Mulago Foundation

We find great people with big ideas for the places that need them most. We teach founders what it takes to go big and we fund the journey to get there. ‍We’ll fund anything that provides a better life for the poor and a route out of poverty. And is scalable. We operate like a philanthropic venture fund where impact serves as an analog for profit. Every grant or investment we make is a bet on an organization’s potential for exponential impact over time. We get in when there’s a strong case to be made, and we get out when for whatever reason that potential has faded. Most of what we do is focused on basic needs, like: Health Perhaps the most basic need of the very poor is primary healthcare, which includes things like prenatal care, births in an equipped facility, vaccinations, malaria treatment, family planning, and last mile health access. Environment Human well-being and the health of the environment are inextricably linked. Climate change, the loss of biodiversity, soil degradation, air pollution, a shrinking water supply—all of these disproportionately affect the world’s poor. Education Literacy and numeracy help kids make sense of the world. Whether through early childhood education, primary school, secondary school, or your parent’s phone: the more you learn, the more you earn later in life—and the greater chance you’ll break out of poverty. Livelihoods Lots of people rely on agriculture as a source of income. We know what makes farms more productive and gets farmers more money: the right inputs, information, training, credit, and access to markets. Increasingly boosting income outside of agriculture is critical to make a dent in poverty levels. Water & Sanitation Clean water and sanitation are fundamental to health and education—kids with reliable water stay healthier and spend more time in school instead of fetching it. We back solutions that keep clean water running for the poorest people.