“Teaching Social Entrepreneurs to Maximize Their Impact in the
Fight Against Poverty”
An Interview With Kevin Starr, Founder and Director, Rainer Arnhold Fellows Program
“Having a fiscal sponsor who can
effectively fulfill so many of the support
and accounting functions is huge for us
because we can just focus on the work at
hand.” Kevin Starr, Founder and Director
of the Rainer Arnhold Fellows Program
The Rainer Arnhold Fellows (RAF) program addresses the most urgent problems in health, poverty,
and conservation in the Third World by helping social entrepreneurs design solutions for maximum
impact and scalability. We choose six to eight fellows for a two-year program that includes model
design and scalability coursework, help re-designing their specific model, formal mentoring,
facilitated networking, and an annual $10,000 stipend.
How did RAF get started and what was your role?
Rainer Arnhold was a pediatrician who dedicated his life to making a better life for children in
poverty. I was running the Mulago Foundation, whose goal is to carry on Rainer’s life work. Rainer
Arnhold’s family asked me to commemorate his life by starting a program named after Rainer to
mentor young leaders with a focus on poverty solutions. We recruited fellows through our network
and held a week-long course. That was eight years ago.
What was your biggest challenge in getting RAF off the
ground?
Finding fellows whom we feel confident are the best out there.
How has TCI helped RAF get to where you are today?
Having a fiscal sponsor who could effectively fulfill so many of
the support and accounting functions was huge for us because
we could just focus on the work at hand.
What is your proudest accomplishment at RAF?
The aggregated impact of all these fellows and what they have
accomplished. Also the level of quality of our fellows -- there has been a steady, year-by-year
improvement in the quality of our fellows.
“Teaching Social Entrepreneurs to Maximize Their Impact in the Fight
Against Poverty”
An Interview With Kevin Starr, Founder and Director, Rainer Arhnhold Fellows Program
(Continued)
Is there a Fellow that particularly inspires you?
I found Andrew Youn at a business plan competition at Stanford. He had an idea called the One Acre
Fund that addressed one of our thorniest problems: rural poverty (farmers supporting a family on
one acre of land). He wanted to help farmers get land and access to the market they needed on
credit. He became a fellow, and working with us, his idea evolved rapidly. He leveraged our initial
support to fundraise and build an organization, and is now one of the best-known social
entrepreneurs out there – a leader in his field. His work has impacted 70,000 farming families – a
total of 350,000-400,000 people and his budget is now in the millions.
What is the hardest part about your job?
Trying to figure out how each year will be better than the last. Convincing myself that the solutions
and people we found are the best out there.
What do you love about your job?
I love the people I work with and working with them on their ideas. There’s nothing better than
that.
What is next for RAF?
Finding the next set of fellows, fellows with world-changing solutions who fit together as a group,
and evolving the tools and methods we use to teach people how to design for maximum impact.