ABOUT US
Our Mission
The Numeracy Research & Development (NRD) Fund is a bold new initiative working to improve foundational numeracy outcomes for children in Sub-Saharan Africa. We focus on evidence based solutions that tackle gaps in how numeracy is taught and understood, especially in early primary years. Our goal: To support local governments and partners in helping at least 50% of students in government schools meet Grade 3 numeracy benchmarks after three years of support.
Meet Us
NRD is managed by Genesis Analytics. We’re passionate about using real world evidence to drive better outcomes in education. The fund is built on collaboration, we work closely with local implementers, researchers, and policy makers to ensure that what we learn on the ground shapes wider systems and policies. We’re also guided by a Technical Panel made up of experts in education and numeracy. Their job is to help us stay sharp, ensuring our work is grounded and aligned with the best global thinking on how children learn math.
Meet Our Funders
Our funders channel their success into progress. They convert entrepreneurial and corporate achievements into high-impact capital, aimed squarely at solving the world’s toughest challenges. Their mission is to dismantle barriers to human potential and accelerate transformative change where it’s needed most. Meet the partners driving this change.
Image credit: https://www.gatesfoundation.org/
This optimism and determination was forged in childhood, learning from their parents that anything is possible. They are now channeling that same spirit to ensure that factors entirely outside of one’s control, like birthplace, gender, or wealth, no longer determine a person’s potential.
Why we Invested: A funder’s perspective on the numeracy crisis
1. Beyond the obvious need, what was the decisive factor for you that made investing in the NRD not just a good cause, but an urgent and critical priority for our future?
Numeracy is more than a fundamental skill—it’s the gateway to success in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM). As global economies become increasingly reliant on these disciplines, ensuring children have a strong foundation in math is no longer optional—it’s essential. The Numeracy R&D Fund addresses this urgent global need by investing in the building blocks of future innovation and opportunity. We are building a numeracy movement and community of experts on the continent to instill a joy of maths and improved numeracy skills in early grades.
2.The Numeracy Research & Development Fund is designed to create systemic change. From your perspective, what does lasting success look like in 20 years?
Numeracy is a critical—and often underappreciated—predictor of academic success. Yet progress in numeracy has lagged, particularly in low- and middle-income countries, often due to a lack of scalable, evidence-based teaching strategies. Lasting success means closing this gap: if we want to see students excel in math, we must first understand the best ways to teach it. We must invest in pedagogical research and dissemination of effective approaches to math instruction. If these solutions are designed for replication and scale by local organizations, we can work towards a future in which all students gain an understanding of basic math that gives them the foundational skills to thrive. Lasting success means fostering collaboration to close the numeracy evidence gap and identify proven interventions that can be tailored to country contexts and scaled to accelerate progress.
3. For you, what is the NRD 'secret sauce'?
NRD’s strength lies in its dual commitment to rigorous research and local relevance. By investing in pedagogical research and development (R&D) in close collaboration with locally led organizations, the Fund generates practical tools and insights that are adaptable to diverse country contexts. This approach ensures that numeracy solutions are not only evidence-based but also grounded in the realities of the communities they serve.
4. Your role has been more than financial, it’s been strategic. How would you like to see this model of funder-practitioner partnership evolve? And what would you say to other funders about the unique opportunity to be part of building a global public good like NRD?
NRD exemplifies what’s possible when global researchers, implementers, and practitioners convene as strategic partners by focusing on evidence-based solutions that tackle gaps in numeracy. The Fund fosters collaboration that accelerates impact and supports promising organizations across sub-Saharan Africa that are testing new ways to boost foundational numeracy. We’d like to see even greater coordination by collaborating with additional partners, especially local entities that ensure that what is learnt in various country contexts shapes wider systems and policies. We believe this model rooted in co-creation and knowledge sharing, could become the norm. For other funders, NRD offers a rare opportunity to contribute to a global public good: a body of knowledge and practice that can transform how numeracy is taught and understood for generations to come.
Every day, the Gates Foundation wakes up determined to use its resources to create a world where everyone, regardless of circumstance, has the opportunity to lead a healthy and productive life. This mission is built on one core belief: that all lives have equal value. This principle guides every investment, driving the foundation to tackle the world’s most severe inequities and take on the toughest problems others cannot.
