August 2016 Newsletter
Posted on August 16, 2016.
Welcome to the August 2016 issue of the Global Washington newsletter.
IN THIS ISSUE
Letter from our Executive Director
Sustainable Development Goal 4 (SDG4) is to “ensure inclusive and equitable quality education and promote lifelong learning opportunities for all.” The stakes are high for this target, in part because reaching all of the 17 SDGs largely depends upon the success of this one goal. And achieving this goal means educating women and girls at unprecedented levels.
We know that education empowers individuals, and in turn has a transformational impact on their families, communities and our world. This month’s issue campaign takes a closer look at global education and the prominent role it plays in all other areas of global development. We’ve highlighted a number of Global Washington members who are making strides with their current education programs, and featured two in particular with unique models and inspiring roots.
As students throughout Washington state and around the U.S. get first-day jitters, and as parents hustle to get school supplies and schedules organized, I urge you to take a moment and think about students in developing countries gaining access to life-changing education for the first time. And I challenge you to think about your role in ensuring that we reach SDG4. Like so many of the issues Global Washington members tackle, this will only be conquered with a combined effort of NGOs, businesses, foundations, academic intuitions, and plenty of smart and dedicated people.
Also, this is the last week to take advantage of the early bird rate for our “Allies for Action” conference on December 8, 2016. If you haven’t yet registered, do so today. Enjoy these last few weeks of summer and I look forward to seeing you in the fall.
Kristen Dailey
Executive Director
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Question of the Month
Is your organization planning a social media campaign this fall? If so, please provide us with the details.
Please click here to respond.
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Issue Brief
Universal Education Paramount to Achieving Sustainable Development Goals
By Amanda Pain
Educating people is vital to global development efforts. While there have been tremendous strides in improving access and quality of education throughout the world, 124 million children are still out of school and 757 million adults, two-thirds of whom are women, cannot read or write. The success of Millennium Development Goal 2 (MDG2), which aimed to accelerate progress in achieving universal primary education by 2015, has brought primary school enrollment up from 52 percent in 1990 to almost 91 percent in 2015. However, large disparity remains among poor and rural households and conflict-ridden areas.
With increasing evidence that education can drastically improve people’s lives, Sustainable Development Goal 4 (SDG4) expands on MDG2 by promoting free primary and secondary education for all and working to eliminate gender and income inequality in education. SDG4 has ten targets, which in addition to promoting free education and equality, also focus on education quality, teacher quality and student performance. If all students in low-income countries were to develop basic reading skills, 171 million people could be lifted out of poverty.
Success in education efforts can lead to achievements in issues addressed by other SDGs. For example, students who complete primary school are less than half as likely to contract HIV when compared to students who do not complete this level of education. And educating women can have enormous effects on family health, such as decreased stunting and nutritional disorders in children, as well as lower rates of child mortality. In fact, if all women in low and middle-income countries completed secondary school, the under-five mortality rate would fall by 49 percent. Women with six or more years of schooling are more likely to seek prenatal care, skilled birth attendants and postnatal care. They are also 60 percent more likely to immunize their children.
On average, increasing educational attainment of a country by just one year leads to growth in Gross Domestic Product (GDP) per capita of 2 to 2.5 percent. On the individual level, each additional year of education a child receives increases, on average, his or her income as an adult by 10 percent. And no country has ever achieved continuous economic growth without a minimum national literacy rate of 40 percent.
Currently in sub-Saharan Africa and South and West Asia, 2.9 million girls are married by the age of 15. If all girls received secondary education, it is estimated that child marriage would fall by 64 percent and early births (before the age of 17) would fall by 59 percent. And it should be noted that risk of war and conflict is highest in areas where educational enrollment of males is low and youth population is high.
The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) created Education for Sustainable Development (ESD) to help countries incorporate issues such as climate change, biodiversity in agriculture, disaster risk reduction and clean water and improved sanitation into their educational curriculums. The goal of ESD is to develop global citizens who are ready to confront the challenges facing our world.
With universal education playing such a vital role in achieving all of the SDGs, investment in education is crucial. At present, according to UNESCO, there is an annual financing gap of $39 billion that is needed to achieve SDG4. In order to meet SDG4 targets by 2030, spending per student in low-income countries will need to increase from $70 to $197, government spending will need to increase by 50 percent as a share of GDP, and international aid will need to increase six times the current amount. In addition to the financial challenges of achieving SDG4, other barriers include: lack of classroom space, war and conflict, gender discrimination, child labor, shortage of trained teachers, scarcity of learning materials, outdated curriculums and ineffective methods for measuring student performance.
