About Us
Photo: Jan Stürmann
Women’s cooperative group meeting in Nepal.
About IDEX
IDEX identifies, evaluates, and grows the best ideas from local leaders and organizations to alleviate poverty and injustice around the world. IDEX connects a passionate and engaged network of supporters to the visionary leaders and organizations creating lasting solutions to their communities' most pressing challenges.
Since its founding in 1985, IDEX has supported more than 500 grassroots, community-led projects in Africa, Asia and Latin America. Annually, IDEX's partners serve approximately 1.2 million people in impoverished communities, including marginalized women, small farmers, indigenous communities, low-income urban residents, sexual and ethnic minorities, and youth.
IDEX’s Story
Since 1985 IDEX has been working with groups around the world that are creating lasting solutions to poverty in their communities.
IDEX was the inspiration of a group of returned Peace Corps volunteers who had a vision for a different kind of international development model. Together they created IDEX after seeing that small grants targeted to grassroots groups—who had the trust of their neighbors and the knowledge of what was needed in their own communities—was often more effective than traditional large scale philanthropy.
Partnering for Change
Today, IDEX works with partners and grantees in Guatemala, India, Mexico, Nepal, South Africa and Zimbabwe on initiatives that involve entire communities in: building local economies, empowering women, protecting the environment, creating food security, and promoting local leadership.
IDEX is not about aid. IDEX is about local, effective problem-solving and leadership. When matched with the vision, resolve, and ingenuity of communities all over the world, it is a proven formula for lasting change Join us!
Become an IDEX Supporter
IDEX identifies, evaluates, and grows the best ideas from local leaders and organizations to alleviate poverty and injustice around the world. Grants to our international partners come entirely from our network of passionate and engaged supporters. Please donate to IDEX today.