Creating sustainable businesses.Transforming lives.
Impact Studies
We work because what we do works.
In January 2010 Village Enterprise was selected by GiveWell, a New-York based charity evaluation nonprofit, as one of their top-ranked charities (in top 10 of 400+ evaluated). This won us two things: proof that our mission is working and a coveted $125,000 grant for economic empowerment in sub-Saharan Africa. We treasure both.
GiveWell wrote that Village Enterprise “stood out in making a strong, evidence-based case that they are improving the financial situations of low-income people in the developing world” and because our “clear targeting of extremely poor clients (and data collection to ensure that the targeting is working).” We track the progress and success of all our business groups using our proven monitoring and evaluation system.
2005-2007:
Longitudinal Impact Assessment
A quantitative and qualitative survey was fielded to evaluate the standard of living of Village Enterprise business owners 2-5 years after joining the program and to uncover ways we can improve our programs to better meet needs.
2010: Business Longevity
Study
An independent Business Longevity Study unveiled that 75% of our businesses are still operational 3 years after receiving Village Enterprise services, and identified contributing factors to business success and/or failures.
2011: Conservation Program Evaluation
Village Enterprise sponsored an independent study of our conservation program in Winter 2011 to evaluate the impact on income and economic success, on standard of living and socio-economic factors, and on the attitude and behavior toward the forest and the environment.
Stay tuned for the report to be published in the upcoming months