Archive for category: Nonprofit Organizations and NGOs

Information and stories about nonprofit organizations and NGOs

,

The UMCOR Organization Makes a Difference

UMCOR
The United Methodist Committee on Relief, also know as UMCOR, is a humanitarian relief and development organization which aims transform and strengthen individual’s lives and their communities by providing humanitarian relief in the United States and abroad.

UMCOR helps communities which have been effected by natural disasters, war, or conflict. Although UMCOR is not a first response organization, its volunteers are always on high alert to help those in need. The United Methodist Committee on Relief aims to establish a “new normal” for the communities they are helping, and help each individual return to their everyday lives.

The organization empowers local businesses, hospitals, schools, and churches in Third world countries. UMCOR travels to different areas of the world visiting communities and addressing health, sanitation, poverty, sustainable agriculture, and food security issues.

UMCOR has helped millions around the world and believes that each and every individual has God given worth and dignity, which is why the organization does not discriminate against race, religion, gender, or sexual orientation.

The organization helps communities recover from disaster and sustain their improvement. Volunteers remain in the communities after recovery has occurred to provide individuals with an education, training, and support. UMCOR also works towards preventing the spread of malaria and other health issues such as HIV/AIDS, maternal and child survival, water and sanitation, congressional health, and hospital strengthening.

UMCOR also partners with other organizations to address issues, including the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation and the U.N. Foundation. A representative from the U.N. Foundation stated that UMCOR is making a big difference in numerous individual’s lives by not wishing for a difference, but instead is going out there and is making a difference.

The United Methodist Committee on Relief is an organization which is making great strides in global development and international aid. By working in over 80 countries, and providing individuals with an education, training, and support, UMCOR has become a leading organization in humanitarian relief.

– Grace Elizabeth Beal

Sources: UMCOR, Imagine No Malaria, UN Foundation

Charity Navigator 3.0

Charity Navigator
Charity Navigator is a preeminent non-profit watchdog organization well-known for its consistent and easily understood ratings. With the impending rollout of Charity Navigator 3.0, the organization aims to set the bar even higher by adding new criteria to their formulas.

Charity Navigator focuses on the heavyweights of US-based philanthropy. The charities they evaluate must receive at least $500,000 from the public annually, and their total annual revenue must be over $1 million. They must be public institutions that are tax-exempt and file a Form 990, from which Charity Navigator gathers significant information.

Currently, Charity Navigator uses two primary criteria to generate their ratings: financial health, and accountability and transparency.

Financial health is evaluated based on financial efficiency and capacity. Measures of financial efficiency judge a charity’s management of expenses throughout the year. These measure include fundraising efficiency, or the cost of generating $1 in donations, as well as percentages of total functional expenses spent on programs, administration, and fundraising. Expected percentages vary based on the type of charity. For example, museums are expected to spend more on overhead expenses and less on programs than most non-profits.

Meanwhile, financial capacity is a measure of the charity’s ability to maintain its work even when faced with difficult times. Indicators of strong financial capacity include consistent growth in revenue and programs, and a high working capital ratio. Growth of both revenue and programs is necessary for a charity to effect long-term, systematic change. Consistent development in both areas also instills confidence in givers by sustaining public support for charities’ work.

Charity Navigator calculates growth in revenue and program expenses using data from the four most recent fiscal years. Working capital ratio refers to the length of time a charity could survive financially in the absence of new revenue. This is a reflection of the charity’s preparedness for downward economic trends.

The second primary criterion currently used by Charity Navigator is accountability and transparency. Accountability refers to an agency’s willingness to explain its actions, especially financial ones, to its stakeholders. Meanwhile, transparency refers to an agency’s willingness to ensure the availability of critical data concerning the organization. Charity Navigator gains information for this criterion from two sources: the charity’s Form 990 and their website.

The Form 990 includes data points such as the presence or absence of an independent board, misappropriation of assets, independently audited financial statements, and payments to CEOs and board members. Charity Navigator expects organizations’ websites to list key staff and board members, publish audited financial statements and their Form 990, and have a clear and easily accessible donor privacy policy.

