Charity Spot

Over a billion people do not have access to safe drinking water.  This means that one out of every six people is susceptible to the diseases that come from drinking contaminated water.  Parasites and worms such as helminthes, and schistosomes can settle in the body’s intestinal tract and cause diseases such as river blindness .  If a disease infects the head of the household, then a family will lose its means of support.  Furthermore, lack of clean water is responsible for the death of over a million children a year.  In a world where first-world nations spend billions on bottle water, it is tragic that anyone has to die in need of this most basic resource.

The Water Project is an organization that is making a difference in bringing water to those who need it most.  This charity has realized that making a change is not about just digging a well or pointing to a clean watering hole.  Making the change takes a commitment to a sustainable plan.  It takes education to show the local people the importance of creating and maintaining a system of clean water and proper sewage.  It also means working with local governments to cut through any red tape.  The Water Project exports lessons learned in the United States or Europe to developing countries.

Thankfully, the lack of clean water is a crisis with a solution.  More importantly, it is a crisis where a little help from others can make a huge difference.  Furthermore, the Water Project allows donors to see their contributions in action.  Along with modern water technology, the company utilizes modern visual technology.  Just as you can go on-line to see your cousin’s baby’s latest accomplishment, you can go on-line to see the progress of your donation to the Water Project in a country far away.

Thanks to charities such as the Water Project and its donors, communities are getting access to the most basic of needs.

The name alone should provide clues as to its purpose: NESsT provides a nest for social entrepreneurs to develop in a nurturing environment and then spread their wings to spread their brand of social activism into the world. The organization provides its beneficiaries a powerful combination of financial funding, strategic training, and inspiring mentorship program as well as valuable access to networks, markets and professionals.

The bottom line: NESsT develops effective, efficient and responsive social enterprises based on a comprehensive understanding of the realities of the local markets. The organization operates in several continents including Europe (i.e., Hungary, Croatia, Romania, and the United Kingdom), Latin America (i.e., Argentina, Chile, and Brazil), and North America (i.e., The United States).

Founded in 1997, NESsT has implemented several projects through the years. To name a few, Sustainable NGO Financing Project, NGO Venture Forum, International Venture Philanthropy Forum, and the International Social Enterprise Exchange. At present, its active portfolio includes ACSIS (Romania), A Banca (Brazil), and Alko-soft (Hungary).

Echoing Green wants to encourage the next generation of leaders by engaging in early-stage social sector investments. The organization’s beneficiaries, who have been identified based on their innovative solutions for social change, are provided with seed money, strategic support, and technical assistance in addressing the social, political and economic inequalities of the present. The aim: Unleash their talents into the world and start them on their journey toward becoming better leaders of their industries.

These social entrepreneurs, as the organization’s beneficiaries are called, have been chosen based on their works in fostering new solutions to the problems besetting humanity in general and individuals in particular. Echoing Green believes that the entrepreneurial spirit is alive and well and it is such spirit that will take humanity from Point A to Point B, so to speak.

The organization’s flagship program is the competitive global two-year Fellowship program wherein a select few are granted up to $90,000 over the project’s duration. The purpose: To launch the beneficiaries’ organizations and, thus, assist in its achievement of social goals. The result: Social change that happens in specific areas with wide-ranging impact on other aspects of human society.

Echoing Green has other programs, too. First, Work on Purpose is a project designed to equip social entrepreneurs with the best practices for success in their respective areas. The organization provides beneficiaries with workshops, resources, and an interactive online forum as well as its bible, sort of, the Be Bold: Create a Career with Impact book, among others.

The organization’s brain is its Social Investment Council, which provides continuing support for the social entrepreneurs. The council is composed of over 100 leaders from top-performing, socially-responsible private companies whose main aim while in the council is to build an international network of proactive advocates. Such advocates are now spread in several areas including New York, San Francisco, and Hong Kong.

To use a popular phrase, Benetech has its heart in the right place. The non-profit social enterprise organization is actively involved in the creation of technology social ventures that combine the power of technology and the power of the human mind – and heart, if you will – toward building a better, safer world one day, one individual at a time.

The charitable organization has hundreds of partners and supporters worldwide with majority coming from the Silicon Valley; such level of support is not surprising considering that Benetech uses innovations in information communication and technology to address unmet social needs among its beneficiaries. Silicon Valley certainly has one of the best intellectual, financial and social capitals in the country, if not the world, for the development of effective technologies to promote the organization’s causes.

And speaking of social causes, Benetech has the following programs in place with many more apparently set for implementation:

• Bookshare. The project aims to assist individuals with vision and reading disabilities via its easily-accessible digital library.
• Route 66 Literacy. This is a web-based program enabling literate individuals to provide assistance to adults and teenagers who want to learn reading and writing skills.
• Human Rights. The organization provides human rights advocates with the latest in science and information technology for their advocacies.
• Environmental Conservation. Practitioners in the field of environmental protection can access the organization’s project management tools, which are useful in the effective and efficient management of conservation goals.

Benetech’s business model, so to speak, has many similarities to those of technology start-ups in the Silicon Valley, thus, explaining its success in its niche. Senior management officers provide direction for the organization in terms of technology, licensing, and fund management while philanthropic investors and strategic partners provide the essential support in several areas.

Such is the impact of Benetech on social development that it has been hailed as one of the best in what it does – a crucial job in the pursuit of justice, literacy and human rights.

Another UK-registered charity aimed at helping African kids is the African Child Trust. Founded in 1999, this organization is working in 6 African countries in enriching the lives of the less privileged kids. Salvaging the weak, the poor and the vulnerable kids of Africa is the main objective of this organization.