With all of these challenges, it is important for organizations to constantly evaluate and improve their strategies, and work together in smart and efficient ways to make achieving SDG4 a reality. Several Global Washington members are on the front lines of the fight for universal education.
Ashesi University Foundation
Ashesi is a private, non-profit liberal arts university located in Ghana, West Africa. The mission of the university is to educate a new generation of ethical and entrepreneurial leaders in Africa while cultivating within its students the critical thinking skills, concern for others and courage it will take to transform their continent. Founded in 2002 by Ghanaian Patrick Awauh, Ashesi offers four-year bachelors program grounded in a liberal arts core curriculum, featuring majors in Computer Science, Business Administration, Management Information Systems, and Mechanical, Computer and Electronic & Electrical Engineering. With an academic program designed in collaboration with some of the world’s best universities, and in partnership with local and multinational employers across Ghana, Ashesi has pioneered an educational experience like no other in Africa. Ashesi plans to broaden its impact by growing to 1,000 students by 2020 and adding new programs, while maintaining their strong culture of ethics and critical thinking. Ashesi is seeking partners to continue to expand their impact in Africa.
Bo M. Karlsson Foundation
Founded in 2004, the Bo M. Karlsson Foundation (BMKF) awards higher education scholarships to underprivileged women in Nepal, empowering them to become confident, self-reliant, vital citizens in their communities and country. Over the past decade, BMKF has awarded scholarships to 45 young women who have gone on to pursue careers in accounting, business management, engineering, journalism, law, medicine, nursing, public health, rural development, social work and teaching — futures that were hopelessly out of reach before receiving scholarships to pursue their undergraduate degrees. As the majority of BMKF scholars come from remote villages, most of them are the first in their families to receive any education. Several scholars have a physical disability, belong to marginalized castes or ethnic groups, or have experienced harrowing civil war and human trafficking situations. All share a passion for education. BMKF is committed to helping them succeed.
Lift Up Africa
Lift Up Africa (LUA) has over 17 projects that provide for education in East and Southern Africa. LUA supports grassroots schools and community organizations in order to boost the good work that local people have initiated within their communities. Girls who escape early forced marriage, children with disabilities, orphans and children in poverty are some of the most vulnerable groups LUA projects help through education and other services. LUA takes a holistic approach to the education of these children which is why, whenever possible, projects incorporate feeding programs, medical services and counseling.
Mission Africa
Mission Africa believes that education is the key to ending generational poverty and that investment in education can have a profound impact on communities. Many African countries do not offer free education and Mission Africa is dedicated to ensuring that all children regardless of their income level have access to quality education. In the past ten years, Mission Africa’s academic scholarship program has awarded 795 scholarships and has allowed more than 300 students in rural villages in Nigeria, Tanzania, Kenya, Sierra Leone, Togo, Rwanda and Uganda to graduate high school and continue on to college or vocational training. Mission Africa has also shipped 10 40-foot containers filled with books and school supplies to children and families in Nigeria, Kenya and Tanzania.
Mona Foundation
Since its founding in 1999, Mona Foundation has had a simple but compelling goal — to support grassroots education initiatives that build stronger and sustainable communities by raising the status of women and girls. Mona achieves this by partnering with local leaders and investing in the education of children and youth. Mona selects initiatives that are initiated and implemented by the local community and have a proven record of success. A long-term partnership strengthens the organizational capacity of each partner, which often leads to an increase in reach, greater efficacy of programs, and an expanded ability to address complex problems. Mona partners with organizations that work to reduce the barriers to education, improve quality of learning and cultivate agency among girls and boys. Programs use an integrated approach to develop academic skills, character and engaged citizenship. As a result, young people gain competency, agency, integrity and a commitment to building socially just communities. Mona Foundation has awarded more than $8 million to 35 initiatives in 18 countries. In 2016, Mona is supporting 18 initiatives in Panama, Brazil, Haiti, India, China, Vietnam, Mongolia, Haiti and the U.S.
