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2004
Inspiration: Founder Chuck Slaughter volunteers as President of CFW Shops in Kenya, a non-profit network of rural clinics and pharmacies. To improve results, he conducts an innovative test getting health providers out of their clinics and into homes and schools. The test proves highly successful, inspiring Chuck to pioneer a new model of door-to-door community health entrepreneurs.
2006
Founding: Chuck Slaughter incorporates Living Goods™ as a non-profit in California in May 2006
2007
Chuck Slaughter selected as Draper Richards Kaplan Entrepreneur
2008
Uganda Launch: Living Goods launches in Uganda in partnership with BRAC. BRAC and Living Goods focus efforts on reducing child mortality by treating malaria and diarrhea and supporting healthy pregnancies. The partnership also aims to provide motivating income for community health workers (CHWs) and keep vital medicines in stock by selling high-impact, low-cost health products.
Scale: 200 CHWs reaching 160,000 people
Beginning in Uganda
2009
Living Goods opens direct operations in partnership with the Ugandan Ministry of Health (MOH) in two test districts. The first branches are in Bwaise and Nsangi.
Children’s Investment Fund Foundation awards Living Goods $2 million to drive growth and study impact.
2010
Kick-off of randomized controlled trial in Uganda to measure impact on child mortality in partnership with the Abdul Latif Jameel Poverty Action Lab, Innovations for Poverty Action and principal researcher Dr. Jacob Svensson.
Scale: 600 CHWs reaching 480,000 people
2012
Scale: 1000 CHWs reaching 800,000 people
2013
Tackling Pneumonia: Living Goods works with Uganda MOH and UNICEF to empower CHWs to diagnose and treat pneumonia with Amoxicillin.
2014
Launch of Healthy Start fortified porridge Living Goods creates its first private label product to help tackle stunting. Sales vastly exceed expectations and it becomes the number one selling item.
Living Goods concludes randomized controlled trial showing 27% drop in child deaths – over 2 times the expected result, with an even greater impact on neonatal mortality. The survey covered more than 200 villages and 8,000 families.
Mobile Phone System Test: Using local Kenya team, Living Goods develops its own Android-based Smart Health system for CHWs, successfully replacing paper data collection and testing an innovative automated diagnosis tool to improve accuracy and consistency.
Living Goods in Kenya
2015
Kenya Launch: Living Goods opens in Kenya.
USAID Development Innovations Ventures awards Living Goods $5 million.
Living Goods partners with Medic Mobile to build a next-generation Android app for CHWs. Develops first Data-Driven Task Lists and real-time performance dashboards.
PSI Partnership: Living Goods opens partnership with PSI to replicate the model in Myanmar.
Scale: 4,000 CHWs reaching 3.2 million people
2016
Living Goods receives Skoll Foundation Social Entrepreneur of the Year Award.
New CEO: Founder Chuck Slaughter passes the baton to Shaun Church to serve as Living Goods’ second CEO.
Scale 6,300 CHWs reaching 5 million people
2017
Scale 7,570 CHWs reaching 6 million people
2018
Living Goods secures landmark growth funding from TED’s Audacious Project in partnership with Last Mile Health. TED selects Living Goods as one of 9 visionary organizations from a pool of more than 200. Six funders join to provide $35 million in matching funds to inspire new partners to help Living Goods expand from 7,000 to 34,000 CHWs and open two new countries.
The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation selects Living Goods to build an East Africa Tech Innovation hub to test cutting edge community-based mobile technologies.
Liz Jarman promoted as next CEO of Living Goods
Results-Based Financing: Living Goods launches an innovative Results-Based Financing mechanism in Uganda enabling funders to ‘buy outcomes,’ like treatments provided and facility births.
Family Planning launch: Living Goods expands portfolio into family planning, including the introduction of Sayana Press in Uganda, the first self-injectable contraceptive. Strong early results lead Living Goods to roll out family planning services across Uganda.
Scale 9,000 CHWs reaching 7 million people
2019
Landmark GAVI Award: Gavi, the Vaccine Alliance, commits $9 million to Living Goods and Last Mile Health to test the use of digitally empowered CHWs to help target and close the immunize gap vaccine counseling and referral services.
Isiolo County Kenya awards Living Goods a landmark contract: A first-of-its-kind, Isiolo taps Living Goods to help manage their community health worker system end-to-end.