In addition to providing education to the children of Africa, this group is also geared towards helping out widows. Through their various trainings offered, they are teaching these women how to generate their own income. They provide literacy, business trainings and a wide array of counseling to ensure that they are able to sustain their families. 

To date African Child Trust has been able to see around 127 African kids finish their secondary schooling. They have also sponsored 27 children for their university education in countries like Uganda, Burkina Faso, Tanzania and Nigeria. By educating these young minds, the company is able to help the community as a whole.

Memories of a happy childhood are hard to come by if you were abused, neglected, orphaned, or in some capacity, disadvantaged as a child. The Memory Project is a one-of-a-kind initiative that gives disadvantaged children a keepsake of their childhood that they would surely treasure.

The way the organization works is that pictures of these children are distributed among volunteer art students which they will then make a portrait of using their desired medium. The artists who create the portraits and the children who receive them come from all over the world. The organization was founded in 2004 after Ben Schumaker, a graduate student at the University of Wisconsin was in Guatemala as a volunteer at an orphanage. He noticed that the children residing in the orphanage have very few possessions and photographs of themselves as children and that unlike their more privileged counterparts, have nothing to remind them of their childhood. Since The Memory Project was founded, the organization has created and distributed roughly 50,000 portraits to children from 34 countries around the world.

Many founders of non-profit and charitable organizations that aim to help victims of war, torture and disasters are witnesses to the hardships and injustices people experience on a day to day basis; however, only a few of them were victims themselves. Keith Carmichael is one of those few.

In the early 80s, Carmichael was incarcerated and tortured in Saudi Arabia for over two years before the governor of Riyadh acknowledged the mistake they have made and set him free. After his release, he saw how British NGOs fight for the release of their tortured and unlawfully detained countrymen and help survivors transition back to the outside world by providing them with medical care and support. Unfortunately, at that time, none of them help the victims in fighting to get reparation from the groups responsible for their harrowing ordeals. This is why he consulted with former Director of Anti-Slavery International Peter Davis OBE, former Director of Justice Davis Weissbrodt, Dame Rosalyn Higgins DBE QC, and Leah Levin OBE to develop a non-profit organization that would help torture survivors seek reparation for what they’ve been through. In 1992, Carmichael founded Redress. The organization aims to help torture victims get justice not only by going after the people who administered the torture, but also leaders and governments who condone and perpetuate this practice.

Since the organization’s inception, Redress has helped British victims of war crimes and torture, as well as victims from all around the world to get the justice they so greatly deserved. Through the years, the organization has worked with a number of international organizations such as the UN, the European Union, and the International Criminal Court to name a few. Working hand in hand with these intergovernmental entities, Redress has been with them to create and implement anti-torture laws and make perpetrators of heinous war crimes and acts of torture pay for their crimes.

Common Cause is a non-profit, non-partisan advocacy organization established by John Gardner in 1970. Since its establishment, it has been serving as the vehicle that allows citizens to have a voice when it comes to political processes, giving them an opportunity to hold their elected officials and leaders accountable to the public interest.

Headquartered in Washington, D.C., the group aims to become the lobby that establishes greater transparency in the world of US politics. Today, Common Cause remains to be one of the most active and effective non-profit organizations focused in getting involved with political change in the United States. Not to mention, it is also one of the most respected in its field. The organization aims to strengthen the democracy that prevails in the country. They make this possible through providing resources and assistance that empower their members and supporters, as well as the general public, for them to realize the importance of speaking out and taking action on important issues that affect the entire country and its men.

Common Cause is committed to helping restore the core principles of American democracy, promoting an honest, open, and accountable government that strives to cater to public interest. The organization also aims to serve as the independent voice that shouts change and the watchdog that is always on the lookout against abuse of power and corruption. Today, it continues to strengthen public participation and ensure that the government, as well as the political processes and policies are honed and are working to bring common good.

Common Cause currently has offices in 35 states. In 2000, they have created the Common Cause Education Fund, a tax-exempt public charitable institution focused on public education and research. . It is funded by membership fees and contributions from its nearly 400,000 members. The combined yearly budget of Common Cause and its affiliate education fund is approximately $10 million.

The American Council of the Blind has the mission to aid in increasing
independence, security, fairness, and quality of life for visually
challenged individuals. The ACB was officially established in 1961 but
many of its affiliates have histories dating as early as the 1880s.
The organization was formed out of the dissolution of the Braille Free
Press Association, which has been set up back in 1959.

Ever since its establishment, the organization and its affiliates have
been proactive when it comes to the creation of policies that directly
affect persons with visual disabilities, particularly in terms of
opportunities. ACB has also been actively collaborating with Vision
Rehabilitation Service providers.

ACB has been concentrating in the development and maintenance of
policies that determine which services are appropriate for visually
impaired individuals. The organization’s work mainly revolves around
the belief that every blind person has the right to be included in the
society despite their limitations.

Population Services International (PSI) is a global health organization that is dedicated towards improving people’s health in developing countries by tackling serious issues like the lack of family planning and measures to care for maternal health, HIV and AIDS, and threats to children under five years of age, such as malnutrition, pneumonia, and diarrhea.

PSI works along the idea that health services are most effective when provided alongside proper education and communication and robust distribution efforts as these will aid in ensuring wide acceptance as well as proper use. In all of its platforms, PSI is not alone, working with local governments, organizations, and ministries of health to create lasting health solutions.

PSI began in 1970 as a means of improving reproductive health with the help of commercial marketing strategies. The organization worked mainly at first with family planning hence it was called as such. In 1985, PSI began introducing other methods of caring for the health, starting with oral rehydration therapy.