[ annual report 2025 ]
UP Mid-Stage Global Health Fund
Bringing at least one cost-effective global health project to scale by 2029.
[ foreword ]
Welcome to the Ultra Philanthropy Mid-Stage Global Health Fund annual report.
[ WHO WE FUND ]
Meet the grantees
[ Grant outputs and outcomes ]
2025 grant outputs and outcomes
[ WHERE THEY WORK ]
Grantee Map
Our grantees work in LMICs in Asia and Africa, where they can deliver maximum cost-effectiveness.
7 active grantees
7 countries
[ Grantee progress to scale ]
Grantee progress
Our grantees are at various stages on their journey to scale. Click a grantee to see their progress against their scaling objectives.
[ founders ]
Meet our founders
Dr Aishat Adeniji
Co-Founder and CEO, HealthPort
Dr Abubakar Umar
Co-Founder, Taimaka
Céline Kamsteeg
Co-Founder and Director of Growth, Lafiya
Habiba Banu
Co-Founder and Director of Operations and Research, Spiro
Dr Jun Young (Charlie) Jeong
Co-founder, Clear Solutions
Justin Graham
Co-Founder, Taimaka
Karl Keefer
Director of Technology, HealthLearn
Dr Keyur Doolabh
Co-Founder, Healthy Futures
Klau Chmielowska
Co-Founder and Co-Executive Director, Lafiya
Marshall Thomas
Executive Director, HealthLearn
Martyn James
Co-founder, Clear Solutions
Nils Voelker
Co-Founder, Healthy Futures
Roxanne Heston
Co-Founder and Director of Programs and Strategy, Spiro
[ contribution ]
Contribute to the fund
[ how we fund ]
Fund operations
The Mid-stage Global Health Fund operates on the leanest basis possible, allowing us to focus on adding value beyond our grantmaking. Donors benefit from pooling their funds, allowing them to support a wider range of projects than they could alone, and diversifying the risk of supporting early-stage projects.
Marshall Thomas, Co-Founder, HealthLearn
We aim to fund a range of projects, to give us the greatest chance of achieving our fund goal, which is to bring at least one cost-effective health intervention to scale by 2029. However, we also aim to offer transformative funding and support to organizations, helping them to focus on scaling and programme improvements, head of fundraising:
Beyond financial support, the Fund offers intensive management and technical assistance to grantees, to maximize their chances of success and make donor contributions go further. To enable this, the Fund has recruited a high-quality Investment Committee and a number of expert consultants, who are available to grantees at a rate subsidised by the Fund.
The Fund holds and disburses grants from a US DAF with Vanguard Charitable and a UK-US DAF with National Philanthropic Trust, two highly respected providers holding over $270bn in assets. These accounts can receive contributions of cash, stocks and crypto tax-deductibly in the US and the UK. Tax-deductible options may be available in other jurisdictions on request.
Our fundraising strategy concentrates on major donors who want the convenience of a pooled fund and are sufficiently impact-focussed to prefer a thesis-driven fund to establishing a costly private foundation or philanthropy. The minimum contribution to the Fund is therefore US$100k/year (including any matching funds), and donors can contribute for 1-3 years at a time. Donors are subject to Know Your Customer checks via Vanguard Charitable and NPT, which will involve providing passport information. Donors may opt in to share their identities with other donors, partners or grantees.
The Fund is free to clients advised privately by Ultra Philanthropy. For other donors, the Fund management fee is 2%, to fund sourcing, vetting, monitoring and reporting on grants, and (in particular) ongoing technical support to grantees. The management fee is invoiced separately and in addition to funds donated to the DAF. Fees can be paid tax-deductibly, although this usually involves a small processing fee (~6% of the fee amount), to be covered by the donor.
Funds are invested in Vanguard Charitable’s Income and money market funds in the US, and split between UBS MSCI ACWI and cash in the UK, owing to the short-term disbursement schedule. All proceeds are added to the fund balance. The Vanguard Income fund comprises 80% bonds and 20% stock index funds. These funds in total encompass ~$86trn in assets.
[ Fundraising, grants and expenses ]
Fund financials
Donations & Grants Cashflow (USD)
How much did we fund our grantees?
We aim to fund as much of our grantees' funding gaps as possible.
Level
Marginal
0-20%
0%
Moderate
20-40%
29%
Significant
40-60%
25%
Very significant
60-80%
0%
All or almost all
>80%
46%
Grants by cause area
[ Grant sourcing and vetting ]
Grant sourcing and vetting
The fund adds value by identifying promising, lesser-known interventions, which are either unknown or out of scope for existing funders. It doesn’t accept funding requests, instead sourcing opportunities through the Fund Manager’s network, including GiveWell, Ambitious Impact and Founders Pledge. These research teams share their research with Ultra Philanthropy and regularly share their insights on promising, underfunded cause areas. The fund aims to have a strong comparative advantage in sourcing dealflow.
In 2025, our funnel looked like this
42
Considered
37
Shallow evaluation
20
Full evaluation
9
Grants made or agreed
[ Grant outputs and outcomes ]
Investment committee
The Investment Committee assists Jack, the Fund Manager, to make funding decisions.
Expert Consultants
Grantees can access technical assistance from our pool of expert consultants, with the grantee and the Fund splitting the cost.
Karen Levy
Fit for Purpose
Liz Jarman
Strategic Advisor & Executive Mentor
Olivia Kaye
M&E Specialist
Shreya K Pereira
M&E Specialist
Joshua Becker
UCL
Kevin Rosenberg
Strategy & Implementation
Will Jefferson
Communication, Feedback & Culture
Matt Hurst-Smith
Organisational Development & Fractional HR