
No Lean Season (YC W17) raises $11.5m “philanthropic round” - BenjaminTodd
No Lean Season (YC W17) has raised $11.5m in philanthropic funding from Good Ventures, a foundation founded by Dustin Moskovitz and Cari Tuna. This makes it, by income, one of the largest non-profits to go through YC so far.<p>No Lean Season gives poor rural workers $19 for a bus ticket to the city to find work, during the period between harvesting and planting when jobs are scarce.
https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.evidenceaction.org&#x2F;beta-no-lean-season&#x2F;#the-solution-no-lean-season<p>Yale economists conducted a randomised-controlled trial of the program, finding it leads to significant gains in income and food consumption compared to a control.
http:&#x2F;&#x2F;faculty.som.yale.edu&#x2F;mushfiqmobarak&#x2F;papers&#x2F;migration.pdf<p>This funding will enable them to scale up to 450,000 households in Bangladesh over the next three years. The program could eventually be scaled to tens of millions of households.<p>YC helped No Lean Season to use software to dramatically cost the costs of the program, increasing their cost-effectiveness.
https:&#x2F;&#x2F;blog.ycombinator.com&#x2F;no-lean-season-yc-w17-named-givewell-top-charity&#x2F;<p>No Lean Season has also been named a &quot;top charity&quot; by GiveWell, along with only 9 other organisations, which are among the most evidence-backed and cost-effective charities in the world that help the global poor.
https:&#x2F;&#x2F;blog.givewell.org&#x2F;2017&#x2F;11&#x2F;27&#x2F;our-top-charities-for-giving-season-2017&#x2F;
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quickthrower2
Love it. Would the next step be to see if they can avoid paying the $19 at
all? This would make it more scalable.

Who would pay?

Local governments which could pay on the basis they pay back once they get a
job (or not ask for repayment because they'll get it back in additional tax).

Could be the eventual employer. Or employers could sponsor to subsidize this.

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malux85
Wow this is great. I love how thorough they are being with their analysis and
results. I also love how they’re using software as the efficiency multiplier

Kudos to the whole team and the investors. It’s inspiring to see a force for
good like this.

