The content below is not actively maintained and may be out of date. We last updated the content below in March 2010.

_____________________________

Vipani is a relatively small charity focusing on improving incomes in the developing world. It is also a young charity that considers itself to still be in the early stages of its development. Vipani focuses on aiding farmers to increase their agricultural output.1 (For background information on this cause, see our concerns about agriculture-focused programs.)

We reviewed Vipani in late 2009 as part of our process to distribute $250,000 in grants to organizations working on economic empowerment in Sub-Saharan Africa.

We believe Vipani is noteworthy because it candidly discusses, on its website, struggles it faced in its programs - even when available data seems at first glance to make the case that it has succeeded.2

In our experience, charities are very rarely willing to share evidence of disappointing impact. We believe that any charity that does so is being unusually honest about the challenges of international aid, and unusually accountable to donors. We expect that charities capable of spotting, documenting and sharing disappointing results are better positioned to improve our time.

We reviewed documents Vipani submitted, and spoke over the phone and had extended email correspondence with Thomas George, President and Founder of Vipani. A rough transcript of our first conversation with Mr. George may be downloaded below.

Mr. George asked that we keep the documents he sent us confidential. Interested donors should contact Vipani directly.

Based on our review, we cannot confidently recommend Vipani to donors, but we feel it is an unusually high-potential organization worth following.

Sources

• George, Thomas. Vipani President and Founder. Phone call with GiveWell, October 29, 2009.
• GiveWell. Concerns about agriculture-focused aid in the developing world.
• Vipani. Homepage. http://vipani.org/ (accessed May 4, 2010). Archived by WebCite® at http://www.webcitation.org/5pTymyn7y.
• Vipani. How we impact. http://www.vipani.org/index.php?page=howweimpact (accessed May 4, 2010). Archived by WebCite® at http://www.webcitation.org/5pTz3QC3l.

Updated: March 5, 2010

• 1.

  Vipani, "Homepage."

• 2.

  "Even with varying levels of behavioral modification, Vipani produced a 3-fold increase among participating farmers' annual incomes, measured from a $150 baseline during the first three years of iterative testing. With such newfound income, the majority of these early participants quickly acquired new assets. However, many of these early farmers failed to build on their economic gains because they considered these short-term gains as a windfall that they must take advantage of within the expected short time span of a typical development project that they are used to unlike Vipani." (emphasis ours) Vipani, "How We Impact."