2018 has been the most important year in Trickle Up’s 40-year history. We served 160,127 people in 19 countries – more than twice the number we reached in 2017 and 13 times the level of just three years earlier. We began a major new program in Uganda and expanded our global partnerships with high-impact institutions including UNHCR/The UN Refugee Agency, the World Bank, India’s National Rural Livelihoods Mission, the US State Department, and the US Agency for International Development. We continued to innovate with new program methods and customized smartphone apps that will put the computing and communication power of the Internet into the hands of our participants. Our operating income for fiscal year 2018 was $6.6 million, a 42% increase from 2017.

Even as we have grown and evolved, we have stayed true to the principles that our founders Glen and Mildred Robbins Leet established in 1979: reaching the poorest and most vulnerable people, those often overlooked by governments and other poverty agencies; focusing on women as drivers of economic progress; and trusting that even those with few assets or little formal education can use Trickle Up’s catalytic potential to dramatically improve their families’ lives.