This week, let’s meet … Sarah Leavitt, Digital Outreach Manager of the Lambi Fund of Haiti! Based on the premise that Haitians themselves understand how development is best achieved in their own communities, Lambi Fund supports small-scale economic development projects that are conceived, implemented, and evaluated by community-based organizations.

1. What was your most interesting recent project, initiative, partnership, or event?

The Lambi Fund of Haiti just launched an exciting new partnership with a coffee cooperative in Northwestern Haiti. I find this to be an incredibly promising program because we are working with 51 coffee farming groups (with 805 members in all), who are working together to increase coffee production and sales in their region. For the duration of this project, Lambi Fund will work with these coffee producers to modernize their processing plant and to increase outputs during harvests.

In the first phase, Lambi Fund will fund the purchase of a coffee pulper and help the co-op build a glasi (drying surface) which will help improve the efficiency and quality of the co-op’s coffee processing methods. In the second phase, Lambi Fund will fund the purchase of 20,000 lbs. of coffee. Coffee purchased from growers will be processed and placed in a storage facility (to be built) and then sent to sell in international markets. Lambi Fund will also provide 25,000 coffee seedlings and 6,000 shade trees along with the funding and supplies needed to build a tree nursery. This will significantly increase the amount of coffee being grown by farmers in the region.

Throughout the entire duration of this project, we will also be providing training on technical and managerial aspects to co-op members that will ensure program success. Training on modernized coffee processing methods along with project management, and tree nursery care and maintenance will be provided. Its programs like these that really excite me — we are working hand-in-hand with communities to improve their means for agricultural production, increasing the value of goods and strengthening economic opportunities for entire regions in Haiti. Read all »

Given the volume of coverage over the past few days (260 articles in my latest Google-powered count), I thought that I should touch upon the recent “rare and remarkable” interview that the UK’s Daily Mail landed with Bill Gates.

The most oft-quoted element of the interview, it appears, concerns his three children’s inheritence. Deducting the $28 billion donated to charity, Gates is now worth $56 billion. Yet his children “aren’t going to inherit anything like that much [as he doesn't] think that amount of money would be good for them.” He also added that he has denied their requests for iPods and that they own the Windows equivalent. A Zune music player, if you are curious. But overall, as the Wall Street Journal blog Tech Europe summed up: “What did we learn? Sadly not a huge amount.”

That said, the WSJ latched on to this particular quotation, as did the Huffington Post:

I don’t want a legacy. [...] I want a malaria vaccine. If we get one then we’ll have to find the money to give it to everyone, but the impact would be so huge we would find a way. Understanding science and pushing the boundaries of science is what makes me immensely satisfied. What I’m doing now involves understanding maths, risk-taking. The first half of my life was good preparation for the second half. Read all »

Welcome to Wednesday! Let’s poke though the non-profit-related news …

Arts groups fight proposed ticket tax in DC — And you can too! Mayor Gray has proposed a 6% tax on tickets to arts (theater, dance, music) events in his 2012 Budget. The Washington Post reports that “arts groups say they will lose audience members and revenue with an added tax on tickets [and] it will have a ripple effect on other businesses, such as restaurants.” Check out the above link to learn what you can do.

Despite Recession, Global Giving Abounds — On Monday, PR Newswire reported that “for the first full year of the global recession private giving to the developing world has remained remarkably stable,” according to the new 2011 Index of Global Philanthropy and Remittance from the Hudson Institute’s Center for Global Prosperity. For the US, aid to developing nations in fact rose slightly between 2008 and 2009 by about half a percent.

Read all »

Welcome to the first Wednesday of the (hopefully not too) rainy month! We have a bundle of CFP non-profit news coming your way …

Congratulations to five non-profit leaders — Last night, the winners of the 2010 Exponent Awards were honored by the Meyer Foundation. And of those winners, four are the leaders of CFP non-profits: Jean-Michel Giraud of Community Council for the Homeless at Friendship Place, Layli Miller-Muro of Tahirih Justice Center, Scott Schenkelberg of Miriam’s Kitchen (check out his “7 Questions” interview!), and Adam Tenner of Metro TeenAIDS. Many, many congratulations! You can also check out the Washington Post’s earlier coverage of the award announcement.

