Empowering communities to advance social change through accessible technology solutions
Ushahidi is a global not-for-profit technology company that develops integrated tools and services to enable people to generate solutions and mobilize communities for good. We build our open-source software with the intent of strengthening communities and improving lives, empowering users to rapidly and purposefully gather, analyze, respond and act on data and information.
Since our founding in 2008 as a tool to monitor and map post-election violence in Kenya, Ushahidi’s crowdsourcing tools have been used by thousands of groups and millions of people to raise voices, inform decisions, stop suffering and influence change.
Our Name & Our Vision
The Ushahidi name comes from the Swahili word for “testimony,” chosen upon our founding to reflect how our technology gave voice to the people of Kenya during a time of social and political unrest. We carry our commitment to amplifying voices, empowering communities and fostering change to this day, seeking to foster a world in which communities are thriving and just.
The Ushahidi Platform
Our flagship product is the Ushahidi Platform, an integrated data crowdsourcing and mapping tool that allows people to rapidly collect, manage and analyze crowdsourced information from their communities.
Advancing social impact and change in:
- Crisis response
- Human rights protection
- Good governance
- Environmental justice, and more.
Innovation, Initiative and Other Products
In addition to our flagship Platform, Ushahidi plays a pivotal role in advancing technology access and innovation in East Africa and beyond. We strive to be leaders in technology and social justice and dedicate ourselves to creating global solutions.
Our innovation partners
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.
VisitOther products
Reach your team when it matters most
TenFour is a team check-in app that helps reach your people on any device, confirm they are OK, and get in touch. We built this tool so teams could be prepared and reach each other everyday and in a crisis.
tenfour.org
Rugged Internet for people and things
BRCK makes accessing the internet simple and reliable wherever you are. It’s a rugged, cloud managed, full-featured modem/router with built in fail-overs and programmable GPIO expansion. If there’s a way for you to connect, BRCK will help you get up and stay up no matter where you are.
brck.com
The SMS gateway from your Android
SMSsync is a simple, yet powerful SMS to HTTP sync utility that turns any Android phone into a local SMS gateway by sending incoming messages (SMS) to a configured URL (web service).
smssync.ushahidi.com
The firehouse of global crises data
CrisisNET finds, formats and exposes crisis data in a simple, intuitive structure that’s accessible anywhere. Now developers, journalists and analysts can skip the days of tedious data processing and get to work in minutes with only a few lines of code.
crisis.netTeam
Angela Oduor Lungati
Chief Executive Officer
Anna Iosif
Senior Software Developer
Cecilia Hinga
Community Advocate
Daniel Odongo
Director of implementation
David Losada Carballo
Chief Technology Officer
Declan Ottaro
Chief Operating Officer
Diana Gacheru
Administrative assistant
Irene Wairimu
CFO - Chief Financial Officer
Joseph Kirai
Monitoring, Evaluation and Implementation Officer
June Mwangi
Financial Controller - Kenya
Walter Obadha
Quality Assurance Engineer
Wisdom Ebong
Software developer
Desigan Chinniah
Mozilla
Erik Hersman
BRCK
Jenny Stefanotti
Independent
David Kobia
BRCK
Juliana Rotich
Ushahidi
Nathaniel Manning
Ushahidi
Our 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.