As many of you know, one of the best examples of values-based leadership and truly making a difference in the world is the One Acre Fund (OAF) founded by several Kellogg alums in 2006!  In a little more than 10 years, Andrew Youn, Matt Forti, and their team (currently more than 2,000 members) have doubled, tripled or quadrupled the annual crop yield of more than 750,000 farms in Kenya, Rwanda, Uganda and Tanzania, saving the lives of more than 3 million children!!!
Whenever I speak with Andrew or Matt, they remind me that they have just “scratched the surface”, and their goal is to help every farmer across all of Africa!! Their focus is always “Farmers First!!!”

When my first leadership book, “From Values to Action,” was published seven years ago, I told Andrew that since the OAF was such an outstanding example of “from values to action,” all of the proceeds from my speaker fees and book sales would go to the OAF.  I promised to do one talk a month, but I have actually done an average of three per week, or more than 800 talks.

I want to sincerely thank all of the companies, associations and classes who have made this possible. Every $100 (yes, only $100) enables a farm family of four to be able to produce enough food for their family. Equally amazing, this is not “give a man a fish,” this is “help them to fish for themselves,” as evidenced by the fact that 99% percent of the loans are repaid in full!!

The above picture is of a wonderful gift that Heidrick & Struggles made to the OAF last week that will enable another 400 families!!!