History

August 2005

Andrew Youn visits Kenya during a summer internship experience in Africa and interviews subsistence farmers; learns that modern agricultural techniques can lead to significant boosts in productivity and cuts in malnutrition.
 

February 2006

One Acre Fund officially launches, serving 38 farm families through women’s self-help groups in Bungoma, Kenya.

May 2006

One Acre Fund is awarded a prestigious Echoing Green Fellowship, which provides a two-year stipend to pursue One Acre Fund full-time. In the same month, board members at Kellogg School of Management's Levy Center for Entrepreneurship provide a founding start-up grant for operations.
 

August 2006

One Acre Fund releases its first six-monthly performance report, documenting the results from the organization’s first harvest, including a four-fold increase in crop yields and a 98% repayment rate from farmers.
 

January 2007

One Acre Fund receives a prestigious 3-year, $300,000 grant from the Draper Richards Foundation, an organization which funds the most promising early-stage non-profits, and a larger general operations grant from Mulago Social Investments. These grants are soon followed by anchor commitments from David Weekley Family Foundation and Jasmine Charitable Trust.
 

July 2007

Eric Pohlman, senior partner, joins One Acre Fun. He is soon joined by General Partner Margaret Vernon, and they lead a successful launch into Rwanda, One Acre Fund's second country of operation. Due to the leadership of their field team, Rwanda grows quickly to slightly exceed Kenya in size.
 

August 2008

One Acre Fund enrolls its 4,000th family.
 

January 2009

Pershing Square Foundation makes a founding grant to start One Acre Fund's Permanent Fund. This fund provides the basic monies that One Acre Fund uses to make loans to farm families. At the end of every year, this fund is replenished by repayments from those same farmers - and thus can be used to serve more farmers, permanently. Pershing Square Foundation's first gift is for $0.5 million in 2009, followed by $1 million in 2010, and a $5 million commitment that will be gradually disbursed between 2011 and 2013. After each grant, One Acre Fund makes a significant upward revision to our projected growth path.
 

April 2010

The Skoll Foundation, one of the most prominent funders of early-stage, innovative nonprofit organizations, awards a prestigious grant to One Acre Fund for $750,000, to be disbursed over three years. One Acre Fund is around four years old at the date of this award, making it one of the youngest organizations ever recognized.
 

June 2010

One Acre Fund begins its country scouting program, starting with two full-time country scouts. These scouts gather data on more than 50 potential countries of launch, and then select 5 target countries for immediate field visits and further investigation. In the coming five years, One Acre Fund hopes to patiently and systematically launch 2-3 new countries of operation.
 

December 2010

One Acre Fund exceeds our projected operating milestones to serve our 30,000th family. Based on the strength of operations and a significant grant from Pershing Square Foundation, we significantly revise our growth projections upwards by 50 percent for the next three years.