Deepening
Impact
Shifting
Ownership

How communities, educators, partners, and young people are leading the next chapter of change.

A learner exploring a VR headset, a robotics kit built by learners, and a young person wearing a 'Do Hard Things' shirt

Deepening
Impact
Shifting
Ownership

How communities, educators, partners, and young people are leading the next chapter of change.

Deepening
Impact
Shifting
Ownership

How communities, educators, partners, and young people are leading the next chapter of change.

2025 at a glance

Click to view our cumulative reach across our schools, communities and partner network

A student holding a Khulani Schools Programme social frame

Why was 2025 so different?

A few years ago, we made a promise to lean in with everything we had - and then step back.

In 2024, we proved that impact could outlast a single moment through systems building.
This year, we're leaning into the answer: communities leading, educators innovating, and young people not waiting for permission to shape their futures.

This is what ownership looks like.

Executive Summary

A message from Trevor Noah & Shalane Yuen, Chairman and Managing Director of the Foundation.

Read the message

Explore our evolution

Paradigm shifts in development - systems strengthening and sustainable change

Click on any paradigm shift row below to explore real case studies.

Implementation

Expansion

Control

Delivery

Projects

How ownership became our measure of impact

Five lenses on the same story. Each opens onto a deeper dive, told through the people living it.

What ownership looks like

How ownership became our measure of lasting impact, as ownership moves closer to communities.

In addition to measuring success from what we deliver or fund, we deliberately measure success by what we want to leave behind. In 2025, this principle shaped everything; from how we designed programmes, to how we funded partners, to how we planned for our own exit. Our approach is built around a single organising question: what will continue, and who will lead it, when we are no longer here?

Financial sustainability

Financial sustainability underpins everything in this report - it's what allows programmes to graduate into community ownership rather than quietly end.

Below is a summary of how income was diversified this year, alongside the full audited statements.

Income by source

Ownership was never the destination

It was always the pathway to something greater: an education ecosystem where communities have the confidence, capability and support to shape their own future.

That future has already begun.

This is what ownership looks like