2019 Annual Report

Download (PDF):

Creating Layers of Impact

As you read these words, a young Indian woman who grew up in a slum is working at a high-paying corporate job in Mumbai. She is one of the roughly 11 million young people who enter the country’s job market each year—but unlike nearly a quarter of her peers, she secured steady employment that provides a better living standard for her whole family.

At the same time, farmers in a hillside village in Zimbabwe are picking ripe coffee from trees that now pay for school fees, housing, medicine, and food. While nearly 80% of the world’s 12.5 million coffee-farming families live in poverty, these farmers have doubled the prices they receive for their beans.

And in vocational schools across east Africa, teachers are training thousands of young people on a proven entrepreneurship curriculum that has raised incomes by an average of 84%. With Africa’s 140 million unemployed youth facing far too few available jobs, these students are getting the skills and confidence to build their own job opportunities—and even employ others.

All of this impact is rooted in work by TechnoServe. Partnering with industrious people around the world to create self-sustaining business solutions, TechnoServe not only transforms individual lives—but also markets, sectors, and communities. These “layers of impact” are the focus of this year’s 2019 Annual Impact Report.

2019 was a particularly exciting year for impact: TechnoServe handed off a groundbreaking youth entrepreneurship program to local organizations; helped farmers from dormant coffee industries re-introduce their beans to the world; and launched an effort to scale up such progress through technology partnerships: TechnoServe Labs.

This commitment to impact was recognized in 2019 by the independent charity ratings agency ImpactMatters, which named TechnoServe the #1 nonprofit fighting poverty.

In the following sections, you will see how we measure program impact—and many other indicators—through rigorous analysis that helps us identify what works, learn from our failures, and set even higher bars for progress.

Because this impact is not enough. And as long as there are people in the world who never get the chance to achieve their potential, it will not be enough.

This means we must find better ways to unlock the power of women, everywhere we work. It means scaling up climate-smart approaches to help our clients withstand an increasingly erratic environment. And it means combining world-class technology with local understanding in a way that transforms opportunities for millions.

Thank you for walking with us, and the hardworking people we serve, on the journey to create ever more layers of impact.

  • William Warshauer
    President and CEO
  • Michal Bush
    Managing Member, BIV Investments
  • Rachel Hines
    Former Managing Director, J.P. Morgan
Show More

Our Impact in 2019

Financial Benefits
$200,579,522
in increased revenue and wages generated as a result of TechnoServe’s work
Beneficiaries
317,493
people and businesses who saw increased financial benefits as a result of our work
% Women
38%
of beneficiaries were women or women-owned businesses
Finance Mobilized
$27,321,996
in loans and equity provided to farmers and businesses by financial institutions

Impact by Region

Latin America and Caribbean
Latin America and Caribbean
Financial Benefits
$82,156,777
Beneficiaries
59,646
Percent Women
25%
Finance Mobilized
$22,523,980
East Africa
East Africa
Financial Benefits
$40,333,289
Beneficiaries
112,754
Percent Women
44%
Finance Mobilized
$1,962,787
West Africa
West Africa
Financial Benefits
$32,268,740
Beneficiaries
51,487
Percent Women
37%
Finance Mobilized
$778,247
Southern Africa
Southern Africa
Financial Benefits
$27,610,667
Beneficiaries
52,803
Percent Women
36%
Finance Mobilized
$1,780,082
India
India
Financial Benefits
$14,863,186
Beneficiaries
36,361
Percent Women
52%
Finance Mobilized
$276,900

Impact by Country

Click or tap a country to see its 2019 impact data.

map
+ -
For every $1 invested in our programs, TechnoServe’s beneficiaries gain an average of $3.41 more income.

Impact by Sector

Click or tap below to see sub-sector impact.

Agriculture
Financial Benefits
Beneficiaries
Women
Finance Mobilized
Total $114,337,326 234,677 33% $24,378,521
Coffee
$49,855,249
85,290
33%
$21,195,450
Other High-Value Agriculture
$55,009,205
118,291
27%
$2,379,819
Other Agriculture
$9,472,872
31,096
59%
$803,252
Show More
Entrepreneurship
Financial Benefits
Beneficiaries
Women
Finance Mobilized
Total $86,242,226 82,816 51% $2,943,475
Micro/Small/Growing Businesses
$65,463,302
37,741
51%
$2,388,260
Micro-Retail
$1,745,297
7,344
92%
$348,078
Food Processing
$12,938,260
33,166
41%
$207,137
Other Enterprise Development
$6,095,367
4,565
66%
$0
Show More

Layers of Impact

TechnoServe’s work doesn’t just transform individual lives—it changes entire communities and market systems, helping progress continue far into the future. Click to view each story below.

Individuals
TechnoServe helps farmers, entrepreneurs, and workers gain the skills and market connections they need to increase their incomes and give their families a better quality of life.
Communities
Working with local businesses, financial institutions, and organizations, TechnoServe helps to create new jobs, economic opportunities, products, and services in communities across the developing world.
Markets

TechnoServe works across sectors to design policies, foster collaboration, and pilot new business models that drive lasting, transformational change across entire industries to benefit millions of people.