Charity Navigator is in the process of creating a third criterion: results reporting. This new step is meant to emphasize the need for results-driven work. The additional facet of evaluation would focus primarily on “the way charities come to know, use and share their results with stakeholders including donors.”

Specifically, Charity Navigator aspires to examine five elements of results reporting: consistency of spending with stated mission, reasonability of charities’ goals and their intent to measure their progress, validation from outside organizations, feedback from beneficiaries, and regularly published evaluation reports. By adding these criteria to their formula, Charity Navigator aims to encourage charities to demonstrate their efficacy by collecting more data and making that data readily available to the public.

To ensure fairness and consistency, Charity Navigator will not use this data in their evaluations until the necessary information has been gathered for every charity currently in their databases. Given crucial funding and other resources, Charity Navigator expects this effort to be completed in 2016.

– Katie Fullerton

Sources: Non-Profit Quarterly, Charity Navigator

,

4 Questions About LINGOs Answered

ngo_lingo
What is Learning in NGOs? Formed in 2005, Learning in NGOs (LINGOs) is a nonprofit, online educational community that brings together humanitarian organizations to learn new skills and share resources with each other. LINGOs uses a variety of technology including eLearning classrooms, virtual meeting space, online libraries, and project management tools in order to create a comprehensive educational environment for professionals.

Who uses this community? LINGOs is utilized by many large nonprofit organizations who want to increase the knowledge and performance of their employees and connect them to an expansive network of colleagues. To be eligible, NGOs must be working in more than 3 countries and be focused on humanitarian issues such as social justice, crisis relief, or development. Major organizations currently using LINGOs include Habitat for Humanity, International Justice Mission, and World Wildlife Fund.

What skills can you learn through LINGOs? Through partnership with many course providers, such as eCornell and Harvard Management Mentor Program, LINGOs supplies about 40 interactive learning programs to its NGO members. Educational topics to choose from include dealing with traumatic stress in humanitarian situations, project management skills, microfinance, and human rights protection. In addition, members may choose to participate in well-known certificate programs. Some courses require much more time and focus on homework than others, but all of them are designed to provide NGO employees with greater skills.

What are the other benefits of this service? LINGOs believes that using their eLearning platform saves nonprofit employees time and money to invest in what really matters to the organization. In addition to many networking opportunities, there are no transportation costs, and employees can learn virtually whenever they want and from wherever they are in the world. LINGOs estimates that organizations gain over $50,000 in value from their membership. Better skills and increased performance at non-governmental organizations means that they will be able to do even more good in the world of humanitarian aid.

– Caylee Pugh

Sources: LINGOs, NGO Learning
Photo: Lingofeeds,

Dubai “End Poverty. Educate Now.” Campaign

dubai cares_opt
Dubai Cares, a nonprofit working to improve children’s access to education in developing countries, recently launched a new campaign called “End Poverty. Educate Now” to raise awareness about the link between education and eradicating poverty.

The “End Poverty. Educate Now” campaign will run through the Islamic holy month of Ramadan to raise funds to assist children worldwide by improving their access to primary education. Dubai Cares is currently reaching more than 8 million children in 31 developing countries worldwide. The campaign is building and renovating classrooms, providing clean water wells and latrines, distributing nutritious meals, and providing treatment for intestinal worms. Additionally, teachers are receiving training and millions of books are being distributed.

CEO of Dubai Cares, Tariq Al Gurg, stresses that education is one of the most important investments in breaking the cycle of poverty. Education leads to in increases in income levels and reductions in social inequalities caused by poverty.

Gurg states that this campaign seeks the support of the United Arab Emirates community in order to reduce the number of underprivileged children globally who do not have access to education, which is currently estimated to be 57 million according to UNESCO. UNESCO affirms that education is one of the best tools to combat poverty by stating that if all children in developing countries could read, global poverty rates would fall by at least 12 percent.

Dubai Cares is running this campaign by setting up an interactive stand at the Dubai Mall’s Star Atrium. The campaign is also raising funds through donations via SMS and the Internet. Visitors of the Dubai Mall will be able to make contributions while shopping or through donations boxes throughout the mall. In the atrium, there are black and white posters on tiles which show children living in destitute conditions. These images will gradually transform into a positive colored images as more people donate. These colored images represents the lives of children who are receiving the opportunity for an education.

