WE PARTNER
50/50
We co-invest, solve from within and solve for true sustainability
co-investing for true sustainability
ARK's co-investment starts with believing in communities and their agency. It is followed by our championship and guidance, and, if needed, start-up funding to catalyze or create a path for the execution of the solution.
A SOLUTION IS ONLY
SUSTAINABLE WHEN
the community can implement it on their own
fund it on their own
there is a clear + immediate exit for ARK
solving from within
WE DON'T DO HAND OUTS
ARK truly believes that the solution lies next to the problem and the people with the best solutions are those who have been living with the problem. Simply, what differentiates ARK is that we believe in our partners and their agency and, with them, create markets.
This contrasts to the “traditional” relationship model of benefactor-beneficiary where the beneficiary is not involved in their destiny and where the solution is an “asset” drop or a service for a specific timeframe that does not consider how the community will sustain the impact without the benefactor’s involvement.
ARK Exit: 3 years
The cost of the ARK Lunch at P2.50 (or 5 cent USD) is set by the parents based on what they can afford to give as an allowance everyday to their kids. ARK’s 50/50 partnership on the ARK Lunch is to catalyze the path so that those who cannot afford to give their kids P2.50 every day can be prioritized as suppliers to the program and can afford to pay the full cost in just 3 years. As such, in year one, ARK pays 80% of the P2.50 lunch while parents pay 20%. In year two, ARK and parents pay 50/50. In year three, ARK pays 20%, while parents pay 80%. In year four, parents pay 100% of the ARK Lunch all on their own.
The ARK Lunch is the first and only self sustaining lunch in the world.
ARK Exit: 16 weeks
In Feed Back, after a 16-week engagement, 92% of at-risk families become food secure, communities source all their food needs from within the village, and excess is sold and distributed to neighboring villages and towns. When we checked back on communities that graduated from the program, they reported that all the graduated families/participants continue to plant, be healthy, exchange, grow their business and want to do more.
After two pilot programs (Waves 1 and 2) we were able to create a low cost version that brought down cost by a 1/10th if the community were to do it on their own. These levels are now within the budget a barangay can secure from central government.
20%
80%
50%
50%
80%
20%
100%
0%
YEAR 1
YEAR 2
YEAR 3
YEAR 4
ARK pays
Parents pay
ARK creates a path for parents to integrate and sustain the program all on their own within
three years.
PILOT WAVE
The investment for Feed Back was $16,000/community or $55/family. These levels were above what an average sized village or barangay can afford to fund on their own.
SECOND WAVE
We iterated and created a low cost version that brought down cost by a 1/10th if the community wanted to do it on their own, or 1/3rd if they wanted ARK to help them build leadership capacity and train them on impact tracking.
THIRD WAVE
A community can now do Feed Back on their own at just $1,500 (~$7/family) and with ARK impact tracking at around $5,000/village ($15/family). These levels are now within the budget a barangay can secure from central government.
the discipline to solve for affordability
SEE OUR CO-INVESTMENT
PROGRAMS IN ACTION