Being Bilingual May Boost Your Brain Power — Check out this cool discussion of bilingual families from Monday’s Morning Edition: “Judy and Paul Szentkiralyi both grew up bilingual in the US, speaking Hungarian with their families and English with their peers. When they first started dating, they spoke English [but] when things turned serious they did something unusual — they decided to switch to Hungarian” for their children. Additionally, several CFP non-profits, such as the Latin American Montessori Bilingual PCS, are also strong evidence for the power in bilingual education!

Read all »

Welcome to Wednesday, folks! Sending non-profit and local news items your way …

Japan: “Cutting Through the Noise” – At the Center for High Impact Philanthropy at UPenn, yesterday’s post outlines “the questions donors should ask, the capabilities to look for in a nonprofit, and an example of an organization well-positioned to deliver help in Japan now.” While rightly focused on the crisis in Japan, the questions posed (and the answers offered) also provide a good basis?for considering any philanthropic effort in the aftermath of a profound disaster. Key questions to consider include: “What are the most critical needs on the ground?” “What are the gaps in local capacity for meeting these needs?” and “What capabilities are needed to address these gaps effectively?”

Read all »

Good morning, Washington. We’re going to focus on the (still-developing) news from Japan today — and we would very much like to hear your thoughts:

What are you doing to follow the news? How can we, as individuals, take action and do some good when we are so far from the crisis? On the whole, what forms of international philanthropy are most effective?

Japan Earthquake: Radiation Leak Halts Work at Damaged Reactors — Early this morning, ABC News International and the BBC (among other outlets) revealed that “a rise in radiation levels at Japan’s stricken Fukushima nuclear plant has forced workers to suspend operations.” According to ABC, “a Japanese government official also indicated for the first time that the containment vessels of all three of the reactors at the plant that exploded may be leaking, raising worries of dangerous radiation leaks.” 140,000 people live within a 12 mile radius of the planet and all have been evacuated from the area.

Read all »

The world is my country, all mankind are my brethren, and to do good is my religion.

– Thomas Paine, 1737-1809

A human being is part of a whole, called by us the Universe.

– Albert Einstein, 1879-1955

Courtesy of DCist:

As much as we like to maintain an exclusive focus on the business of Washington, DC, there’s no denying that our city is inexorably intertwined in international affairs. So when unthinkable bloodshed breaks out across the world, our purview often widens … Take, for example, the current state of affairs in Libya, which drew a group of protesters to the White House on Saturday. Just one example of the local response to events currently transpiring in Tripoli, DCist contributor Kevin Carroll was able to capture some powerful images during Saturday’s gathering.

While we are most aware of happenings on our street and around our homes, those of us in Greater Washington are often profoundly conscience of and connected to the broader world by virtue of where we live.

Similarly, our focus here at CFP is certainly local — yet we also are committed to non-profits who are enacting specific and localized change around the world, in the communities that are most in need. Do check them out. No matter how far away we are, we definitely can still reach out.

Good morning-after-the-hailstorm, Greater Washington! Today on “7 Questions,” we’re psyched to introduce you to … Nancy Kelly, Executive Director of Health Volunteers Overseas since its founding in 1986. Now in 25 developing countries, HVO’s healthcare professionals offer medical education to their counterparts, improving the quality and quantity of healthcare where it’s most needed. Want to learn more? Read on!

1. What was your most interesting recent project, initiative, partnership, or event?

We are working with the American Dental Association on an initiative to rebuild 35 dental practices in Haiti. The goal is to raise $350,000 since we estimate the cost to rebuild is $10,000 per practice. We are working with the ADA and the Haitian Dental Association to develop an application process that will serve as a means of identifying the best prospects for support. Those dentists that receive support must commit to paying back to the community by providing free dental care to those in need but unable to pay. This is a new type of project for HVO, one that will be quite challenging as we move into the implementation phase — but I hope that it will be the start for similar initiatives elsewhere.

Read all »

Over at the Nonprofit Quarterly yesterday, editor Ruth McCambridge offers a note on “Jumping Off the Cliff of Social Change:”

“Over the years I have been involved in a number of movements for social change and each of them has taught me something about the patterns and rhythms of such efforts. But there was always a point at which I felt I was throwing myself off the cliff of the accepted into some cauldron of unknown forces and outcomes.”

Read all »