This symbolic transformation represents the dramatic change that education can make in the lives of children and the fight against poverty.

– Rahul Shah 

Sources: The Gulf Today, Emirates Today, Gulf News
Sources: Sunny Varkey

,

Deafness in Sub-Saharan Africa

deafness_sub-saharan_africa
The Deaf in sub-Saharan Africa face a unique set of challenges. They tend to be isolated from society in ways that people with hearing struggle to understand, and they are often seen as burdensome or even as a bad omen for their families. Education for the Deaf in sub-Saharan Africa is severely lacking, and they are often denied the opportunity to live independent and fulfilling lives. The concept of Deaf culture, in which deafness can be seen as a neutral or even positive trait, has yet to take root in most African societies. However, in some countries, exciting progress is being made.

Andrew Foster (1927-1987) is often considered the father of deaf education in Africa. After becoming the first African American to graduate from Gallaudet College, the preeminent school for the deaf, Foster founded the Christian Mission for Deaf Africans in the United States in 1956. A visit to Accra, Ghana the following year inspired him to found a school for the deaf in Ghana. Foster highly emphasized the importance of sign language, rather than forcing deaf children to communicate using only oral speech, as theory known as Foster’s Total Communication philosophy.

Throughout his adult life he founded 31 schools in 17 African countries where deaf children could be educated and empowered. Many of these students returned to their home villages and educated other deaf children, spreading the message that deaf children can and should be educated.

Today, education for the Deaf in most sub-Saharan African countries is sub-par at best. In societies where primary education is not yet universal, priority is given to general education that benefits more children. Programs are usually run by non-governmental organizations, often resulting in a lack of oversight and regulation. Teachers are usually not deaf and often lack the skills necessary to teach deaf children. Funds are often low, so textbooks and other school supplies are often in short supply. Perhaps most problematically, there is generally no expectation that deaf children will continue past primary school.

No sub-Saharan African country has reliable data concerning its deaf population. Instead, they often end up disappearing from school systems, workplaces, and society in general simply because they cannot hear.

Lack of skilled medical care exacerbates the problem, resulting in a lack of early identification and investigation. It is also generally assumed that deafness rates in developing countries are higher due to limited treatment options, malnutrition, and chronic illnesses that affect hearing. It should also be noted that in more affluent societies there are many hard of hearing children who can function as fairly easily. These children are usually provided with hearing aids, but most families in the developing world cannot afford them.

Cultural attitudes also contribute to the lack of urgency when it comes to deaf children’s education. While sub-Saharan Africa is incredibly diverse and there are clearly exceptions for every trend, there are some harmful stereotypes about the Deaf that are common in many countries. Some see deafness as an act of fate or a sign of God’s punishment. Deaf children are often hidden because they are considered a source of familial shame. They may also be pitied and seen as burdensome and helpless, which can result in abuse such as sexual violence towards deaf women.

These negative attitudes generally increase the isolation of deaf children and feed into the stigmatization of deafness. Governmental policies that fail to protect the Deaf from discrimination, as well as derogatory language similar to the English phrase “deaf and dumb”, are manifestations of this stigmatization.

In the face of the clear inequity suffered by the Deaf in sub-Saharan Africa, it is encouraging to recognize the progress being made. Four sub-Saharan African countries (Zimbabwe, Botswana, South Africa, and Uganda) have prohibited discrimination against people with disabilities. Additionally, Deaf culture is gaining headway. Uganda is one of just a few countries worldwide to have officially recognized a sign language in its constitution and there are currently two journals focusing on Africans with disabilities. Deaf Link Uganda, a non-profit founded in 2007, is currently working to empower deaf individuals in Uganda by creating Deaf communities and providing education and job training, as well as work opportunities. Educational opportunities for the Deaf, including primary schools and beyond, are increasing, especially in Nigeria.

These positive developments reflect a changing culture. Deafness in sub-Saharan Africa is becoming more accepted and supported. Such progress is sorely and urgently needed, making it all the more exciting to witness.

