2025
Annual
Report

Dear Friends & Partners,

Thanks to your incredible support this past year, Village Enterprise transformed more lives in one year than ever before—over 316,000. As a result, we’ve now transformed more than 2.3 million lives since our inception. Behind each number is a family with greater security, dignity, and hope. Thank you for making this possible.

This past year also tested our resilience as an organization and as a community. In January, the U.S. government’s stop-work order and the subsequent shuttering of USAID led to the sudden loss of significant funding for our programs serving families in Kenya and Rwanda. When our Senior Leadership Team gathered in Nairobi the following month, we faced hard realities. Yet what stood out most during that gathering was determination—a shared resolve to continue driving impact and an unshakable commitment to ending extreme poverty.

In the days that followed, that resolve turned into action. Through your dedication and generosity, we raised $2 million for our Strategic Response Fund—allowing us to sustain our most impactful programs and continue transforming lives. At the same time, new partners stepped forward to help fill the gap. We recently received a $1.3 million grant from an anonymous donor through the Project Resource Optimization Initiative, ensuring that our work in Rwanda will continue to move forward even as global aid budgets shrink.

Throughout this report, you’ll see what that resilience looks like on the ground. Through DREAMS, our award-winning partnership with Mercy Corps, refugees are building sustainable livelihoods and self-reliance. Alongside African governments, we are embedding our proven poverty graduation approach into social protection systems—laying the groundwork for solutions that scale nationally. Our teams also advanced critical initiatives around climate resilience and conservation, hunger and child malnutrition, and innovative financing and digital solutions. This combination of evidence, partnership, and innovation is how we will keep scaling impact, even in uncertain times.

This fall, many of you joined us in the Bay Area to celebrate the year’s progress. We were honored to hear from John Hennessy, Chair of Alphabet and former President of Stanford University, who captured the essence of our impact: "If you want to reduce extreme poverty, you need to focus on sustainable change. This is where Village Enterprise distinguishes itself. Their approach is not about handouts. It’s about investing in the entrepreneurial spirit that exists within every individual, regardless of their circumstances." His words are a powerful reminder of what your support makes possible.

As we reflect on the past year, we also celebrate a defining chapter in Village Enterprise’s history. In June, I (Dianne) announced my decision to step down as CEO at the end of 2025. Over the past 15 years, Village Enterprise has grown from a small, grassroots nonprofit into an internationally recognized leader in the fight against extreme poverty—expanding to nine countries, launching the first Development Impact Bond for poverty alleviation in Africa, and transforming millions of lives.

My passion for our mission, our work, and our extraordinary team remains as strong as ever. But I also believe the time is right for the next chapter of Village Enterprise’s journey to be led by African leadership, based in Africa, to continue advancing our work to new heights. I’m excited for our new CEO to lead the organization into this next chapter—furthering our mission with the same passion, innovation, and integrity that define Village Enterprise.

As we look ahead, one thing remains clear: our mission endures. Together, we are proving that extreme poverty is not inevitable—it’s solvable. On behalf of the entire Village Enterprise team, thank you for standing with us, believing in our entrepreneurs, and helping build a future where every family can thrive.

With gratitude,