Mission,
vision & values
Our mission:
Empowering social impact
Kobo is dedicated to empowering social impact organizations with better tools and knowledge to collect, understand, and use data—especially where it’s needed most.
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Through its open-source commitment, community partnerships, and focus on global accessibility, Kobo works to strengthen evidence-based decision-making and inclusive participation in development and humanitarian action.
Our vision:
Data-driven impact
Data-Driven Impact
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We envision a world where humanitarian, development, environmental, peacebuilding, and human rights actions are guided by high-quality, up-to-date data—generated with and by communities using accessible and secure technology.
Our
values
Designed for People, Everywhere
Accessibility
We maintain and support open source tools that are intuitive to use and accessible to all organizations promoting social good. Providing quality tools and services to local actors and volunteer networks, who are often under-resourced, is key to achieving our vision.
Ground truth
Our work is guided by the knowledge and input of our advisory council, by the social impact organizations who use our tools, and by the stakeholders we serve
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Compatibility
We maintain and contribute to open source projects and standards, ensuring compatibility with other tools and enhancing the flexibility of our platforms. Building transferable skills, mutual support, and frameworks for collaborating is essential to achieving our mission.
Respect
Kobo is dedicated to protecting the human rights, autonomy, and dignity of all persons, including our team members, our partners and users, and the communities we serve.
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Our commitment to diversity
Inclusive, Informed, Impactful
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We are committed to diversity at all levels of the organization, and we value the benefits that diversity can bring to our board and team. Diversity promotes the inclusion of different perspectives and ideas, mitigates against groupthink, and improves oversight, decision-making, and governance. Diversity includes experience, geography, age, gender, visible minorities, Indigenous peoples, persons with disabilities, sexual orientation, and other social identity groups.
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Kobo is also committed to fostering an inclusive culture, based on merit and free of conscious or unconscious bias. At all times, we seek to maintain a board and advisory council composed of dedicated individuals with diverse representation of experience, skills, and backgrounds who collectively reflect the strategic needs of Kobo and the context in which we work.