African Development Initiative Inc

What it reported doing in 2016

The organization has completed water projects in 45 communities in ghana (39 in nandom district and 6 in suham district) a social entrepreneurial approach the entrepreneurial approach has two valuable advantages: creative energy and accountability. Entrepreneurs take a risk by investing in an endeavour they believe will succeed, accepting the responsibility of providing their customers with a desirable product. The entrepreneurial approach demands us to constantly question if there is a better, more efficient, more enjoyable way of providing a good or service. With the social entrepreneurial model, we take that energy and channel it towards social good. Rather than focusing solely on profit generation, we work to ensure at the onset of our projects that the success of our work will make substantial improvements to either the educational services, health outcomes, and/or economic development where we work. We then reinvest these profits back into our communities. Self-sustaining projects adi does not give things away. While this is a common approach with many non-profit organizations, we instead seek a buy-in from the communities where we work. This of course makes our jobs much more difficult, but results in projects that provide community stakeholders with choice and a quality service from an organization that is accountable to its customers. In order to make this work, we partner with local governments, traditional leaders, locally embedded ngos, universities, the private sector, and development institutions. Together, we aim to create empowerment, not dependence. The rigor of research and academia adi is dedicated to research and financial responsibility. We understand that each community and village has its own needs and will require a unique solution. With all of our development projects, we aim to maximize the social returns on all of the resources we utilize. First, we conduct rigorous background research on the best-practices and case studies for any project we undertake. Then, we begin with a diligent formative assessment to understand the needs and demands in our communities. During the implementation of our project, we continue to evaluate our efforts, constantly using feedback from these reports to improve as we implement. Finally, we scrutinize our projects at their termination to evaluate our outcomes and ensure that we achieved what we set out to do. Using market solutions although we are a non-profit organization, we implement our projects as if we are aiming to maximize profits. Doing this ensures that our solutions to these social problems are culturally and regionally appropriate. If people do not like our products or ideas, they will not purchase them. It is then up to us to either make the product more attractive, less expensive, or easier to use for our customers. With the income generated from the sale of our products and services, we are then able to reinvest in new projects, having a recycling fund for development.

Financial Efficiency

• Mission deployment rate: 96.7%; rating input score 97
• Program expense ratio: 97.3%; rating input score 97

Transparency & Controls

• Consistency checks: 100%; rating input score 100; 51st percentile among comparable filings
• Major donor itemization: Yes; rating input score 100

Sustainability

• Operating margin: 0.6%; rating input score 36; 36th percentile among comparable filings
• Total-asset coverage ratio: 0.13; rating input score 13; 13th percentile among comparable filings
• Liabilities to assets ratio: 0.27; rating input score 21; 21st percentile among comparable filings
• Officer compensation ratio: 0%; rating input score 65; 65th percentile among comparable filings

Growth

• Program expense growth: 51.5% per year; rating input score 100; 93rd percentile among comparable filings
• Revenue growth: 42.1% per year; rating input score 100; 95th percentile among comparable filings
• Asset growth: 2.3% per year; rating input score 100; 39th percentile among comparable filings