Action Against Hunger USA
The world needs a better way to deal with hunger. Together, we're creating it.
Action Against Hunger USA
EIN: 13-3327220
Mission
Our mission is to save, improve and protect lives by eliminating hunger through the prevention, detection and treatment of undernutrition, especially during and after emergency crises caused by situations of conflict, displacement, poverty, discrimination, inequality, or natural disaster. From crisis to sustainability, we tackle the immediate, underlying and root causes of undernutrition and its effects through a multisectoral approach. By designing our programmes with local communities, integrating them into national systems, and working with partners, we further ensure that short-term interventions become long-term solutions.
Ruling year
1985
CEO
Dr. Charles Owubah
Main address
One Whitehall Street 2nd Floor
New York, NY 10004 USA
EIN
13-3327220
International development
Disasters and emergency management
Food security
Health care access
Food aid
Population served
People with diseases and illnesses
Economically disadvantaged people
Immigrants and migrants
Age groups
Pregnant people
NTEE code
International Relief (Q33)
International Migration, Refugee Issues (Q71)
IRS subsection
501(c)(3) Public Charity
IRS filing requirement
This organization is required to file an IRS Form 990 or 990-EZ.
Tax forms
Communication
Programs and results
Reports and documents
Download annual reports Download other documentsWhat we aim to solve
Something remarkable is happening: Action Against Hunger has helped lead a movement that successfully cut the proportion of hungry children by half. Yet, every day, more than 5,000 children still lose the fight against malnutrition and its deadly effects. The world needs a better way to deal with hunger. We’re creating it, for everyone. For good. Hungry children struggle to grow, learn, or even survive. When a child younger than five dies, malnutrition is a root cause 50% of the time. Yet, only 1 in 4 children with life-threatening hunger can even hope to access treatment. Action Against Hunger is the world’s hunger specialist. We aim to eliminate hunger within our lifetimes. To start, we’re working to double, by 2020, the number of children who receive urgent hunger treatment, and to help countless families realize their goal of never needing hunger treatment at all.
Our programs
What are the organization's current programs, how do they measure success, and who do the programs serve?
Nutrition
Action Against Hunger’s methods for identifying and rescuing populations afflicted with acute malnutrition are internationally renowned, having pioneered revolutionary nutrition products and field tested treatment protocols that have become industry standards.
From rural mountain villages to the confines of refugee camps to ethnically divided cities, Action Against Hunger treats and prevents malnutrition in over 45 countries around the world. Our programs are launched most often during times of crisis and focus on the most vulnerable, including young children and women who are pregnant or nursing.
Water, Sanitation & Hygiene
Every day 1,000 children die from illnesses like diarrhea, dysentery, and cholera caused by dirty water and unhygienic living conditions. We can’t fight malnutrition without tackling the diseases that contribute to it. As part of our integrated approach to hunger, we’re getting safe water, sanitation, and hygiene services to communities in need all over the world.
Food Security & Livelihoods
Encompassing a wide array of activities customized to meet a community’s specific needs, our programs are designed to bolster agricultural production, jumpstart local market activity, support micro-enterprise initiatives, and otherwise enhance a vulnerable community’s access to sustainable sources of food and income.
Emergency Response
From cholera epidemics sweeping through refugee camps, to catastrophic natural disasters, to spikes in malnutrition rates brought on by drought, Action Against Hunger responds to humanitarian emergencies all over the world, delivering immediate life-saving services to populations in distress.
With emergency teams on call 24 hours a day, and pre-positioned stocks of essential supplies ready for deployment, our internationally renowned rapid response capabilities ensure that life-saving assistance can be delivered anywhere in the world when needs arise.
Mental Health & Care Practices
Our mental health and care practices help people in emergencies cope with and overcome trauma, distress, and anxiety, all of which can have an impact on the nutrition of mothers, infants, and young children. Our interventions are varied and tailored to each context, ranging from parental support to behavior change counseling.
Research and Innovation
Action Against Hunger’s research and innovation work focuses on the prevention, treatment, and drivers of undernutrition. Our portfolio is diverse - in 2019 alone, we contributed to 46 active research and innovation projects across 25 countries, in collaboration with 58 partners and with funding support from 21 different institutional donors.
Our approach to research marries science with pragmatism – providing us with the nuts and bolts required to create tangible change, even in the most difficult contexts. Our initiatives, which are intentionally and explicitly fit-for-purpose, are designed to achieve the standard of evidence necessary for action on critical issues, while abiding by fundamentally strict ‘do no harm’ principles.
