Amplio Network

In 2021, Amplio continued to use the power of Amplio Talking Books to reach vulnerable communities with quality information. We started new partnerships in Bangladesh, Ethiopia, Haiti, Malawi, and Nigeria. We supported the Ghana government to expand the r

A world where everyone has access to the knowledge they need to address their most pressing needs.

Goal One: By 2024, two million people challenged by poverty, remoteness, or low literacy will have acquired knowledge to address their greatest needs.

Goal Two: By 2025, gross profit will exceed marketing and business development costs.

Goal Three: By 2023, a new fund is established to award Talking Book devices and services directly to locally-led NGOs and IGOs.

All Amplio staff members have a dedicated allowance for leadership and skills development and can attend courses or workshops. For example, our executive assistant is working on her master's in nonprofit management. Our executive director works with a mentor and participates in the Miller Center's Global Social Business Impact Accelerator program. In Ghana, our colleagues have taken certificate courses. For example, our senior content manager recently completed and received accolades for a Farm Radio International broadcaster course. (He plans and produces local language audio content for Talking Books.) We use quarterly OKRs and meetings with our managers to discuss opportunities for professional development. Equally important, this past year we've really focused on engaging and developing our board of directors, which is quite exciting.

Like everyone else, Amplio had to quickly adapt to the COVID-19 pandemic. Our organization is small and nimble. We work in the international development space, so our US staff closed the office and everyone worked remotely. We moved to Zoom and Skype for meetings, training, and partner webinars. Our Ghana team continued to implement programs in the field. We worked with UNICEF Ghana and Ghana Health Service to conduct a COVID-19 public health campaign in 8 vulnerable districts in the Upper West Region and disbursed PPEs. We launched a suite of self-service products to help our partners more efficiently and effectively launch and run their Talking Book programs. We also created a community of practice to support learning and capacity building for our team and partners. Not least, we have worked with our board to build engagement and create a new funding model for Talking Book programs. Many smaller, locally-led NGOs and IGOs that work directly with last-mile communities (our focus area) don't have the capicity to secure government aid, foundation grants, and major donor funds. So, we're launching a campaign to build a fund that will award Talking Book program grants directly to local organizations that met a set of criteria. For each grant, Amplio will award 250 Talking Book devices, technology set up, training and support, program design consulting, monitoring and evaluation support, and capacity-building training and skills development for one year. Each program will reach about 25,000 people, providing access to knowledge to transform lives — across many sectors (agriculture and food security, global health, education, gender equality, nutrition, WASH, and more). If we meet our fundraising goal(s), we plan to award three grants in 2022 and thereafter 6 grants a year.