Living Goods

What Living Goods does

Living Goods trains and supports community health workers, most of them women, who go door to door in their own neighborhoods in Kenya, Uganda and Burkina Faso. They register pregnancies, check on newborns, and diagnose and treat or refer young children with common killers such as malaria, pneumonia and diarrhea. They also help with nutrition, immunization and family planning.

Its health workers use a mobile app, SmartHealth, to register patients, follow up with them and feed real-time data into performance management, and they earn performance-based incentives. The organization reports supporting more than 12,000 health workers who serve over 6 million people, at under $3 per person per year.

According to Living Goods, randomized trials of its model found a 27% drop in under-five mortality (2013) and a 28% drop in child mortality (2021). Founded in 2007, it is a US 501(c)(3) and is recommended by The Life You Can Save.

Key facts

• Supports 12,000+ community health workers serving more than 6 million people in Burkina Faso, Kenya and Uganda (Living Goods site)
• Randomized trials found a 27% reduction in under-5 mortality (2013) and a 28% reduction in child mortality (2021), per Living Goods
• Delivers primary healthcare for less than $3 per person per year (Living Goods); TLYCS cites $3.09 per person served annually
• Health workers use the SmartHealth mobile app to register, track and follow up with patients (TLYCS)

Before you give

• Accepts one-time or recurring card gifts, stock and DAF gifts (via Every.org), crypto (via The Life You Can Save), checks, IRA qualified charitable distributions, and bequests (via FreeWill).