strengthen targeting, monitoring, and evaluation of poverty reduction programmes targeting approximately 140 million Nigerians. The lab serves as the central intelligence hub for anti-poverty interventions, supporting policy formulation, resource allocation, and performance assessment.
• World BankcoreStrategic or Co-development PartnerWorld Bank is a technical partner supporting the Early Childhood Education Harmonised Scale Programme in Ghana, which aims to retrain over 32,000 kindergarten teachers in play-based pedagogy to serve 1.2 million young learners.
• UNICEFcoreStrategic or Co-development PartnerUNICEF is a technical partner supporting the Early Childhood Education Harmonised Scale Programme in Ghana, contributing to the nationwide initiative for early childhood education reform.
• Ministry of Education GhanacoreStrategic or Co-development PartnerThe Ghana Ministry of Education leads the Early Childhood Education Harmonised Scale Programme, with IPA and other partners providing technical support for training over 32,000 kindergarten teachers.
• Sabre EducationsecondaryStrategic or Co-development PartnerSabre Education is a technical partner in the Ghana Early Childhood Education Harmonised Scale Programme, contributing expertise to the teacher training initiative.
• Inter-American Development Bank (IDB)coreStrategic or Co-development PartnerIDB partnered with IPA on the 'Deciding My Future' campaign in Costa Rica, which used targeted text messages to increase STEM enrollment among low-income students by 5.9 percentage points. IDB also published research on gender and STEM participation in Latin America.
• Federal University of PernambucosecondaryStrategic or Co-development PartnerPartnered with IDB on research studying gender pay gaps and STEM participation in Latin America and the Caribbean.
• Ministry of Public Education Costa RicacoreStrategic or Co-development PartnerIPA partnered with the Costa Rica Ministry of Public Education and IDB to implement the 'Deciding My Future' campaign, which used targeted text messages over 12 weeks to influence career aspirations and increase STEM enrollment.
• UC Berkeley Haas School of BusinesssecondaryStrategic or Co-development PartnerCo-hosted a conference on financial inclusion and innovation in Latin America, bringing together academics, industry leaders, regulators, and policymakers.
• CEGA (Center for Effective Global Action)secondaryStrategic or Co-development PartnerCo-hosted a conference on financial inclusion and innovation in Latin America with UC Berkeley Haas and Universidad Adolfo Ibáñez.
• Universidad Adolfo IbanezsecondaryStrategic or Co-development PartnerCo-hosted a conference on financial inclusion and innovation in Latin America with UC Berkeley Haas and CEGA.
• Government of BrazilsecondaryStrategic or Co-development PartnerIPA is conducting a randomized controlled trial in Brazil to study whether open finance adoption can help close the $593 billion MSME credit gap, with results expected in early 2026.
• Abdul Latif Jameel Poverty Action Lab (J-PAL)coreStrategic or Co-development PartnerIPA Founder Dean Karlan serves on the Executive Committee of the Board of Directors of J-PAL. Both organizations share the mission of using randomized evaluations to generate evidence on what works in poverty reduction.

Scale indicators8 records

Recent moves6 records

Expansion highlights6 records

Emerging players

• CEGA (Center for Effective Global Action): UC Berkeley-based research network running RCTs and field experiments on global poverty. Co-hosts conferences with IPA, shares the academic RCT-for-development model, and competes for the same researcher pipeline.
• GiveDirectly: Cash transfer organization that has been the subject of major IPA/J-PAL randomized evaluations. Comparable in the evidence-driven-development conversation, but functions as an implementer whose work IPA often studies.
• BRAC: Massive international development NGO that both implements and studies anti-poverty programs at scale. Frequently an IPA study counterpart and partial competitor for donor mindshare on what works in poverty reduction.

Broad incumbents

• Inter-American Development Bank (IDB) Research: Multilateral lender that both funds and produces rigorous development research in Latin America; active IPA partner (Costa Rica STEM campaign, gender pay-gap work) and broad incumbent in the same evaluation ecosystem.
• RAND Corporation: Large, established research organization applying rigorous methods (including RCTs) to social policy and global development; shares IPA's evidence-to-policy mission at a broader, more diversified scale.
• World Bank Development Research Group: Large multilateral research arm producing policy-relevant development economics evidence; IPA frequently partners with World Bank, but the Bank's broader scale and budget make it a broad incumbent in the same evidence-for-policy niche.
• Center for Global Development: Think tank producing rigorous research on development policy, including rigorous impact evaluations; comparable audience of policymakers and donors and overlapping thematic coverage (financial inclusion, social protection).
• UNICEF Office of Research: Multilateral research arm focused on child wellbeing and social policy. IPA's Ghana ECE program is jointly supported with UNICEF, making it a peer partner with overlapping research priorities in health, nutrition, and education.

Direct peers

• Abdul Latif Jameel Poverty Action Lab (J-PAL): Closest peer: sister MIT-rooted organization using randomized evaluations to study poverty. Shares methodology, overlapping academic network (Dean Karlan sits on J-PAL's Executive Committee), and competes for the same donor and policy-maker mindshare.
• International Initiative for Impact Evaluation (3ie): Direct peer in the impact-evaluation-for-development space: funds, produces, and synthesizes rigorous impact evaluations of development programs, with similar funders and methodological standards as IPA.

Market position

Strengths5 records

Weaknesses5 records

Competitive moat5 records

Key risks6 records

Key highlights7 records

Customer concentration

• Xx.com/poverty_action
• YouTubeyoutube.com/user/povertyactionorg
• Facebookfacebook.com/InnovationsforPovertyAction
• LinkedInlinkedin.com/company/innovationsforpovertyaction

Revenue estimate

Valuation estimate

Number of profiles

Profiles2 records

Funding overview

Funding rounds

Investors

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M&A

Investments

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Frequently asked questions about Innovations for Poverty Action