Where we work
Awards
4 star 2018
Charity Navigator
Accredited 2018
Better Business Bureau Accredited Charity
A 2018
CharityWatch (formerly American Institute of Philanthropy)
To Rated 2015
Great Nonprofit
Affiliations & memberships
InterAction - Member
Millennium Water Alliance 2019
KickStart International 2020
Videos
Our results
How does this organization measure their results? It's a hard question but an important one.
Number of water points improved
This metric is no longer tracked.Totals By Year
Population(s) Served
Adults
Related Program
Water, Sanitation & Hygiene
Type of Metric
Output - describing our activities and reach
Direction of Success
Increasing
Context Notes
These figures include the construction and rehabilitation of wells, boreholes, and pumps; water point protection; rainwater harvesting; and spring catchment and protection, among other projects.
Number of hygiene kits distributed
This metric is no longer tracked.Totals By Year
Population(s) Served
Adults
Related Program
Water, Sanitation & Hygiene
Type of Metric
Output - describing our activities and reach
Direction of Success
Increasing
Context Notes
Hygiene kits are distributed in emergency settings and contain items like chlorine tablets, soap, and other sanitary materials to prevent the spread of waterborne diseases such as diarrhea and cholera
Number of people treated for moderate and severe malnutrition
This metric is no longer tracked.Totals By Year
Population(s) Served
Adults
Related Program
Nutrition
Type of Metric
Output - describing our activities and reach
Direction of Success
Increasing
Context Notes
More than 90% of individuals treated for acute malnutrition are children under 5 years of age.
Number of health and nutrition education sessions held
This metric is no longer tracked.Totals By Year
Population(s) Served
Adults
Related Program
Nutrition
Type of Metric
Output - describing our activities and reach
Direction of Success
Increasing
Context Notes
Education initiatives range from mother-to-mother support groups, to training community health workers to teach them how to identify, refer and follow-up on cases of undernutrition in their community
Number of emergencies responded to
This metric is no longer tracked.Totals By Year
Population(s) Served
Adults
Related Program
Emergency Response
Type of Metric
Output - describing our activities and reach
Direction of Success
Increasing
Context Notes
Emergencies include both natural and man-made disasters; for example, droughts, floods, earthquakes, and responding to the needs of refugees or internally displaced people fleeing conflict.
Metric tons of food assistance delivered
This metric is no longer tracked.Totals By Year
Related Program
Food Security & Livelihoods
Type of Metric
Output - describing our activities and reach
Direction of Success
Increasing
Context Notes
Food assistance is delivered as a part of our Emergency Responses and in unstable contexts where people do not have reliable access to markets or other sources of food.
People received unrestricted cash
This metric is no longer tracked.Totals By Year
Related Program
Food Security & Livelihoods
Type of Metric
Output - describing our activities and reach
Direction of Success
Increasing
Context Notes
In 2017, Action Against Hunger implemented integrated cash and nutrition program, providing financial support to households with children under treatment for severe acute malnutrition.
People received mental health support
This metric is no longer tracked.Totals By Year
Type of Metric
Output - describing our activities and reach
Direction of Success
Increasing
Context Notes
Mental health support is vital in emergency responses and other unstable contexts. Our programs consist of individual counseling and support, support groups, and care practice activities.
Our Sustainable Development Goals
Learn more about Sustainable Development Goals.
Goals & Strategy
Learn about the organization's key goals, strategies, capabilities, and progress.
Charting impact
Four powerful questions that require reflection about what really matters - results.
What is the organization aiming to accomplish?
Action Against Hunger knows what works, and we are single-minded in our determination to save lives. We can double the number of children who receive urgent hunger care over the next two years, from three million to six million by the end of 2020. That’s roughly equivalent to saving the life of every single child younger than five across all of New York state and Texas.
To achieve this goal, we urgently need support to scale-up proven programs in more than 45 countries. We are expanding our top-rated hunger prevention and screening programs, and making hunger treatment more available in places where the need is greatest.
We’re also creating new systems that prevent hunger and give more parents access to simple, effective materials to diagnose their kids for dangerous malnutrition and treat them close to home.
To prevent hunger, we team with local leaders to understand what drives malnutrition in their area. Once we see patterns of risk, we collaborate with communities to create sustainable new solutions. For example, where periodic drought threatens family gardens, we may form local water committees to create and manage cisterns. It’s a better way, letting everyone access the water they need to reduce hunger and environmental impact over the long term.