– Katie Fullerton

Sources: Project Muse, Deaf Link Uganda
Photo: Commission Stories

,

Samaritan’s Purse 101

Samaritan's Purse
Samaritan’s Purse is an evangelical Christian humanitarian organization that seeks to provide relief for those in need around the world. The organization is named after the story of the Good Samaritan in the Bible. The organization Samaritan’s Purse’s goal is to aid all those who are hurting, particularly the most vulnerable and impoverished people in the world.

Samaritan’s Purse was founded by Bob Pierce who also founded the relief organization, World Vision. After visiting the poor children on the Korean island of Kojedo, Pierce felt compelled to aid those that he met. He founded Samaritan’s Purse in 1970 with the mission to “to meet emergency needs in crisis areas through existing evangelical mission agencies and national churches.” Later Pierce met a young man named Franklin Graham. Traveling with Pierce all around the globe, Graham underwent life-changing experiences as he witnessed the world’s most destitute. When Bob Pierce passed away in 1978, Graham became the president and chairman of the Board of Samaritan’s purse. For 30 years, Graham has led the organization, overseeing responses to natural disasters, famines, and wars.

Today, Samaritan’s purse operates in 100 nations around the world with a number of programs. One important program is providing international crisis response. When disaster strikes, the organization works with local partners to provide immediate food, medicine, and shelter to victims. Pre-position supplies in warehouses located around the world are always ready to be used. Disaster Assistance Response teams are also always ready to be deployed. The organization works within the United States with its U.S. Disaster Response project and Operation Heal our Patriots, a program designed to aid wounded military service members and their families.

Samaritan’s Purse also provides aid for children. The Children’s Heart Project works with hospitals to provide surgery to children in impoverished areas or those that lack medical expertise. The Greta Home and Academy is a home for orphaned and at-risk youth in Haiti where they can receive care and education.

The organization is also well known for its program Operation Christmas Child. Operation Christmas Child provides Christmas gifts to children in disaster or poverty stricken areas. Anybody can volunteer to purchase toys, hygiene products, school supplies and clothes. Volunteers are encouraged to include personal notes and think carefully about what a child might want to receive as a gift. Instructions are provided online on how to properly pack the gifts in a shoebox and how they can be labeled and delivered to distribution centers.The shoeboxes are then distributed to children around the world.

More recently, Samaritan’s Purse has begun a fundraising campaign called “Raise A Village.” The campaign is dedicated to improving the living conditions in the Niger Village of Guidan Gado. To aid the impoverished villagers, the organization is trying to raise $85,000 to provide livestock, farming tools and food production equipment.

No matter the project, Samaritan’s Purse’s ultimate mission remains simple: to give aid selflessly as the Good Samaritan in the Bible did. Today the organization continues to give aid to thousands of people. With the support of a dedicated staff, donors and volunteers, the organization continues to make a difference in world.

– Grace Zhao

Sources: Samaritan’s Purse

, , ,

Spotlight on INMED Partnerships For Children

children_opt
Youth around the world, primarily in Latin America, Southern Africa and the United States, have an ally with INMED Partnerships for Children. This organization is dedicated to helping children who have been devastated by “disease, hunger, abuse, neglect, violence or instability” and works with them to build a healthy and successful future. Rather than simply focusing on curing immediate threats to children, although INMED does that too, the group is adamant about treating the root causes of their struggles.

INMED transforms the lives of children in harmful environments by developing programs to target the specific needs of villages, regions, or entire countries. These programs include Health and Nutrition, Education and Skills Building, Adaptive Agriculture and Aquaponics, Youth Development, and Family Services. All of these programs create an opportunity for youth to change their lives for the better.

Children are not the only ones affected by INMED’s development programs. As children begin to change many aspects of their lives, these changes carry over to their families and communities. As these changes become dominant in communities, more and more people are lifted out of poverty and have the opportunity to create a better life. INMED calls for “sustainable change that crosses generations,” not just helping a few children for a brief amount of time.

