Kick Start International, Inc.
Kick Start International, Inc.
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About this organization
Mission
KickStart is a non-profit social enterprise committed to fighting poverty, increasing food security, and building resilience to climate change for smallholder farmers across Sub-Saharan Africa. Over 250,000 farmers have adopted KickStart's high-quality, affordable, and innovative irrigation technologies to start profitable agribusinesses. These businesses have gone on to produce enough fruits and vegetables to feed over 14 million people every year, and generate $210 million in new profits and farm wages annually - dissolving circumstances of poverty for 1.3 million people. KickStart invests in tools that best meet the needs of enterprising farmers by increasing their agricultural productivity and household incomes, while ensuring environmental sustainability.
About
Kickstart's initiative centers on the expansion of smallholder irrigation across Sub-Saharan Africa, working to boost agricultural productivity and establish widespread food security while putting income directly into the hands of rural farmers through productive enterprise. Since 1998, Kickstart has been designing and mass-marketing high-quality, low-cost, 'Moneymaker' branded irrigation pumps, and building farmers' capacity to leverage these technologies for growth. In FY19 (July 2018-June 2019), Kickstart's irrigation solutions helped farmers start 12,000 sustainable, profitable agricultural businesses that are collectively generating approximately $10M in new profits and wages per year, and disrupt and overcome cycles of poverty for 60,000 people across Sub-Saharan Africa (SSA). In much of Africa, dependency on seasonal rains creates rigid patterns for food production, perpetuating cycles of bounty and shortage, as harvests flood the markets when prices are low and scarcity drives prices up during the long dry season. At scale, this creates a profound limitation to agricultural productivity and preserves systemic food insecurity for the most vulnerable. However, with access to clean-energy irrigation tools, farming quickly becomes a highly profitable enterprise, increasing yields per acre by an average of 2.5 times and boosting net annual income 300-500%. Newfound productivity enables households to reinvest in social welfare (education, healthcare, housing, etc.) and new productive assets (livestock, retail shops, advanced agricultural inputs, etc.). To encourage public awareness and effective take-up of irrigation and sustainable agriculture practices, Kickstart conducted a range of educational outreach and training activities, including sessions on low-volume irrigation, usage and maintenance of Kickstart's tools, and agropreneurship best practices. In FY19, Kickstart facilitated innovative agropreneurship sessions for partner staff and farmer networks in five countries from hubs in East Africa, West Africa, and Southern Africa. Kickstart's agriculture training program empowered approximately 3,700 individuals, the majority of whom were women, with skills and knowledge on sustainable irrigation and water management, agricultural biodiversity, planting strategies, crop storage, commercial optimization, and financial acumen necessary to approach farming as a dynamic business. On the strategic front, Kickstart's partnership-based model yielded exciting successes in scope, producing flexibility and increased reach to farmers in highly remote areas and to those experiencing intense pressures due to social upheaval, political strife, and climatic insecurity. In March 2019, Cyclone Idai slammed into the southern coast of Africa with unprecedented force, damaging homes and infrastructure, contaminating food and water systems, and wiping out critical harvests. A Kickstart field visit to cyclone-affected areas found that the storm left a thick layer of soil over the normal topsoil, causing rapid drying effects that diminish humidity retention. As a result, crops that farmers attempted to replant severely wilted and could not be harvested. In the wake of this devastating destruction, Kickstart partnered with multinational and grassroots organizations that were working directly on relief and recovery efforts. These activities forged critical understandings of the impacts of irrigation at the intersection of climate resilience and food security, and established a critical role that Kickstart can to help smallholder farmers weather future storms. Kickstart also made significant progress in Malawi, where there has been large uptake of Kickstart's Moneymaker pumps both locally by rural farmers and nationally through federal policy in support of smallholder irrigation. The national government endorsed Moneymaker pumps as a highly reliable technology and invited Kickstart to help draft the Malawi Irrigation Investment Strategy. This year, Kickstart's team in Malawi empowered 5,600 farmers with these highly effective pumps, which have enabled over 21,000 Malawians to break their cycle of poverty and build resilience to future climate challenges. Throughout FY19, Kickstart's Product Intelligence & Development team made critical progress on multiple product innovations. Looking for ways to optimize our technology through farmer feedback, Kickstart's team of engineers continued to improve product quality and to adapt our irrigation tools to the climatic conditions that farmers face in their fields. This included finalizing Kickstart's 'Starter Pump', set to be the lowest cost irrigation pump on the market, and which is ready for product launch in 2020. The team also completed vital design elements for the Moneymaker Solar Pump and resolved key technical challenges to durability in field conditions. Kickstart continued to increase advocacy efforts to catalyze a large-scale uptake of irrigation across Sub-Saharan Africa, supporting the growing political momentum for investment, smart-subsidies, and donor support for smallholder irrigation interventions. In March 2019, the Chicago Council on Global Affairs hosted its annual Global Food Security Symposium, and for the first time ever, the meeting highlighted irrigation with a particular focus on small-scale irrigation in Sub-Saharan Africa. The widely published report highlighted the potential for farmers to improve resilience and profitability by transitioning from rain-fed agriculture to farmer-led irrigation, with a call to action for 'investment in small-scale irrigation systems and making irrigation technology affordable.' Additionally, the Alliance for a Green Revolution in Africa Forum (AGRF) included a session on irrigation in its main program for 2019, where Kickstart's senior leadership demonstrated the use of Moneymaker pumps, generating enthusiasm among influential policy makers.
Interesting data from their 2020 990 filing
The filing reveals the mission of the non-profit as “Kickstart's mission is to help millions of people out of poverty quickly and cost effectively. kickstart promotes employment creation by developing and promoting technologies that can be used by dynamic entrepreneurs to establish and run profitable small enterprises.”.
When detailing its functions, they were listed as: “Kickstart's mission is to help millions of people out of poverty quickly and cost effectively. kickstart promotes employment creation by developing and promoting technologies that can be used by dynamic entrepreneurs to establish and run profitable small enterprises.”.
- According to the law, the state where the non-profit operates has been reported as DE.
- The filing specifies that the non-profit's address in 2020 was 1385 MISSION ST NO 300, SAN FRANCISCO, CA, 94103.
- As of 2020, the non-profit's form shows they have a total of 8 employees.
- Is not a private foundation.
- Expenses are greater than $1,000,000.
- Revenue is greater than $1,000,000.
- Revenue less expenses is -$283,920.
- The organization has 8 independent voting members.
- The organization was formed in 2001.
- The organization pays $2,167,688 in salary, compensation, and benefits to its employees.
- The organization pays $227,654 in fundraising expenses.
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