Land Rights at the Root of Change

Landesa's 2019 Annual Report




LETTER FROM THE CEO

Around the world, land is the foundation of rural life. Perhaps no other asset can equal the transformative power of land to create economic opportunity, boost productivity and food security, and fulfill the promise of fundamental human rights and a life of basic dignity and access to justice.

But for at least 1 billion people who live in rural areas, this tantalizing potential is still out of reach, because they lack the secure rights to access, use, and leverage land. Without this security, their labor is like a plough without a blade, unable to extract the full value from their most important resource.

For this reason, land rights are at the root of change in the developing world.

Equipped with secure rights to land, rural women and men have the confidence and the opportunity to make investments in their land that improve their harvests and their lives, build resilience to a changing climate, and dismantle barriers to gender equality.

That’s why Landesa’s sole focus is on strengthening land rights for rural women, men, their families, and communities.

Momentum is on our side.

With new legal reforms strengthening the land rights of more than half a billion people worldwide in just the past year alone, increasing global awareness of land as fundamental to greater dignity and economic opportunity for rural families, and an innovative new campaign to put land policy into practice for hundreds of millions of women, this is an exciting time to be part of this important work.

But we can’t do it alone. Our 2019 Annual Report is dedicated to our partners, donors, staff, volunteers, and friends who believe that a world with equal land rights is a better world for us all.

Thank you for your continued support.

Chris Jochnick, President & CEO
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In addition to more food, I like owning land because I have freedom. I can decide what crops to plant and what to cook. No one bothers me or questions my decisions.

- Zainabu R. Chambuso, farmer in Tanzania

IN FOCUS

 
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A farmer plants mangrove seedlings as part of a Community Forest.
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A farmer plants mangrove seedlings as part of a Community Forest.
 
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BY THE NUMBERS

LEGAL AWARENESS AND UNDERSTANDING

Legal awareness and understanding Landesa designs training curricula and land legal literacy programs that help rural women and men to better leverage their land. Last year, we helped
0,783 people
make the most out of their land.

Landesa designs training curricula and land legal literacy programs that help rural women and men to better leverage their land. Last year, we helped
0,783 people
make the most out of their land.

BUILDING CAPACITY OF LOCAL OFFICIALS

Landesa provides resources and training to help government officials, service providers, and customary leaders better understand and promote land rights activities. Last year, these training activities helped strengthen the land rights of
3,802,111 rural women and men
in the places where we work.

Landesa provides resources and training to help government officials, service providers, and customary leaders better understand and promote land rights activities. Last year, these training activities helped strengthen the land rights of
3,802,111 rural women and men
in the places where we work.

POLICY CHANGE AT SCALE

Landesa’s legal experts work directly with governments to help shape national land rights laws and policy, allowing us to deliver change on an unprecedented scale. Last year,
0,525,453 people 
enjoyed stronger land rights as a result of these legal changes.

Landesa’s legal experts work directly with governments to help shape national land rights laws and policy, allowing us to deliver change on an unprecedented scale. Last year,
0,502,297 people 
enjoyed stronger land rights as a result of these legal changes.

FINANCIALS

  • Total Revenue

    $12,661,666


    Expenses Pie Chart
  • Total Expenses

    $13,316,481


    Revenue

*Accounting principles generally accepted in the United States require Landesa to recognize the full amount of unconditional multi-year grants in the year in which they are awarded. Expenses, however, are recorded in the year they are incurred. In FY 2019, expenses exceeded new grant awards, resulting in the deficit reported here.


OUR SUPPORTERS

  Denotes Gardener for Growth monthly donor. We are grateful to this group for providing sustaining donations year-round. Learn more.