What are the organization's key strategies for making this happen?
Action Against Hunger is continuously developing and evolving in response to humanitarian and undernutrition crises across the globe.
To address the complex and escalating humanitarian needs while increasing our impact, we need to adopt a
new mix of interlinking approaches alongside our proven technical expertise. Our commitment to this approach
uniquely positions Action Against Hunger to mobilize and empower others over the next five years and to
maximize our shared potential to achieve unprecedented and sustained gains in the fight against hunger.
The priorities of our International Strategic Plan 2021–2025 (ISP3) outline how we will achieve this and they are as followed:
1. We save lives: Lives are saved and immediate needs are met in an effective and inclusive manner in emergency contexts.
2. We collectively build resilience: People and communities are better able to withstand future shocks. Mitigation
of the climate crisis and of gender inequality is embedded in the fight against hunger.
3. We connect and mobilize: Citizens, communities, civil society and actors at all levels are mobilized as part of a collective movement to end hunger.
4. We create and share knowledge: Best practice in the fight against hunger is developed collaboratively by a diversity of actors and shared for the empowerment of all.
What are the organization's capabilities for doing this?
We have over 8,000 staff who assisted 17 million people in 45 countries in 2019, and we have 40 years of experience saving lives during conflict, disasters, and food crises. Our global team is on the ground, operating in close collaboration with national governments, local communities and other leading international agencies.
What have they accomplished so far and what's next?
1979 was a year of crisis. Famine threatened Uganda, and refugees from Cambodia and Afghanistan were malnourished. The world needed a better way to deal with hunger. A group of scientists, doctors, and humanitarians mobilized to create Action Against Hunger, the first and only NGO exclusively dedicated to this issue.
Since then, Action Against Hunger invented the first formula to effectively treat malnourished children. We have created effective new models for diagnosing and treating more people. We have conducted groundbreaking research. We have been the leader in a global movement that successfully cut the number of child deaths in half. We deliver:
Scale. Action Against Hunger works in more than 45 countries, providing 20 million vulnerable people with life-changing assistance. Malnutrition makes the burden of grinding poverty that much harder, and we aim to unlock human potential at scale. We are powered by nearly 8,000 passionate people, and more than 95% of our staff come from the places where they work. That allows us to harness local insights and partnerships while strengthening the capacity of communities to tackle hunger themselves.
Efficiency: Action Against Hunger is one of the highest-rated nonprofits in the world. For the fourteenth year in a row, we have been awarded a ‘four-star’ rating from Charity Navigator—the highest ranking and a distinction only the top 1% of nonprofits earn. 93 cents of every dollar go directly to programs that help strong, resilient people overcome life-threatening circumstances.
Effectiveness. Action Against Hunger has created breakthrough nutrition products and better protocols for treating hunger. When children complete treatment, our evidence-based programs cure life-threatening hunger 90% of the time. Every day, our highly-trained teams save lives in some of the world’s most difficult places.
Focus: Action Against Hunger delivers extraordinary results because we are exceptionally focused: Our primary focus is creating and delivering better ways to deal with deadly hunger.
Financials
Financial documents
Download audited financialsRevenue vs. expenses: breakdown
Liquidity in 2022 info
1.06
Months of cash in 2022 info
2.7
Fringe rate in 2022 info
9%
Funding sources info
Assets & liabilities info
Financial data
Action Against Hunger USA
Balance sheetFiscal Year: Jan 01 - Dec 31
The balance sheet gives a snapshot of the financial health of an organization at a particular point in time. An organization's total assets should generally exceed its total liabilities, or it cannot survive long, but the types of assets and liabilities must also be considered. For instance, an organization's current assets (cash, receivables, securities, etc.) should be sufficient to cover its current liabilities (payables, deferred revenue, current year loan, and note payments). Otherwise, the organization may face solvency problems. On the other hand, an organization whose cash and equivalents greatly exceed its current liabilities might not be putting its money to best use.
Fiscal Year: Jan 01 - Dec 31
This snapshot of Action Against Hunger USA’s financial trends applies Nonprofit Finance Fund® analysis to data hosted by GuideStar. While it highlights the data that matter most, remember that context is key – numbers only tell part of any story.
