Wood Foundation Africa

Wood Foundation Africa, established in 2007 by Sir Ian Wood and his family, is a venture philanthropy organization driving systemic, sustainable development in East Africa through market-based models and long-term agricultural investments. Guided by a business mindset, it tackles social and economic inequity by empowering smallholder farmers to transform rural economies, emphasizing proactive partnerships, commercial rigour, capacity-building, and co-investment with governments, companies, and farmer groups. Distinctive for blending philanthropic missions with equity-style investments, it prioritizes patient capital and hands-on support to unlock scalable income growth, evidenced by fourfold household income increases for over 100,000 families and 50,000 jobs.

The foundation funds agricultural and economic development, focusing on revitalizing tea value chains in Rwanda and Tanzania, and expanding into vanilla in Uganda. It supports farmer field schools, extension services, credit-based inputs, infrastructure financing, cooperative development, supply chains linking smallholders to markets, and greenfield/brownfield ventures like majority-owned tea factories. Priority beneficiaries are rural smallholder farmers and communities lacking market access, credit, and technical skills.

Eligible entities are medium-to-large-scale NGOs, farmer cooperatives, or commercial partners demonstrating capacity for high-impact, systemic transformation in rural East Africa (Rwanda, Tanzania, Uganda); grassroots or micro-charities are not supported. It strictly invites partners via direct outreach from in-region teams—no unsolicited applications—and provides no unrestricted funding.

Grants range from high six figures to several million USD in multi-year commitments for strategic projects, capital investments, technical assistance, and operational support, tied to metrics like productivity and resilience. With no public deadlines or cycles, decisions are adhoc, setting it apart as East Africa's leading philanthropist for ambitious, place-based smallholder tea reform and systems-change agriculture.