Having supported several Landesa programs, including its China Program and Center for Women’s Land Rights, for over a decade, we have seen Landesa put our support most efficiently into increasing access to land rights for the rural poor, and creating awareness and recognition of this important issue at the international level. It has been a privilege for us to be involved in Landesa’s life-changing work.
Annie Chen
Founder and Chair, River Star Foundation
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Having supported several Landesa programs, including its China Program and Center for Women’s Land Rights, for over a decade, we have seen Landesa put our support most efficiently into increasing access to land rights for the rural poor, and creating awareness and recognition of this important issue at the international level. It has been a privilege for us to be involved in Landesa’s life-changing work.
Annie Chen
Founder and Chair, River Star Foundation

Over $1 Million

Anonymous (1)

Ford Foundation

Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation

IKEA Foundation

King Philanthropies

Omidyar Network

River Star Foundation

Skoll Foundation

$100,000 - $999,999

David and Araceli Barclay

Chandler Foundation

Jochnick Family

Open Road Alliance

Open Society Foundations

The David and Lucile Packard Foundation

Propel Capital

Ronald Rankin

The Rockefeller Foundation

David Weekley Family Foundation

Elisabeth Wendt

$25,000 - $99,999

Anonymous (1)

Bertha Foundation

Mary Ellen and L.P. Hughes

Doug and Emilie Ogden/The North Ridge Foundation

PACCAR Inc.

Jill and Bill Ruckelshaus

Darshana Shanbhag and Dilip Wagle

Stewardship Foundation

$10,000 - $24,999

Anonymous (1)

Jim Cardillo and Patricia Kern-Cardillo

Alison Devlin

Global Impact

Laura Lee Grace

Lenore Hanauer Foundation

Phil Harvey

Ashley Hayden and Noah Kolman

Hilton Prize Coalition

Vikesh and Kiran Mahendroo

Matt and Ann Nimetz

Roy L. Prosterman

Paul Silver and Christina Marra

Lawrence Wilkinson

I have admired Dr. Roy Prosterman’s work since attending law school and now am privileged to support that work through Landesa. Delivering land rights for women lifts standards of living for the people who need it most. This measurable success puts Landesa at the top of our giving list and we are proud to support this work.
Brad Fresia
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I have admired Dr. Roy Prosterman’s work since attending law school and now am privileged to support that work through Landesa. Delivering land rights for women lifts standards of living for the people who need it most. This measurable success puts Landesa at the top of our giving list and we are proud to support this work.
Brad Fresia

$5,000 - $9,999

Clif Bar Family Foundation

Brad Fresia

Gerald and Carolyn Grinstein

Chris Jochnick and Paulina Garzón

Mina Titi Liu and Eric Rosenblum

Geordie and Beverly Martin

Janet McKinley

Nathan Myhrvold and Rosemarie Havranek

Sally and Bill Neukom

Margaret Niles and Stephen Garratt

Kathleen Pierce

Jennifer Potter and John Winton

Suri and Mala Raman

Ann Wyckoff

$2,500 - $4,999

Beverly Barnett

Leslie Decker

Hayes Family Fund

Randi Hedin

Intellectual Ventures Global Good

Erin King and Mark Patterson

Charles and Eleanor Nolan

Hemaxi Patel

Karen Petty and Denise Gagnier

Mark Ruffo and Jared Baeten

Seba Foundation

$1,000 - $2,499

Tammy Baltz and Ian Smith

Donna Bellew

Judith Bendich

Alison Bettles and Ryan Glant

The Boudreaux Family

Carol Lewis and Tom Byers

Maren Christensen

Janice DAmato

Patrick and Cindy Dawson

Joe Delaney

Thomas Douglas

Ellen Ferguson and Kumuda Kali

K&L Gates LLP

GE Foundation

  Nancy and Earl Grout

Christine Grumm

Tim and Chitra Hanstad

Karen and Michael Herman

Sam Herring and Lynn Noordam

Gretchen and Jon Jones

Susanne Keller

Sara and Mark Kranwinkle

Marty Krasney

Alida and Christopher Latham

Doug Love and Rachel Running

Craig and Stina McGlinchey

Alex McMillan Family Foundation

Robert Mitchell and Jill Walzer

John Moore

Cooper and Kirsten Morrison

Eric and Julie Nelson

Anne Nolan

Joelle Pfeiffer

Li Ping

  Jeffrey M. Riedinger

Ben Rohrbaugh

Christine and Leonard Rolfes

Mary Ruckelshaus and Sam Shabb

Peter Seligmann and Lee Rhodes

Margaret Stanley

Ronald and Elizabeth Sugameli

Margaret and Douglas Walker

Wilma Wallace and Richard Meyers

$500 - $999

Anonymous (1)