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Business model indicators
| Profitability info | 2018 | 2019 | 2020 | 2021 | 2022 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Unrestricted surplus (deficit) before depreciation | -$5,721,162 | $2,602,359 | $5,752,330 | $4,477,005 | -$1,270,965 |
| As % of expenses | -4.5% | 4.3% | 6.7% | 4.9% | -1.0% |
| Unrestricted surplus (deficit) after depreciation | -$6,044,065 | $2,378,215 | $5,598,705 | $4,395,139 | -$1,370,721 |
| As % of expenses | -4.7% | 3.9% | 6.5% | 4.9% | -1.1% |
| Revenue composition info | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Total revenue (unrestricted & restricted) | $146,004,059 | $85,356,443 | $78,316,471 | $117,737,270 | $130,585,672 |
| Total revenue, % change over prior year | -21.0% | -41.5% | -8.2% | 50.3% | 10.9% |
| Program services revenue | 0.0% | 0.0% | 0.0% | 0.0% | 0.0% |
| Membership dues | 0.0% | 0.0% | 0.0% | 0.0% | 0.0% |
| Investment income | 0.0% | 0.0% | 0.0% | 0.0% | 0.0% |
| Government grants | 89.3% | 88.0% | 63.4% | 78.2% | 78.0% |
| All other grants and contributions | 10.8% | 11.9% | 34.9% | 21.3% | 21.5% |
| Other revenue | -0.1% | 0.2% | 1.6% | 0.5% | 0.5% |
| Expense composition info | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Total expenses before depreciation | $127,001,492 | $61,017,514 | $86,153,731 | $90,522,095 | $129,862,186 |
| Total expenses, % change over prior year | -19.6% | -52.0% | 41.2% | 5.1% | 43.5% |
| Personnel | 25.7% | 47.3% | 33.7% | 38.5% | 32.8% |
| Professional fees | 7.0% | 9.3% | 12.8% | 7.3% | 10.8% |
| Occupancy | 2.3% | 4.2% | 3.3% | 3.1% | 3.0% |
| Interest | 0.1% | 0.4% | 0.1% | 0.0% | 0.0% |
| Pass-through | 0.0% | 0.0% | 0.0% | 0.0% | 0.0% |
| All other expenses | 65.0% | 38.8% | 50.1% | 51.1% | 53.4% |
| Full cost components (estimated) info | 2018 | 2019 | 2020 | 2021 | 2022 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Total expenses (after depreciation) | $127,324,395 | $61,241,658 | $86,307,356 | $90,603,961 | $129,961,942 |
| One month of savings | $10,583,458 | $5,084,793 | $7,179,478 | $7,543,508 | $10,821,849 |
| Debt principal payment | $0 | $0 | $5,450,000 | $1,050,000 | $0 |
| Fixed asset additions | $0 | $0 | $0 | $0 | $536,522 |
| Total full costs (estimated) | $137,907,853 | $66,326,451 | $98,936,834 | $99,197,469 | $141,320,313 |
Capital structure indicators
| Liquidity info | 2018 | 2019 | 2020 | 2021 | 2022 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Months of cash | 1.3 | 4.6 | 3.0 | 4.5 | 2.7 |
| Months of cash and investments | 1.3 | 4.6 | 3.0 | 4.5 | 2.7 |
| Months of estimated liquid unrestricted net assets | 0.3 | 1.2 | 1.6 | 2.1 | 1.3 |
| Balance sheet composition info | 2018 | 2019 | 2020 | 2021 | 2022 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Cash | $13,793,391 | $23,549,281 | $21,810,040 | $34,039,357 | $29,554,894 |
| Investments | $0 | $0 | $0 | $0 | $0 |
| Receivables | $93,865,735 | $102,907,719 | $54,440,303 | $73,672,079 | $79,027,128 |
| Gross land, buildings, equipment (LBE) | $3,786,407 | $3,771,951 | $3,569,679 | $3,559,724 | $4,096,246 |
| Accumulated depreciation (as a % of LBE) | 68.5% | 74.3% | 77.1% | 79.3% | 71.4% |
| Liabilities (as a % of assets) | 20.7% | 14.9% | 27.6% | 24.6% | 25.4% |
| Unrestricted net assets | $4,067,074 | $5,931,776 | $12,398,508 | $16,793,647 | $15,422,926 |
| Temporarily restricted net assets | $91,024,140 | N/A | N/A | N/A | N/A |
| Permanently restricted net assets | $0 | N/A | N/A | N/A | N/A |
| Total restricted net assets | $91,024,140 | $114,756,609 | $50,024,610 | $69,933,106 | $71,211,965 |
| Total net assets | $95,091,214 | $120,688,385 | $62,423,118 | $86,726,753 | $86,634,891 |
Key data checks
| Key data checks info | 2018 | 2019 | 2020 | 2021 | 2022 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Material data errors | No | No | No | No | No |
Operations
The people, governance practices, and partners that make the organization tick.
