Vision

Our vision of success is to increase BRAC’s visibility in the United States, harness the power of its friends, ensure that it mobilizes support for new BRAC organizations in Africa and Asia to unleash the potential of millions of poor households to create better futures for themselves and communities.

BRAC USA is an independent, non-profit organization that received its 501(c)(3) status on July 12, 2007.

With the success of BRAC USA and BRAC UK, BRAC will be the world’s first international development organization initiated and led by people from the developing world with solidarity and support from the developed world.

BRAC USA seeks to improve the well being of the poorest in Africa and Asia, particularly its women and children. To do so, BRAC USA will support building scalable, sustainable institutions that, over time, are indigenously led to create wealth for the poor, promote health and social development and advance education and entrepreneurship. Our organization will support the transfer and adaptation of BRAC’s knowledge and experience in organizing people for power in vulnerable communities throughout Africa and Asia. BRAC USA’s grant-making philosophy is based on three fundamental ideas:

• Building capacity in African and Asian communities has more impact and is more sustainable than traditional development models

• Investing in women and girls has a disproportionately large return for communities

• Northern solidarity in support of Southern leadership and South-South collaboration can generate lower cost and higher impact solutions for poverty

By removing the constraints on BRAC’s global expansion, BRAC USA facilitates a South-South strategy of ‘barefoot bootstrapping.’ We seek business partnerships, strategic alliances, philanthropic and other capital to provide microcredit, health, education and other services sought by people living in poverty, especially women and children.

BRAC USA does not accept unsolicited proposals from organizations that are not part of BRAC International. It supports a strategic agenda based on priorities agreed upon by BRAC and the BRAC USA Board. Its grant-making program facilitates flexibility, innovation, entrepreneurship, creativity, and learning.

Since BRAC’s modest inception as a small-scale relief rehabilitation project in 1972, BRAC has grown into one of the world’s largest non-profit organizations with over 40,000 full-time staff and over 160,000 paraprofessionals, 72% of which are women. BRAC’s annual budget is over USD 430 million, 78% of which is self-financed, and BRAC’s microfinance program, with 6 million borrowers, has cumulatively disbursed USD 4 billion. More than 1.5 million children are currently enrolled in 52,000 BRAC’s schools and over 3 million have already graduated. BRAC’s health program reaches over 100 million people in Bangladesh with basic healthcare services and programs for TB, Malaria and HIV/ AIDS.

BRAC is in business to end poverty. It employs a holistic approach to alleviating poverty by integrating its core programs (health, education and microfinance) with strategic linkages and constant evolution. BRAC works with people whose lives are dominated by extreme poverty, illiteracy, disease and other constraints. With multifaceted development interventions, BRAC strives to foster education, create wealth, better health and improve their quality of life.

BRAC actively promotes human rights, dignity and gender equality through building the social, economic, political and human capacity of people living in poverty. By organizing people for power through village organizations, BRAC provides ladders of opportunity for the poor to access credit and other services and break out of the cycle of poverty and despair. To scale its impact, BRAC partners with the community, like-minded organizations, government institutions, the private sector, and development partners to influence policies, programs and practices.

BRAC is committed to sustainability. It makes its programs socially, financially and environmentally sustainable, using business models, innovative methods and technologies. BRAC’s growth and programs reflect its responsiveness to the needs of the poor and deep knowledge about development. Those living in poverty want more and better options, and they are willing to pay for it.

BRAC is now global. It now works in six countries outside of Bangladesh. With its own resources, BRAC began in Afghanistan in 2002 and is now the largest microfinance, health, education and other service provider in the country. In response to the devastating tsunami in 2004, BRAC started work in Sri Lanka. Emboldened by their early success, BRAC decided to expand globally to help other poor countries and in 2006 it established programs in Tanzania, and Uganda. In 2007, it began in Southern Sudan and is now registered in Pakistan.