The foundation’s current work is vast, yet strategically focused. In global health, it partners with experts in over 130 countries to eradicate preventable diseases, support new tools like vaccines, and strengthen health systems. In education, its team is intensely focused on improving foundational literacy and numeracy (FLN) in sub-Saharan Africa and South Asia. This work is built on three key levers: advocating for data-driven accountability for FLN outcomes, generating better knowledge and tools for effective teaching (including the role of edtech), and building country capacity to implement high-impact reforms at scale. This initiative is addressing a critical gap in numeracy, funding pedagogical research and development to create public goods and scalable, evidence-based programmes for low and middle-income countries.
This ambitious, data-driven philanthropy began with a moment of realisation. After initially donating PCs to US libraries, the founders read an article about millions of children in poor countries dying from preventable diseases. As new parents, they were stunned. They sent the article to Bill’s father with a note: “Dad, maybe we can do something about this.”
They began a deep dive into learning, consulting experts and listening to local leaders. Their commitment grew, culminating in the transfer of $20 billion of Microsoft stock to create the world’s largest foundation. When Warren Buffett entrusted his fortune to their cause, it amplified their ability to think bigger and bolder.
The results speak to the power of this focus. Since 2000, the foundation has spent $53.8 billion, and its partners have helped achieve historic milestones, most notably the global under-five child mortality rate falling by half. The foundation understands that not every project will succeed, philanthropy’s unique role is to take calculated risks on solutions that governments and businesses cannot. It learns, adapts and shares those outcomes openly for the world’s benefit.
Image credit: https://hempelfoundation.com/
The Hempel Foundation has always been a dedicated philanthropist. It was founded in 1948 by J.C. Hempel, a pioneer in the coating industry, and continues to fund its work through the resources of the Hempel Group, allowing it to make independent, long-term, catalytic investments in both education and environmental sustainability.
The Hempel Foundation confronts some of the defining challenges of our time. Continued deforestation, catastrophic biodiversity loss, and millions of children growing up without access to quality education demand urgent, scaled responses.
The Foundation’s role is to provide catalytic support, enabling visionary organisations to overcome financial and capacity constraints and accelerate impact at scale. The Foundation aims to strengthen the supply of highly effective solutions while simultaneously growing the demand for these solutions among governments and funders. It actively seeks collaborations, partnerships, and alignment with government policies, never working in isolation from broader collective efforts.
In the area of global education, the Hempel Foundation addresses the global learning crisis through two core objectives. First, it focuses on increasing the supply of cost-effective learning solutions by supporting education organisations
to scale through government systems. Second, it works to enhance government demand for these solutions by strengthening data and evidence on what works to improve foundational learning.
Image credit: https://www.founderspledge.com/
As a nonprofit operating globally from registered entities in the UK, US, and Germany, Founders Pledge charges no membership fees, ensuring that 100% of members’; donations go directly to their chosen charities. Its work is powered by the generous support of strategic donors and partners who invest in its proven ability to deliver outsized impact with every gift.
Supporting Founders Pledge means investing in the most efficient engine for entrepreneurial philanthropy, empowering a global community of leaders to build a radically better future for all.
The world’s most pressing problems demand solutions of equal scale and ambition. Entrepreneurs, with their unique skills, networks, and resources, are uniquely positioned to deliver this transformative change. Yet, even with the profound desire to give back, they often lack the time or specialised knowledge to
direct their charitable giving where it will achieve the greatest impact.
Founders Pledge exists to bridge this critical gap. Its mission is to advise on, facilitate, and maximise the philanthropic impact of its global member community, ensuring their generosity tackles the world’s most solvable problems with ruthless efficiency.
The vision is a future where the vast value created by technology and innovation benefits those who need it most. Every action is guided by a relentless focus on maximising measurable, evidence-based impact.
Launched from the Founders Forum network in 2015, this drive to make strategic giving the norm has sparked a powerful global movement. Today, the community includes over 2,050 of the world’s most influential entrepreneurs from more than 45 countries.
Together, they have pledged an extraordinary $11.5 billion to charity and have already donated over $1.5 billion to high-impact causes, demonstrating an unparalleled commitment to tangible results.