Introducing Nathalie Laidler-Kylander

Hello, my name is Nathalie Laidler-Kylander and I am excited to be taking the helm of Trickle Up, following in the footsteps of Bill Abrams, whose incredible leadership over the past 16 years helped this organization grow into the successful entity it is today. These are BIG shoes to fill, and I’m so grateful for Bill’s support in my transition and for the exceptionally strong and experienced staff at Trickle Up. I’m both honored and privileged to be joining the team.

Trickle Up’s mission, supporting women experiencing extreme poverty to build resilient and sustainable futures for themselves and their families, has never been more important and relevant. Over time and across geographies, Trickle Up has proven the effectiveness of a multipronged, holistic poverty alleviation program to enable participants to escape extreme poverty. The transformations for women, their families and their communities are profound and sustained. I believe that there is no more important, hopeful and meaningful work. And over the years, through my experiences partnering with international nonprofits and social entrepreneurs, the economic and social empowerment of women has become both a passion and a central theme of my work. I look forward to building on Trickle Up’s legacy to continue to scale our impact and support an ever-increasing number of amazing women forging their own pathways out of poverty.

Today, the world faces two defining issues: increasing climate change and growing economic inequality.

Climate change is deepening the vulnerability of those who are already extremely vulnerable and we stand to lose important gains we’ve made in reducing extreme poverty globally. We’ll also see an acceleration in the number of climate refugees and displaced people. At Trickle Up, we’ve responded to these pressing challenges by integrating climate resilience into all of our work and successfully extending livelihood programming to refugees and displaced people.

The COVID-19 pandemic pushed 97 million people into poverty, deepening existing economic inequality. This has brought into sharp focus the need to work towards more equitable and fair economies that benefit a greater number of people. Many governments, businesses, philanthropic organizations, and international NGOs have rightly begun to focus on populations that have historically been economically and socially excluded. Our aim is to continue to be a key partner for these entities in creating sustainable livelihoods for the ultra-poor, who have far too often been excluded and left behind.

As we look at the future, we face both challenges and opportunities. But we are equipped with the global depth and breadth of experience of our first 42 years. We have a knowledge base on which to build that will allow us to expand our footprint and assist others in implementing programming. We have the partnerships we’ve fostered at all levels of program design and implementation — this partnership muscle is at the very heart of how Trickle Up works and why we’re successful. We have the proof of our impact: hundreds of thousands of women we’ve served to date, who have created their own paths out of extreme poverty to sustainable livelihoods. They will continue to inspire us and inspire others.

I know I speak for all of us at Trickle Up when I say we believe in people — in the amazing power of women to transform their own lives and create profound and sustainable change for themselves and their families. It is an immense privilege to do this work and to support them on their paths to a sustainable future. I hope that you will all join us in this powerful and meaningful journey