Helping people raise their voice and those who serve them to listen and respond better
Ushahidi, which translates to “testimony” in Swahili, was developed to map reports of violence in Kenya after the post-election violence in 2008. Since then, thousands have used our crowdsourcing tools to raise their voice. We’re a technology leader in Africa, headquartered in Nairobi, with a global team. We are a social enterprise that provides software and services to numerous sectors and civil society to help improve the bottom up flow of information.
We believe that if marginalized people are able to easily communicate to those who aim to serve them...
...then those organizations and governments can more effectively respond to their communities' immediate needs...
...while simultaneously bringing global attention to their problems through the aggregation of their voices.
Team
Angela Oduor Lungati
Chief Executive Officer
Anna Iosif
Senior Software Developer
Cecilia Hinga
Community Advocate
David Losada Carballo
Chief Technology Officer
Declan Ottaro
Chief Operating Officer
Irene Wairimu
CFO - Chief Financial Officer
June Mwangi
Financial Controller - Kenya
Walter Obadha
Quality Assurance Engineer
Wisdom Ebong
Software developer
Desigan Chinniah
Mozilla
Erik Hersman
BRCK
Grace Githaiga
Kenya ICT Action Network, ICANN
Jenny Stefanotti
Independent
David Kobia
BRCK
Juliana Rotich
Ushahidi
Nathaniel Manning
Ushahidi
Independent Published Evidence
The Ushahidi Ecosystem
WE MAKE GOOD THINGS HAPPEN
We design new products and initiatives with a global perspective. Our aim is to serve people with limited access in hard-to-reach places. In addition to our other products, we are proud to be a key catalyst of an innovation ecosystem that are leaders in East Africa and around the world. We strive to create technology that solves global problems.
Initiatives
We partner with leading foundations and organizations to increase access to information, empower citizens, and protect marginalized communities.
Making All Voices Count
Ushahidi is a partner in this $55M fund that is working towards a world in which open, effective and participatory governance is the norm and not the exception.
Visit https://www.makingallvoicescount.org/
Resilience Network Initiative
Ushahidi supports and trains community based organizations to engage with local government using open-source tools. This work is in partnership with The Rockefeller Foundation’s 100 Resilient Cities.
Visit cityresilience.net
WE MAKE GOOD THINGS HAPPEN
Ushahidi has created pivotal products, run numerous programs, and catalyzed organizations around the world
Visit ushahidi.com
DREAMS
Ushahidi was a winner of the DREAMS Innovation Challenge. Our program aims to utilize our tools for constant feedback and data collection to enable organizations working on HIV/AIDs prevention amongst young women and girls in East Africa to have more timely and relevant data.
VisitOur Values
Ushahidi’s Values - the Culture Code
We are driven by our mission and our metrics.
We build tools that we believe have palpable meaning for our users.
We believe that everyone has the right to their voice, from our users to our staff.
We will give ourselves the autonomy to be radical, but provide the structure and clarity to know what is each of our responsibilities.
We recognize that through communication and documentation we can achieve the trust in our teammates that allows for flexibility in our work styles.
We know that diversity in backgrounds and opinions leads to better products and a better workplace.
We believe that good ideas and great talent can come from anywhere.
We are committed to transparency and openness in the world, starting with ourselves.
We are committed to an excellence that will justify our audacity to challenge the status quo.
We learn from the success or failure of our own work and the work of others. We reflect upon the lessons and evidence that emerge from our work and use them to evolve our future activities
Information about Ushahidi governance and compliance
As a not for profit social enterprise serving marginalised people, Ushahidi is meticulous in its management of finances, governance, and compliance, including funding provided by external entities.
Because of the precision with which we undertake our duty of fiduciary care, we have always passed all official audits, whether of the company’s finances, compliance, or governance. Our financial status is a matter of public record, with each audit published here on our website.
All our compliance, governance, and financials are audited annually by an independent firm based in the United States of America (USA). US audits are conducted with an unqualified opinion - an unqualified opinion is an independent auditor's judgment that a company's financial records and statements are fairly and appropriately presented, and in accordance with Generally Accepted Accounting Principles (GAAP). An unqualified opinion is the most common type of auditor's report. In addition, we submit to the United States government every audit report and related 990 US Internal Revenue Services (IRS) form, which provides the public with financial information about a non profit organisation. You can find all these reports here.
All our funders reference the annual audits before entering into agreements with us. Almost all of them require additionaly monthly, quarterly, and annual reports. Some conduct their own additional audits. Such additional audits include governance and compliance as well. Two of these additional audits that have been conducted in the past four years are by the US State Department and the government of the United Kingdom (UK)’s DFID. The audits ensure that Ushahidi meets the exacting governance and compliance standards for funding set by the US and UK.
Since our inception, Ushahidi has never been denied funding because of financial, governance, or compliance issues.