ORGANISATION: RELIEF TO FARMERS
17-AUGUST 2020
QUESTION: Will Your Organization Be For Profit Or Nonprofit?
RESPONSES
Relief to Farmers (RTF) will employ the dual entity for-profit / non-profit legal structure (Social enterprise) to
ensure affordability, scalability and sustainability. This is because operating only For Profit will result in higher
margins on PICS which will not make it affordable to the target poor farmer. Again, operating as a wholly
nonprofit entity may not be a viable option because grants are competitive with growing number of startups.
Even though RTF has strong networks with some of these grantmakers, no one can predict the future, because
grant organization may not have enough funds to distribute but RTF should continue to expand regardless.
The Profit-Purpose Alignment (PPA) business model will be used by RTF to generate both mission-driven and
financial benefits. The model was chosen because RTF strive to earn a profit after covering cost of PICS
Operational and other Administrative expenditure. This profit will allow the business to reinvest earnings to
make the organization stronger and able to impact more poor maize farmers who need affordable PICS the
most. Re-investments into growing sales team, expanding distribution channels and purchasing more PICS to
make the business more efficient are necessary but will not be funded through profits alone. To fund expansion
projects, new assets, or other costs of scaling, we will also seek funding from grant makers with shared mission
such as WFP, BILL and MELINDA GATES FOUNDATION among others.
This model has been/is being successfully used by M-KOPA:
M-KOPA, a solar company with a mission of providing low-income, off-the-grid households a clean supply of
electricity. They offer a solar home system that allows families to light their home, run small appliances or
charge their mobile phones. Furthermore, they have figured out a way to structure the payment of this system in
such a way to make it affordable for their target demographic. M-KOPA has connected more than 375,000
homes in Kenya, Tanzania and Uganda to solar power with over 550 new homes being added every day. So, in
M-KOPA’s case, the more solar systems they sell, the more they are achieving their social and environmental
missions, but also the more profit they are making.
In summary RTF WILL ;
 Distribute low cost PICS to last-mile maize farmers (PROFIT/NONPROFIT)
 RTF will add smaller margins(Economy Pricing) to PICS unit cost (FOR PROFIT)
 RTF will multiply the smaller margins by reaching millions of farmers(FOR PROFIT)
 RTF will finance scaling using these margins (FOR PROFIT)
 RTF will finance OPEX,WAGES and COGS using these margins(FOR PROFIT)
 RTF will also cross-subsidize PICS using high profits generated from sales(large scale /government
buyers) of PICS stored premium quality maize from RTF huge supplier(PICS beneficiaries). This will
further reduce the price of PICS whilst reaching more poor farmers. (PROFIT/NONPROFIT)
 RTF will also seek funding from grant makers with shared mission as RTF. (NONPROFIT)
 These funds from PICS margins, profits from cross-subsidization and grants will together be used to
scale up PICS distribution poor maize farmers in both Ghana and West Africa. (SOCIAL
ENTERPRISE).