Mateo Bonilla

Megan Bowman

Jim Bromley and Joan Hsiao

Jessica Carr

Connie Celum

Mike Doyle

Chris and Chrissie Drape

Maria Eitel

Diana Fletschner

John Ryan and Jody Foster

Ryan Frederick and Danielle Granatt

Tracy and Tom Garland

Courtney Gregoire

Besa Hadaj and Michael Ross

Mike and Alison Harris

Michael Hirschhorn and Jimena Martinez

David Hytha

Elizabeth af Jochnick

Frederick J. Kaplan and Rosemeri Reinehr

Ruben Kraiem

Mr. & Mrs. Mason

Gavin McFarland and Natasha Zarrin

Wil and Melissa Merritt

Pamela and Donald Mitchell

Donna Moniz

Nancy Morrison

Christian Murck

Alex Ocampo

Peter Ormiston and Donna Walzer

Vanessa Oslund

Roshni Patel and Chad Schlager

Pledgling Foundation

Llewelyn Pritchard

Nathan Rosenbaum and Sabrina Seward

Jami Rutherford

Salesforce.org

Rangita de Silva de Alwis

Eric Zimmerman

What Landesa, with others, achieved in China by having women’s names on land deeds will give benefit for centuries to come. And that’s the thing about Landesa – it’s not flashy, but the structural changes they facilitate will echo for generations.
Jeremy Dwyer
Gardener for Growth monthly donor  
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What Landesa, with others, achieved in China by having women’s names on land deeds will give benefit for centuries to come. And that’s the thing about Landesa – it’s not flashy, but the structural changes they facilitate will echo for generations.
Jeremy Dwyer
Gardener for Growth monthly donor  

$250 - $499

Anonymous (3)

Susan Albert and Bruce Maximov

Scott and Nicole Andersen

Artisan Dental, LLC

  Shamaprasad Bangalore

Mario Barnes

Bhawna Bhatia and Himanshu Nagpal

Laura and Phil Bloch

Eugene Carlson

Kristen Dailey

Lynn and Ralph Davis

Walt Disney Company Foundation

Jennifer Duncan

Kathie and Perry Falcone

Ruth Gerberding

Amber Harrison

Kristinn Jackson

David Keogh

Nicholas Lenning

Brad Mathews

Alyssa Moir

Margarita Mora

Colleen O'Holleran

Dewey Potter

Abigail Pratt

Zahra Radjavi

Kat Randolph and Kyle Wang

David Rothschild and Serena Warner

Stanford University

Sarah Tilstra

Pamela Tonglao

  Grace Uomoto

Elizabeth Utter

Mark and Zuzana West

Steven and Tracy Wick

Jennifer Wyatt

$100 - $249

Anonymous (2)