NPH USA
NPH USA supports Nuestros Pequeños Hermanos (Spanish for “Our Little Brothers and Sisters”) which is raising more than 3,400 orphaned, abandoned and disadvantaged boys and girls in Bolivia, the Dominican Republic, El Salvador, Guatemala, Haiti, Honduras, Mexico, Nicaragua and Peru. NPH believes that a quality education is the key to a better life. Many children arrive at NPH with little or no formal schooling. Each child is given a strong foundation of basic academic and interpersonal skills and provided with an extensive variety of educational opportunities. Nearly all of NPH homes feature on-site schools from Montessori preschool through middle or high school, as well as vocational trade certification courses. In 2015, NPH supported 369 students in university – the most in the organization’s history. Children grow up to become accountants, carpenters, doctors, farmers, mechanic, nurses, teachers and community leaders. An additional 2,100 children who live in low income areas outside the homes receive scholarships to attend NPH schools. Click here to see stories of nine children who are learning in different ways at NPH.
Rwanda Girls Initiative
Rwanda Girls Initiative’s mission is to educate and empower girls in Rwanda to reach their highest potential. The organization’s vision is for students to graduate as inspired young leaders, filled with confidence, a love of learning and a sense of economic empowerment to strengthen their communities and foster Rwanda’s growth. The Gashora Girls Academy of Science and Technology (GGAST) is an innovative and socio-economically diverse model upper-secondary school designed to provide a “whole girl” education. GGAST provides a rigorous college prep academic program, combined with leadership training and extra-curricular activities that fills girls with confidence so they can pursue their dreams of university education and impactful vocations. Since opening GGAST’s doors in January 2011, Rwanda Girls Initiative has educated 270 girls each year with a 93 percent matriculation rate to universities in 16 countries, including 80 in the U.S. and Canada with $20 million in scholarships.
Sahar Education International
Sahar provides access to education in Afghanistan and supports an educated future for Afghan girls, enabling them to actively participate in social, political and economic arenas in their communities. Sahar builds schools, computer centers and teacher training programs utilizing local labor and community support. Since 2009, Sahar has invested over $2 million in building, repairing and supplying schools in Afghanistan, a country in which 45 percent of schools operate without adequate buildings. Sahar operates 13 schools, 9 rural and 4 urban, and 87 classrooms have been built or renovated. Sahar impacts 18,000 girls annually and serves girls from Uzbek, Tajik, Pashto and Hazar ethnic groups. In total, Sahar’s programs have impacted more than 200,000 girls.
The Rose International Fund for Children
The Rose International Fund for Children (TRIFC) is transforming education for blind students in Nepal. Being a blind or visually-impaired student in a developing country is an incredible challenge. There are no areas of these student’s educational and personal needs that are properly covered with the limited funding provided by the Nepal government. Add to that the societal stigma attached to having a disability, where one is considered to be cursed or suffering from a past-life sin and the result is a neglected, marginalized group with a devastating loss of human potential. TRIFC is working to solve this problem through an innovative, holistic program which addresses all areas of need and provides students with the necessary tools to be successful in school and in life. TRIFC is working to enhance personal and educational support in the areas of health, hygiene, nutrition, school tools for the blind, daily-living skills and more.
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Featured Organization
buildOn
By Amanda Pain
There is an education crisis, both in the United States and abroad. buildOn has been striving to solve this crises since Jim Ziolkowski founded the Connecticut-based nonprofit in 1991. The organization works to break the cycle of poverty, illiteracy and low expectations by engaging U.S. students in community service, and by building schools in the developing world.
Randi Hedin, a buildOn board member and president of its Seattle Chapter, has been involved with the organization since 2000. “The organization’s mission around service and education is an important one for me personally and for my family,” Hedin explained. “Education is a critical issue nationally and globally, and the work of buildOn really resonates with me.” To date, buildOn has built nearly 1,000 schools in seven countries (Burkina Faso, Haiti, Malawi, Mali, Nepal, Nicaragua and Senegal).
In order to build a school, a three-way partnership must be established between buildOn, the local community and the country’s Ministry of Education. “We have about a six month vetting process of a community before we break ground on a new school,” said Hedin. “We are not just going into a village, building a school and leaving. The community and the Ministry of Education also must be committed.”
While buildOn provides communities with funding, certain building materials, skilled labor, and project supervision, it’s the local people who build each school and are responsible for its long-term maintenance. In fact, among the communities where buildOn works, nearly 1.5 million volunteer work days have been contributed by community members. The Ministry of Education supplies the resources for each school, i.e. teachers, curriculum and books. Hedin believes this methodology is key to buildOn’s success. “Our methodology is our biggest strength,” she said. “Our partnerships with the communities and ministries is what helps us build sustainable schools, and that is what this is all about — sustainability.”
