Insights Library

A living library of white papers and reference resources on important topics in agriculture innovation, social enterprise, farm finance, agriculture policy, and impact measurement.

INSIGHTS_SOCIAL_ENTERPRISE

Challenging Conventional Wisdom on Nonprofit Boards

This article shares our (somewhat counter-intuitive) experiences with our governing board, and how it's composition and function has evolved over time to meet our changing needs and opportunities.

INSIGHTS_SOCIAL_ENTERPRISE

Financial Sustainability 2.0: A Means to an End

During the last two years (as of this writing), One Acre Fund’s thinking on financial sustainability has evolved. In this white paper, we explain the factors that have driven this change and our latest thinking on this important topic.

INSIGHTS_SOCIAL_ENTERPRISE

Smallholder Farmers and Business: 15 pioneering collaborations for improved productivity and sustainability

This report shows how pioneer companies and organizations have sustainably increased the income and livelihoods of millions of smallholder farmers around the world.

INSIGHTS_SOCIAL_ENTERPRISE

Whats Your Exit...Er Commitment Strategy?

Originally published by the Stanford Social Innovation Review, this article delves into the conditions under which nonprofits will find commitment strategies—rather than exit strategies—may be the right answer for their direct service programs.

INSIGHTS_SOCIAL_ENTERPRISE

Ending Hunger in Africa

Why is solving the challenge of distribution bottlenecks key to successfully disseminating life-changing interventions to smallholder farmers? By Andrew Youn, originally published The Art & Science of Delivery, a report produced by McKinsey & Company.

INSIGHTS_SOCIAL_ENTERPRISE

Scale Innovations

Our scale innovations team is like an R&D lab for operational improvements to the way One Acre Fund reaches farmers. This white paper discusses the team's unique approach and reviews several scale innovations trials.

INSIGHTS_SOCIAL_ENTERPRISE

Professional Development of Field Staff

Field staff are crucial to One Acre Fund's future growth, and are the focus of extensive professional development efforts. This white paper delves into One Acre Fund's field staff development philosophy and strategy.

INSIGHTS_SOCIAL_ENTERPRISE

Measuring to Improve vs. Improving Measurement

Originally published by the Stanford Social Innovation Review, this article explores — and challenges — how social sector organizations have traditionally approached the paradigm of impact measurement.

INSIGHTS_SOCIAL_ENTERPRISE

To Serve the Poorest Clients, Earned Income Isn’t Enough

This articles discusses the tensions between pursuing high social impact while attempting to focus on a bottom line. By Matt Forti and Stephanie Hanson, originally published by the Harvard Business Review blog.

INSIGHTS_SOCIAL_ENTERPRISE

Growing Prosperity: Developing Repeatable Models to Scale the Adoption of Agricultural Innovations

This excerpt of the 2014 report by Bain & Company and Acumen features a case study of One Acre Fund's model and outlines what is needed to spur the large-scale adoption of agricultural innovations among smallholder farmers.

INSIGHTS_SOCIAL_ENTERPRISE

Driving Financial Sustainability

As a direct service organization, One Acre Fund sees the pursuit of financial sustainability as integral to achieving its mission of transformative social impact. This white paper explains our approach to pursuing financial sustainability.

INSIGHTS_IMPACT

Social Good = Scale x Impact (Who Knew?)

Originally published by the Stanford Social Innovation Review, this article explores why nonprofits and academics should focus on scale and impact when developing and evaluating direct service interventions. By Andrew Youn and Matt Forti.