Documents
CEO
Dr. Charles Owubah
Charles Owubah joined Action Against Hunger as its Chief Executive Officer in May 2019. Dr. Owubah earned his Ph.D. in Natural Resource Management and Policy from Purdue University in the U.S. He was an academic and consultant on food aid management before spending nearly 20 years at World Vision in roles of increasing responsibility.
Number of employees
Source: IRS Form 990
Action Against Hunger USA
Officers, directors, trustees, and key employeesSOURCE: IRS Form 990
Compensation data
Action Against Hunger USA
Highest paid employeesSOURCE: IRS Form 990
Compensation data
Action Against Hunger USA
Board of directorsas of 11/01/2023
Board of directors data
Mr. Raymond Debbane
The Invus Group, LLC
Term: 2003 -
Mr. Thilo Semmelbauer
Insight Venture Partners
Term: 2018 -
Burton K. Haimes
Tannenbaum Helpern Syracuse & Hirschtritt LLP
Raymond Debbane
The Invus Group. LLC
Yves-Andre Istel
Rothschild, Inc.
Thilo Semmelbauer
Insight Venture Partners
Ketty Pucci-Sisti Maisonrouge
Ketty Maisonrouge & Company, Inc.
Karim Tabet
TAP Advisors LLC
Sandra Tamer
Sylvain Desjonqueres
L'Occitane
Christophe Duthoit
Boston Consulting Group
Shabrina Jiva
ghSMART
David Van Zandt
The Invus Group LLC
Amy Schulman
Polaris Partners
Jean-Pierre Chesse
Bleu Capital
Robert Spatt
Simpson Thacher & Bartlett LLP
Ricardo Hernandez
Royalhalo
Anya Kuligana
Salesforce
Julia Sherbakov
Impact Journey
Aisha Haynie Smart
Memorial Hermann Hospital System
Leslie Grant
Cargill
Board leadership practices
GuideStar worked with BoardSource, the national leader in nonprofit board leadership and governance, to create this section.
-
Board orientation and education
Does the board conduct a formal orientation for new board members and require all board members to sign a written agreement regarding their roles, responsibilities, and expectations? Yes -
CEO oversight
Has the board conducted a formal, written assessment of the chief executive within the past year ? Yes -
Ethics and transparency
Have the board and senior staff reviewed the conflict-of-interest policy and completed and signed disclosure statements in the past year? Yes -
Board composition
Does the board ensure an inclusive board member recruitment process that results in diversity of thought and leadership? Yes -
Board performance
Has the board conducted a formal, written self-assessment of its performance within the past three years? No
Organizational demographics
Who works and leads organizations that serve our diverse communities? Candid partnered with CHANGE Philanthropy on this demographic section.
Leadership
The organization's leader identifies as:
Race & ethnicity
Gender identity
Transgender Identity
Sexual orientation
No data
Disability
No data
Equity strategies
Last updated: 09/21/2020GuideStar partnered with Equity in the Center - an organization that works to shift mindsets, practices, and systems to increase racial equity - to create this section. Learn more
- We review compensation data across the organization (and by staff levels) to identify disparities by race.
- We ask team members to identify racial disparities in their programs and / or portfolios.
- We analyze disaggregated data and root causes of race disparities that impact the organization's programs, portfolios, and the populations served.
- We disaggregate data to adjust programming goals to keep pace with changing needs of the communities we support.
- We employ non-traditional ways of gathering feedback on programs and trainings, which may include interviews, roundtables, and external reviews with/by community stakeholders.
- We have long-term strategic plans and measurable goals for creating a culture such that one’s race identity has no influence on how they fare within the organization.
- We have a promotion process that anticipates and mitigates implicit and explicit biases about people of color serving in leadership positions.
- We seek individuals from various race backgrounds for board and executive director/CEO positions within our organization.
- We help senior leadership understand how to be inclusive leaders with learning approaches that emphasize reflection, iteration, and adaptability.
Contractors
Fiscal year endingProfessional fundraisers
Fiscal year endingSOURCE: IRS Form 990 Schedule G
Solicitation activities
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- Letter of Determination
- Officer and/or Employee data for 2022, 2021, 2020, 2019, 2018
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