This is the first part of a series of blog posts that will provide clarity on Ushahidi’s identity, and path forward over the next 5 years. 

Since 2019, Ushahidi has been executing on it’s strategic shift to:-

• put our tools in the hands of those who need it the most, regardless of their financial ability.
• strengthen our relationship with our open source community, and
• rethink how we sustain the organization, moving from providing our software as the service, but more of our support and expertise to provide the most value to Ushahidi users.

In that time, we have achieved a lot, including (but not limited to):-

• Waived the fees off our hosted service, which has led to increased use of the Ushahidi platform. 
• Seen our platform deployed in over 130 countries over 2500 times to respond to the COVID-19 pandemic. 

• Doubled our open source contributions through participation in programs like Outreachy and Google Summer of Code, and improved user and contributor documentation. 
• Introduced USSD as an alternative and low cost data source, making it easier for our partners to collect data from beneficiaries in areas with little to no connectivity, thanks to support from CISCO Foundation. 
• Launched a web monetization feature that enables grassroots organisations using Ushahidi to receive injections of money directly from the deployments, based on interactions with their work. 
• Launched an Ushahidi v2-v3 migration tool for Crowdmap users who previously had no path for migration.
• Launched an entity translation feature, making it easier for multilingual communities to interact with user generated content in their language of choice. 
• Been globally recognised as a technology platform for global good by Tech Interactive.
• Received support from MacKenzie Scott that will propel us into the future of the organization.

That said, we’ve felt that we need to do a better job of communicating with our community and partners, clearly showcasing our identity and work, that acknowledges years of impactful work, but also a new dawn for the organization. 

• We want to demonstrate our relevance outside of humanitarian crises: Ushahidi is widely known for its role in times of crisis. However, Ushahidi is also useful beyond rapid response, but also for effecting long term change and influencing decision making. We want to better articulate the utility and scope of our brand and platform, while also providing clarity in what we can do, and who we are able to serve. 
• We want to differentiate between Ushahidi as a company, and the Ushahidi Platform (the product)). Often, people have associated the product with the company, and in periods where we’ve developed new products, it’s created a lot of confusion. 
• But most importantly, we want to clearly communicate and articulate our brand value.  

Today, we’re launching our new website, which is a culmination of months of review and collaboration with Ocupop, to revamp our messaging and overhaul how we present ourselves to the world.

Allow me to re-introduce us!

Ushahidi is a global not-for-profit technology company that develops integrated tools and services to enable people to generate solutions and mobilize communities for good. We build our open-source software to strengthen communities and improve lives, empower users to rapidly and purposefully gather, analyze, respond and act on data and information.

Vision

To empower communities to thrive through access to data and technology

Mission

To help communities quickly collect and share information that enables them to raise their voices and influence change

Purpose

To empower people to generate solutions that strengthen their communities

Value Proposition

Integrated technology tools and services to rapidly gather, analyze and mobilize communities for good

Reasons to believe in Ushahidi

Proven legacy of impact: From inception, Ushahidi has powered thousands of democratic, humanitarian, rescue and advocacy deployments ranging in scale and location. 

Globally scalable tools: The Ushahidi platform has helped raise voices and strengthen communities across the globe, with platform deployments in over 160 countries and 40+ different languages. 

Integrated, holistic data platform: Our open-source crowdsourcing tools facilitate gathering and analysis in a single, unified space to simplify work, and empower user to make better, faster decisions. 

Support and guidance for change: Ushahidi is committed to helping its users and their deployments succeed, offering platform assistance and expertise, as users seek to create change in their communities. 

So, what next?

​SpaceX

We’re concluding a 5-year strategic planning process with the Bridgespan group, and will be sharing what the next 5 years of Ushahidi’s legacy will look like in the next blog post in this series. Stay tuned. 

In the meantime, please feel free to visit https://ushahidi.com for more on who we are, and what we do today!