Transforming Lives

Click to view Story
Dara Obispo
Peru
Click to view Story
Norman Nyambu
Kenya
Click to view Story
Reyna García
Honduras
Click to view Story
Umerah Faridi
India

Transforming Communities

Click to view Story
Reducing Waste
Benin
Click to view Story
Expanding Employment
Nicaragua
Click to view Story
Recycling for Growth
Ethiopia
Click to view Story
Reviving Coffee
Zimbabwe

Transforming Markets

Click to view Story
A Strategy for Coffee Success
Ethiopia
Click to view Story
The Cashew Comeback Story
Mozambique
Click to view Story
The Business of Better Nutrition
Nigeria, Kenya, Tanzania
Click to view Story
Building a Generation of Entrepreneurs
East Africa

Highlights of 2019

January
TechnoServe organizes a high-profile event in Washington, D.C. on “Boosting African Entrepreneurship Across Sectors”, featuring leading youth entrepreneurs from its business accelerator program in Ghana.
May
As a result of its partnership with TechnoServe, Nespresso launches the first-ever single-origin capsule from Zimbabwe, marking an important milestone in the revival of the country’s coffee sector.
September
TechnoServe Labs, an initiative to harness emerging technology to benefit farmers and entrepreneurs in the developing world, launches in Silicon Valley.
November
TechnoServe is named the #1 charity for fighting poverty by nonprofit evaluator ImpactMatters.
March
The successful Smart Duka microretailer program expands to reach 1,000 more shopkeepers in Kenya through a new partnership with the Moody’s Foundation.
August
TechnoServe launches a new project in Benin that will use drones and machine learning to identify agricultural training needs more efficiently and at greater scale.
October
With the release of Nespresso’s Cafecito de Puerto Rico, farmers working with TechnoServe to recover from Hurricane Maria share their coffee with consumers around the world.
December
TechnoServe’s Strengthening Rural Youth through Enterprise program, a partnership with the Mastercard Foundation, officially transitions its training activities to local organizations, after improving the livelihoods of more than 70,000 young people in East Africa.

Financials*

TechnoServe strives for maximum accountability, transparency, and efficiency. See our consolidated financial report at TechnoServe.org/Financials.*

Revenue
2019
$89,791,380
2018
$86,963,051
2017
$82,951,282
Expenses
2019
$87,465,469
2018
$84,369,029
2017
$82,155,119
2019 Funding Sources
28% Foundations
24% Corporations
24% U.S. Government
13% Other Government
7% Private Fundraising
2% Multilateral Organizations
2% Other
2019 Efficiency
84% Program Services
13% Management
3% Fundraising
* Audited financial information for 2019 was not available at the time of publication—the numbers presented here are unaudited. Official, audited figures will be published at technoserve.org/financials when they become available.

Partners

TechnoServe’s success is made possible by partnerships with leading foundations, corporations, public-sector agencies, and multilateral organizations. Below is a sampling of some of our partners during 2019. To see more, click here.

Board of Directors

Co-Chair
Michael J. Bush
Managing Member
BIV investments
Co-Chair
Rachel Hines
Former Managing Director
J.P. Morgan
Vice Chairman
Peter A. Flaherty
Managing Director
Arcon Partners, LLC
Secretary
Jennifer Bullard Broggini
Senior Advisor
Lago Holding Sagl
Treasurer
Bo Manly
Former Executive Vice President and Chief Synergy Officer
Smithfield Foods, inc.
Chairman Emeritus
Paul E. Tierney, Jr.
Partner
Development Capital Partners, LLC
Monica Andractas
Head of Venture Capital Funds
CPP Investment Board
Kanika Bahl
CEO
Evidence Action
Scott Baker
Partner
Reed Smith, LLP
Gerald (Jerry) Baldwin
Director and Former Chairman & CEO
Peet’s Coffee & Tea
Thomas Barry
President and Chief Executive Officer
Zephyr Management LP
Bob Bechek
Partner
Bain & Company
Anthony Bloom
Chairman
Cineworld PLC
Titus Brenninkmeijer
Founder
Solgenix LLC
Laura Corb
Director
McKinsey & Company
Russell Faucett
Managing Director
Gyrafalcon Advisers
Mia Funt
President & Co-Founder
ByHeart
Aedhmar Hynes
Former CEO
Text100 Global Communications
Timothy M. Kingston
Country Head
Goldman Sachs Chile
Debbie McCoy
Managing Director
BlackRock
Charles (Charlie) Moore
Fellow
Rock Center for Corporate Governance
Michelle Peluso
Chief Marketing Officer
IBM
Kurt C. Peterson
Partner & Executive Committee Member
Reed Smith LLP
Michael Spies
Senior Managing Director
Tishman Speyer
William Warshauer
President & CEO
TechnoServe Inc.
Back to Top