Photo Credit: Development in Gardening
Dear Friends,
As we reflect on 2023, we are reminded of the journey we have been on together toward creating a world without poverty. This year we took a moment to evaluate the collective impact of our work over the years, particularly through our unique integrated approach. Key to this approach is the belief that both non-profits and social enterprises have crucial roles to play in poverty alleviation. We recognize that grant-making alone will not suffice to achieve the social change we envision. Through deploying both grant and investment dollars, we increase the amount of capital at work toward this vision – and thereby increase results.
We began as a grant-making foundation, funding our first grants focused on poverty alleviation in 2008. Naturally, this grant-making journey led us to cross paths with high-impact social enterprises that are also changing lives for those experiencing extreme poverty.
We saw a real opportunity to extend our impact, leading to our first Program Related Investment in 2015 to Nam Thang Long in Vietnam with an $8,000 loan. This social enterprise, dedicated to saving children’s lives through producing life-jacket backpacks, marked the start of our foray into impact investing.
Since then, our investments have spanned various sectors—ranging from agriculture and forest management to clean water initiatives and microfinance. As of our fiscal year end, we have lent over $558,789 in 27 initiatives.
With your support we can offer our partners the financing they need—whether through grants to our non-profit partners or affordable loan capital to our social enterprise partners—to create jobs, improve incomes, and drive social change. Our current investment portfolio spans 12 countries and 14 initiatives. Collectively, these enterprises have reached over 200,000 people, providing them with dignified employment and access to essential products and services.
In this annual report, we are pleased to share the impact our investment partners have made. With your continued support, we can keep investing in the non-profits and companies that are working tirelessly toward a world without poverty.
Thank you for your belief in and contributions to this mission.
Gwen Straley
Executive Director
2023 Impact at a Glance
GRANTS IN NUMBERS
Impact Investments in Numbers
Contributing to total Impact
Represents total impact since 2012
Grant Partner Spotlight - Action For Environmental Sustainability
Welcoming Action for Environmental Sustainability to 3rd Creek Foundation! Our partnership with AfES marks the first time we have worked with an organization based in Malawi. We love their holistic, climate centered approach to driving impact in Blantyre. We are supporting AfES with their climate smart agriculture school for smallholder farmers. Through this tailored training program, farmers will learn about and integrate practices that will hold up against climate change; crop rotation, diversification and agroforestry. Malawi has been hugely impacted by the climate crisis, work like this is vital to ensure Malawi’s farmers can continue to feed the nation. The lake is at risk of overfishing, growing agricultural activities on-land will reduce the strain on the lake and provide vital jobs.
Investment Partner Spotlight - Imara Tech
Every year in Tanzania farmers spend billions of hours manually threshing crops. This is exhausting work and takes the farmer away from other productive activities. Machines do exist but the heavy costs are a burden for a Tanzanian smallholder farmer. Identifying this gap, Imara Tech developed a locally made multi-crop thresher. The thresher can sit on the back of a motorbike bringing the technology within reach of farmers even in the most rural areas.
We first invested in Imara Tech in 2020. A youth-led company, they are the definition of nimble. As the business landscape has changed, Imara tech have adapted to ensure their model suits the farmers they exist to serve. The thresher served as a starting point, Imara Tech have continued to iterate and bring new technologies to market. In 2023 Imara Tech’s technologies serviced 800 farms and created a fantastic 161 jobs for youth in agriculture.
In Case You Missed It
Sowing Seeds of Hope: How Community Farming is Transforming Lives in Sierra Leone
3rd Creek Foundation’s Grant Manager Ani Cammack spoke with Jill Jones, Project Manager at Farming out of Poverty to understand the impact of their collective farming approach.
Meet Katta and Kadiatu: In Sierra Leone, it can be difficult to find sustainable employment, but these two enterprising women are on a path to build a strong future for themselves and their children.
In case you missed it, check out the full story here.
Partners
Grants distributed in 2023
Investments Made in 2023
Ongoing Investments
Financials Fiscal Year 2023
Photo Credits
With thanks to: Development in Gardening (DIG), Farming Out Of Poverty (FOOP), Action for Environmental Sustainability (AfES), Imara Tech, I, Inisheer, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons, Crown2022, CC0, via Wikimedia Commons Crown2022, CC0, via Wikimedia Commons