I. Problem and Solution
Mission
As a global nonprofit, the organization’s mission is to focus on high-impact, sustainable projects aimed at ending extreme poverty and fighting hunger around the world.
Objective
Our objective is to identify and address the intersecting, underlying causes of poverty with an emphasis on equitable access to education. Our goals for 2017 are as follows:
- Build four school buildings, one in Burkina Faso, one in Malawi, and two in Nicaragua;
- Raise additional funds to break ground on a fifth school, in Nepal;
- Engage the communities served, to ensure buy-in and sustainability of investments; and
- Identify and address barriers to education in these locations.
The Social Problem
Poverty is a significant social problem, with an estimated 1 in 10 people in the world surviving on less than $1.90 USD per day; much of this poverty disproportionately affects women and children living within rural areas of developing countries (World Bank, 2016). It is such a significant issue that the United Nations has identified “No Poverty” as its first of 17 goals for Sustainable Development through the year 2030 (UN, 2015). Poverty is the result of systemic factors like unequal distribution of wealth, often along lines of gender, geographic location, and education level. Often individuals living in poverty simply need access to the resources and skills to develop sustainable local economies and prepare their children to succeed.
Our Solution
The organization addresses poverty using a multi-faceted model that identifies and addresses factors that underpin and perpetuate poverty in the most under-resourced communities worldwide. We use a data-informed approach to selecting which locations would most benefit from our model by remaining aware of natural disasters, and trends in politics, economics, and education. For example, we selected Burkina Faso given its increasingly severe cycles of drought and flooding, and a significant number of refugees from Mali, that have challenged food security and economic growth. We then provide:
- Project Educate: Leveraging community support to build schools to educate boys and girls equally. Our model leverages an entire year of community engagement and an MOU process to ensure that every member of a community is fully invested in building and maintaining a schoolhouse.
- Project Water: Building water wells to support health and reduce the time children must spend collecting water instead of attending school. This issue disproportionately affects girls.
- Project Agriculture: Providing bee hives to communities for additional sources of nutrition and income.
- Project Health: De-worming campaigns to support better nutrition and concentration for children.
We also train community members to maintain these resources. This comprehensive, low-cost intervention yields a high impact so that students receive access to a safe and inclusive learning environment in their own community plus the resources necessary to support their success over time.
II. Impact
Collaborations
The organization recognizes that its work cannot occur in a silo. Rather we seek to cultivate lasting partnerships with like-minded non-profits and NGOs worldwide to fulfill our mission and complement the missions of other organizations. The organization has a formal partnership with buildOn to construct schoolhouses. We provide the funds and oversight and buildOn provides the knowledge, expertise, and person-power to complete these building projects. Similarly, the organization has a formal partnership with another well-established nonprofit organization. It was through initial collaboration with that org’s founder that we began to embark on de-worming campaigns in the communities where we construct schoolhouses, after learning about the critical connection between intestinal parasites, malnutrition, and poor concentration in school. The organization continues to be dedicated to identifying and partnering with other similar organizations in the long term to achieve a common vision: no more poverty and no more hunger.
Systemic and Unique Approach
Our approach is unique in that it does not simply tackle one aspect of poverty; rather it tackles several systemic causes of poverty simultaneously. Specifically, this work is in service of the UN’s first six Sustainable Development Goals by addressing poverty, as perpetuated by hunger, poor health, lack of quality education, gender inequality, and lack of clean water. We use equitable education as the insertion point for this work. Our priority is to work directly with community members to gather input on their most pressing needs and how we can help solve them collaboratively. Another unique aspect of our work is that the co-founders (now co-chairs of our Board of Directors) have a hands-on approach; they travel as volunteers to our communities served to see, first-hand, the issues driving poverty. This allows the voices of the individuals served to be at the forefront of our strategic planning and decision-making. Another critical aspect of our work is that we provide resource investments; we do not simply provide funds and leave. Rather, we cultivate friendships and partnerships and remain engaged with the communities served over time to check in and monitor their growth.
Results to Date
Since being founded in 2015 we have provided over 7,000 people with water, provided education to over 1,500 people, provided de-worming medication to over 2 million people, and donated over 7,500 pounds of food, throughout Burkina Faso, Haiti, Uganda, Malawi, Nicaragua, India, the United States, and Nepal.
Measuring Outcomes and Success
As a newer organization, the NGO is in the process of developing more defined methods of measuring our outcomes and success over time. Because we are engaged first-hand with our communities served we have a significant amount of qualitative data. In terms of quantitative data, we track the number of individuals served within each program. We aim to create metrics to measure our success in the long-term including educational outcomes for students.
III. Scale
Plans to Scale
As a developing organization, the NGO is currently at a key point for developing sustainable systems and processes internally that will help us function better overall. Each year, the organization aims to identify and serve four to five communities with our model.
Financial Sustainability
As part of this planned growth, the organization is currently exploring ways to diversify its fundraising portfolio. In 2016, we sought expertise from a development consultant to grow our foundation portfolio. This has yielded several foundations interested in helping us to grow our model. Furthermore, in 2016 we held our first fundraising events and plan to emulate this successful method of fundraising annually. We also developed an annual giving campaign to support our work.