  Bobbie Adams in honor of Bob Utter

Mito Alfieri and Norman Cheuk

William and Mary Ann Andersen

Phoebe Andrew

Yasser Asmi

  Kim Baker and Sam Dawson

Tam Banua

Jenifer Beebe

Lindsay Berg

Leslie Berkseth

Kenneth Scott and Dr. Carla Bernardes

Jonita Bernstein

Judith Bevington

Kathleen Braico

Andrew Cardillo

Elizabeth Castilleja

Edsonya Charles

Benjamin Chotzen and Carolyn Pinkett

Colin Christopher and Tania Ullah

Samuel Clark

Steven and Judith Clifford

Marie and William Cooper

Erwin Cuellar

Lukasz Czerwinski

Danielle Dandrige

Kay and Howard Daniel

  Jeremy and Sonja Dwyer

Lisa Ellis

Pam Elvy

Herb Fisher

The Collective

Josh Fredman

Slade Gorton

Jon Gotschall and Patricia Trust

Leslie Grace

Charles Greenhouse

Flora Lazar and Lee Greenhouse

Nancy Greenhouse

Wendy Greenhouse and Mike Trenary

  Jeff Gregory

  Katrina Hamilton

Libby Hart

Ken Hastings

Jessica Houssian

Erin Inclan

Vivian Jackson

Cynthia Weed Johnson

Maryellen Johnson

Jeannette Kahlenberg

Saki Kato

Roberta and Chuck Katz

Peter Kelly

Joon Kim

Janet King and Stephen Yeatman

Sharie Kumaishi

Naomi Lamoureux

Markus Lang

Ben and Brooke Linkow

Jen Lenga Long and Eric Long

Cedar Louis and Jim Farrell

Ellen Marson and Chris McCall

Andy May

David Mayer

Margaret Anne McClung

Debbie McCoy

Lincoln Miller and Nancy Sapiro

Rebekah Miller

Ian Moffit

Ryan Morris

Ronna Nemer

Gregory Nielsen

Parvati Patil

Janet Peacey

  Julie and Paul Pottinger

  Terry and Kathy Proctor

Peter Rabley

Bob and Lisa Ratliffe

Ry P. Ravenholt

Nancy Robinson

Michael Rogers

Tyler Roush and Thy Nguyen

Janiece Rustin

Scott Schang

Mary Beth Seifert

Ellen Skugstad

Dipa Suri

Briana Swift

Steve and Patsy Tomlin

Eleanor Trenary and Kyle Raymond

Emmanuel Urey

Angélica Velásquez

VK Vu

Nancy Ward

Stephen Williams

Up to $99

Anonymous (5)

Duke Collier and Maren Anderson

Joe Angelosanto

Joe and Julie Arko

Marcos Azcarraga

Mr. & Mrs. Jeff Baker

Namrata Bhardwaj

Clementine Briand

Paul Bucciaglia

June Buren

Penny Carothers

Jordan Carrell

Uchendu Chigbu

James Cissell

Tamara Cook

Michael Coppinger

  Alex Counts

Megan Curran

Amulya Das

Saskia De Jonge

Brandy and Juan Delgado

Nirali Desai

Diane Dew

Amy Dodd

Tracy Dunkle

Jan Everman

Bryan Flemming

Leah Gerber

Karen Gray and Lisa Nielsen

Melany Grout

Maria Grumm

Susan Gulick

Cassie Guerin

Reno Hechtman

Kasey Huebner

Najah Hull

Carol Sue and Francis Janes

  James Janning and Megan Hall

Frank Johnson

Kathleen Johnson Hart in honor of Maureen Curran

Jagadeesh Kancharla

Clair Kaufman

Emre Kiciman

Beata Kuropiejska

Nancy Liebermann

Rebecca Martin

Elizabeth McClelland

   Ms. Maria McGill Zupan MPhil

Jessica Mhoja

Kristen Mitchell

Shimpa Mithal

Ann Morrison

Manjula Nam

Leslie Nitabach

Ulrike Ochs

Doix Perrine

Melissa Pound

Bikash Pradhan

Carly Ragen

Rocio Rangel

Graham Redinger

Beth Roberts

Judith Rose

Marcy Ruffo

Anthony Sampson

Kathy Sampson

Stephanie Sampson

Michael and Carol Semandiris

Sanjay Sethi

Daniel and Joanne Shively

Carl and Deborah Silverberg

Adriana Simonelli and Alexander Seyb

Nicole Simonelli

Brent Slattengren

Gerald Smith

Michael Smith

Navita Somani

Maggie Sparkman-Kurdy

Laura Stanza

Kelly Stellrecht and Justin Knabb

Kasturi Sur

Thalia Syracopoulos

Joseph Tobiason

Emily Tomita

Nicole Tomita

Jeff Wahi

Vicky Wenzlau

Peter and Leslie Whitney

Megan Whitney

Karina Kloos Yeatman

Mariam Zameer


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Triveni (right) and her mother collect cashew nuts from their titled forest land to sell at a local market.

This land title is very valuable to us. It means we can continue to earn a livelihood by farming this land, which perpetuates to the next generation. We never thought we’d get this (land title). We’re very happy with this.

Majesh and Triveni, Odisha
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ANNUAL REPORT 2019 (PDF)