Back in July, I posted a story about the economist C.K. Prahalad and his idea that the poorest people in the world can be assisted by allowing them participate in our consumer systems, that is marketing products specifically for them to buy. That posting might have been called The Business of Generosity (Part 1) but it predated this series.

KickStart is a company doing just that: marketing to the world’s poorest people, with products that will help them better live off of the land and provide them income. Their mission is to,

Get millions of people out of poverty quickly, cost-effectively and sustainably. And, in doing so, change the way the world fights poverty.

They are most famous for their Super MoneyMaker water pump that uses human power – pumped with the legs much like an exercise stair-climber to move water so small fields can be irrigated. They have sold over 100,000 MoneyMakers so far, creating over 70,000 enterprises, and moved 340,000 people out of poverty. The pump cost under $40 and they have developed a new pump that costs the consumer even less: $30. That seems both low cost (for us) and very expensive (for them) but increases farm income by 1000% on average. They have clearly found ways to set an affordable price point and market to their audience.

The company was formed by two men, Nick Moon and Martin Fisher, who were extremely well educated and encountered real poverty in the developing world. They decided to do something to change global poverty. The thing that I find so generous about this effort is their attitude that people living in persistent poverty have strengths, intelligence, and ambition that can be developed where they are and in their own cultural context. They are not saying, here take this grain and eat it (which can foster dependency), grow these new crops, or sell this product (which is more the way of the developed world). Their efforts are to give the people basic, high quality, well designed tools suited to their specific needs. Even without their impressive success numbers and continued engineering refinements, I think this honors the people they serve and engages them as true partners in making change. To me, working to understand people fully, beyond our preconceived notions, is truly generous.

From their website:

The Poor are Not Victims
To define people by their conditions rather than their qualities is dehumanizing. When you look past the poverty, you see abilities, resources, and desires. The poor are extremely hard-working and entrepreneurial–they must be just to survive. They don’t want or need to be rescued. They want an opportunity to create a better life for their families.