From Paper Records to AI-Assisted Operations
One Acre Fund began in 2006 with 40 farm families in western Kenya. Today, the nonprofit serves 5 million farm families across ten countries in eastern and southern Africa, with a goal of reaching 10 million families annually by 2030. The organization’s approach goes beyond traditional microfinance: rather than issuing cash loans, it supplies farm inputs such as fertilizer and seed, along with training and services. The organization also helps farmers improve soil health and plant trees, aiming to boost yields and build resilience against climate-related weather shifts.
Technology has become central to this growth. One Acre Fund has moved from an entirely paper-based operation, with staff meeting farmers in the field to record data by hand, to a fully digital system. This shift has streamlined logistics, delivery, farmer registration, and the production of training materials. “In the past, farmers used to fear using technology,” says Blaise Murame, Regional Lead at One Acre Fund. “But, as we provide training to them, they’re now eager to use it.” The organization, for its part, sees this adoption as a direct driver of its ability to expand.
Faster Development, Measurable Gains
A key driver of the organization’s digital acceleration is GitHub Copilot. The AI pair programmer has shortened development cycles considerably. “Since the coming of GitHub Copilot, the time it used to take us three weeks, that development work can be finished within a week,” says Yididiya Gebredingel, a Developer at One Acre Fund. “That’s affecting our goals – we’re able to set more goals than last year.”
The impact is measurable: developers complete projects three times faster, and over 30% of their work is now AI-assisted. This speedup lets the team concentrate on the parts of the platform that directly affect outcomes for farmers, rather than getting stuck on routine coding tasks.
The Economics of Open Source
Operating a nonprofit serving some of the world’s poorest populations means running on tight margins, which makes the cost-effectiveness of any tool critical. One Acre Fund has migrated most of its core operational systems to open source software, leveraging community support and collaborative development. For Sarah Hylden, Global Director of Operations, the choice is pragmatic: “As a nonprofit, we can’t tolerate license fees that will grow exponentially as we scale. Open source gives us the right balance between solution maturity and solution flexibility.”
That balance between ready-made sophistication and the freedom to customize is essential for an organization whose growth projections are steep. One Acre Fund’s stance is that a proven intervention which creates a sustainable path out of poverty carries a moral obligation to scale it. With GitHub Copilot compressing the time between idea and deployment, the organization is pursuing that scale — bringing an estimated $1 billion in new revenue to farm families across the region by 2030.