The numerous success stories of INMED Partnership for Children show that this organization is making a difference in the world. By focusing on “long-term opportunities for children’s success in life” and community outreach, INMED is doing what all similar organizations should be striving towards: improving the future of impoverished children. INMED’s programs will likely be implemented in communities long after the organization leaves, which is the key to true progress.

– Mary Penn

Sources: Guide Star, INMED Partnerships for Children
Photo: Hands for Latin America

What is AME-SADA?

AME_SADA
The African Methodist Episcopal Church Service and Development Agency, or AME-SADA, is a part of the African Methodist Episcopal Church (AME). The organization provides humanitarian relief and supports development within Africa. Their primary goal is to improve the overall quality of life for those living in Africa, as well as those living in the Caribbean.

AME-SADA was created nearly 30 years ago by a few committed people within the African Methodist Episcopal Church, including Bishop Frederick C. James, Reverend Lonnie Johnson, Dr. Joseph McKinney, Bishop John Hurst Adams, and Bishop Donald G. K. Ming.

AME-SADA’s mission is, “Helping People Help Themselves.” This means that, rather than giving people food or shelter, they would rather provide them with sustainable practices so they can support themselves. It goes along with the famous saying, “Give a man a fish, feed him for a day; teach a man to fish, feed him for a lifetime.”

AME-SADA focuses on programs of education, health, and micro-credit, although they also provide emergency humanitarian aid in both Africa and Haiti. AME-SADA is supported by the African Methodist Episcopal Church, governments, foreign institutions and agencies, and their donors who wish to create a better world.

AME-SADA is currently working on a project to provide health care and other services to those living in Haiti, particularly in the western part of the country. As of now, they have provided healthcare for over 400,000 people. One healthcare program they have is to address child and maternal health by providing pre and post-natal care for women between the ages of 15 and 49. The program gives aid through newborn care, vaccinations to children under the age of 5, diarrhea treatment, nutritional aid to malnourished children, family planning, upper respiratory infection treatment, counseling to new families, and more. Currently, AME-SADA supports nine outpatient clinics, which provide services such as HIV and STD education, as well as treatment and counseling. Over 150,000 people benefit from this each year.

Two other programs are SADA-KREDI and a school health program. The SADA-KREDI program supports economic opportunities for those living in both rural and urban areas. It gives micro-loans to 2,500 people in order to stimulate growth in the economy and allow people to prosper on their own. In addition, the school health program helps 30,000 children at an elementary school level in the poorest neighborhoods of Haiti. It provides healthcare to children whose families cannot afford it.

Overall, those programs only represent part of what AME-SADA does. They support and fund many other programs in South Africa and Haiti in order to help the locals prosper and flourish. They promote sustainability in their programs, especially in the micro-loan programs to allow entrepreneurs in Haiti and South Africa to have a chance to implement their business plans, and create a source of income to support their family, and to stimulate the community.

– Corina Balsamo

Sources: AME-SADA, AME-CHURCH, Our Health Ministry
Photo: Digitation

, ,

How Does the Community Care Fund Fight Poverty?

hong_kong_poverty_apartment
Community Care Fund in Hong Kong has decided to increase their poverty giveaways by helping those who are inadequately housed. They will be giving away more cash subsidies than ever before that will end up helping many people. Community Care Fund is a relatively new organization that was created in 2011. The organization is overseen by an “Executive Committee,” and there are four subcommittees that represent the topics and issues that the organization deals with each day – education, home affairs, medical issues, and welfare. The Community Care Fund works closely with the government’s Commission on Poverty (or the CoP). The Chinese government officially announced the creation of the CoP in the end of 2012. Since then, the Community Care fund and the Commission on Poverty have worked closely in their projects in order to do as much for the country as possible.

The Commission on Poverty has the primary objective of reducing poverty in Hong Kong, and for setting a poverty line for the city. Although poverty is the main goal, this is done in several ways – for instance, by supporting the underprivileged, stimulating social mobility, and promoting employment and education for all. The Commission works with the government, of course, and also works with NGOs, other businesses, and the community. The community at large is supported through the Societal Engagement Task force, which are also a part of the Commission. Attention will be paid to those with disabilities, minorities, and single parents. According to the Commission, they use the Community Care Fund in order to give relief immediately to those who are in dire need. They have also supported a Social Innovation and Entrepreneurship Development Fund.

