One Acre Fund

The organization was founded by Andrew Youn in 2006. While earning his MBA at the Kellogg School of Management, Youn visited western Kenya in August 2005 and interviewed smallholder farmers about their quality of life. Many of those farmers were enduring an annual "hunger season" and were unable to feed their families from their one acre of land. Upon returning to Kellogg in the fall, Youn designed a business plan to employ a market-based approach to introducing productive farming techniques to smallholder farmers in East Africa. One Acre Fund launched in Bungoma, Kenya, in February 2006, initially serving 38 farm families. Youn's classmate Matthew Forti became the Founding Board Chair, while John Gachunga joined as co-founder in 2006 and Eric Pohlman as co-founder in 2007.

In April 2006, One Acre Fund was awarded the Social Entrepreneurship Track of the Yale 50K Business Plan Competition and the Social E-Challenge of the Business Association of Stanford Entrepreneurial Students (BASES). In May 2006, Youn received an Echoing Green Fellowship, which provided a two-year stipend to pursue One Acre Fund full-time.

Since its founding, One Acre Fund has launched operations in Kenya, Rwanda, Burundi, Tanzania, Uganda, Ethiopia, Nigeria, Zambia, and Malawi.

Criticism of lengthy hiring practices

One Acre Fund has been criticized for its confusing hiring process. In Kenya, their hiring process has led some to accuse them of harvesting data from prospective job applicants. One Acre Fund has denied these claims, but acknowledged the need for the organization to improve its lengthy hiring process.