The Community Care Fund was created under the Secretary for Home Affairs Incorporation Ordinance to help those with economic difficulties, especially the underprivileged that are not a part of the social safety net or who are facing special circumstances. Some of the examples of their subsidies are the following: Provision of Special Subsidy to Persons with Severe Physical Disabilities, Special Care Subsidy for the Severely Disabled, Subsidy for Elders who are on the Waiting List of Integrated Home Care Services, Training Subsidy for Children who are on the Waiting List of Subvented Pre-school, and so on and so forth. Basically, the Community Care Fund gives cash to those who are in desperate need and cannot get it in any other way.

Recently, the Community Care Fund has announced they will be adding another subsidy to help those who are “inadequately housed.” Primarily this will expand a previous subsidy that had only helped those living in subsidized housing – around 150,000 more people will qualify for the cash subsidies and have a good chance of being helped, and drawn out of poverty. This expanded subsidy was only one of four schemes that were announced by Chief Secretary Carrie Lam Cheng Yuet-ngor, the chairwoman of the Commission on Poverty (which, as mentioned before, works with the Community Care Fund in regards to immediate relief). Those living in premises deemed inadequate, such as squatter housing, will receive lump sums based on family sizes – thus far, 26,000 families have been helped by the subsidies.

Overall, just giving money to those in need is not the only or even best solution to reduce poverty, but it is definitely a start. The Community Care Fund allows immediate relief, and the Commission on Poverty keeps those families from falling back into poverty with other programs and initiatives. Basically, the Community Care Fund does as much as it can, and helps those who were previously “missed” by the system. Perhaps these two programs are helping contribute to the overall reduction of poverty in China.

– Corina Balsamo

Sources: SCMP, Community Care Fund, SWD
Photo: Amusing Planet

,

Alliance to End Hunger

End_hunger_alliance_education
The Alliance to End Hunger operates on the belief that it takes the collaborative work of every part of society to effectively end hunger. It has grown to a network of 85 organizations from the private, public, educational, non-profit, and health sectors of society. Founded in 2004, the Alliance uses its diverse network of organizations to raise awareness and effect change in over 49 countries worldwide.

The Alliance to End Hunger focuses its resources on 4 key initiatives:
1.Foster Strategic Partnerships: Building relationships between the different member organizations of the Alliance helps expand its reach and improve information sharing.
2. Building Political Commitment: Encouraging political leaders to take a stand against hunger makes it a public issue and increases awareness and advocacy efforts.
3. Hunger Free Communities Initiative: This initiative brings the fight to end hunger to the community. By educating communities about hunger at the local level and helping them start programs to alleviate hunger each individual becomes involved in the battle.
4. The National Alliance Partnership Program: This program focuses on branches of the Alliance in Ghana, Kenya, and Uganda and provides assistance to build infrastructure and make the fight against hunger more effective.

Recent examples of the work the Alliance to End Hunger does to raise awareness and battle hunger can be seen in Afghanistan and Mali. In Afghanistan, Nutrition & Education International, a member of the Alliance to End Hunger, has introduced the soybean as a crop to help battle food shortages. The organization has helped to establish a sustainable soybean farming industry in Afghanistan and has now worked with thousands of farmers across the entire country providing farming education and supplies.

In Mali, International Relief & Development, also an Alliance member organization, works to improve the productivity of farming, increase access to funding and improved technology, and provide education that will improve farmers ability to market their product. The program primarily focuses on small family farms and female farmers as well as small cooperatives.

The Alliance to End Hunger continues to grow with the addition of new members and actively participate in conferences and forums on ending hunger worldwide. In October of this year The Alliance will be a participant at the Norman E. Borlaug International Symposium alongside world political leaders and distinguished academics. The conference will have a segment focusing on building partnerships, which is a key aspect of the Alliance to End Hunger’s mission. The Alliance feels that it is imperative that collaboration continue to build if an effective end to hunger is to be reached.

– Zoë Meroney 
Sources: Alliance to End Hunger, International Relief and Development
Photo: Exprima Media