After assessing country need and local support, buildOn chooses a community for a school. “One of the measures that buildOn uses to choose a country is the Human Development Index (HDI), but you also need a stable country and buy-in from the government in order to be successful,” explained Hedin. The commitment by each partner is solidified with the signing of a buildOn covenant, which occurs before the groundbreaking of every school. This covenant, signed by a ministry representative, the entire community as well as buildOn staff and donors, is a promise by each partner to fulfill their role in building and maintaining the school.
Communities are also required to establish a leadership committee with an equal number of men and women from the village who oversee the school’s construction and ensure the community is adhering to covenant requirements. Communities must send an equal number of girls and boys to each buildOn school and the organization monitors all of their schools for three years to ensure that the school is maintained and used for its intended purpose, and that it is educating girls as well as boys. To date, 49 percent of students attending buildOn schools are girls.
“The signing of the covenant is amazing to see,” said Hedin. “To be there on the day of the groundbreaking and watch everyone sign, or leave their fingerprint if they are illiterate, is a very powerful experience.” To Hedin’s knowledge, no community has ever broken a covenant agreement. In fact, an audit conducted after the organization built its 500th school showed that only two schools were no longer being used, and both cases were due to the effects of natural disasters.
buildOn is doing more than educating children. In 1998, the organization started an adult literacy program in five countries, and it will soon expand to a sixth. Evening classes are held at buildOn schools and provide adults with basic literacy and numeracy skills. According to Hedin, nearly 70 percent of the adults who participate in these classes are women. “It is incredible to see these women attending classes because they have very long days, and so much responsibility,” she said. To date, over 120,000 children, parents and grandparents are attending buildOn schools.
Hedin explained that one challenge buildOn regularly faces is making families understand the value of education and how much it can benefit their community. “There is still a lot of educating to be done around the world about the value of education, and we shouldn’t take that for granted,” she said. “I have always viewed education as something that helps lay the foundation for global development. Without it, it is hard for families to rise out of poverty.”
Over the next five years, buildOn hopes to go deeper into some of the communities where it works, and ultimately have a greater impact on the people who live there. “When I travel and talk to families that have sent their children to a buildOn school, you see that everyone has the same desires for their kids,” Hedin said. “All parents want their children to have a better future, and it’s terrific that buildOn partnerships are bringing people together.”
The Seattle Chapter of buildOn is hosting a dinner on Thursday, December 1st, 2016 at the Seattle Marriott Redmond to raise money for building schools in Mali. For more information, contact Jacquelyn Horstmann, National Event Manager, at Jacquelyn.horstmann@buildon.org or 203-585-5391. For more information about the Seattle Chapter, contact Randi Hedin at randi.hedin@gmail.com or 425-233-7162.
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Changemakers
Calvin Echodu, Founder and Board Vice-Chair, and Dorothy Echodu, Chief Executive Officer, Pilgrim Africa
By Amanda Pain
“A pilgrim is someone who knows where he or she is going. Someone who is headed somewhere. The destination makes the pilgrim.” Dorothy Echodu, CEO of Pilgrim Africa, an NGO with offices in Seattle and Uganda, uses this to explain her organization’s mission. Since Calvin Echodu, Dorothy’s husband, founded Pilgrim Africa in 2001 as a small, grassroots organization providing refugee assistance, it has evolved to focus on global education and malaria eradication. This evolution is a credit to Mr. and Dr. Echodu; they are pilgrims.
In 1996, the Ugandan government moved citizens into government-run camps in order to protect them from the Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA). These camps were dangerous and rife with disease and those displaced were living in squalid conditions. It was close to impossible for NGOs to get into the camps because of the war between the LRA and the government. Calvin Echodu felt a call to help.
“My vision for starting the organization was to restore hope and try to address the plight of displaced people,” Calvin said in regards to witnessing the conditions of nearly 1.7 million people living in poverty and disease. So he did what no one else could do at the time — he took resources to those living in the camps. “Getting resources to the camps took ignoring security and safety warnings, and driving through roads that were unsafe to travel,” said Calvin. Today, he continues to serve on the board of Pilgrim Africa, while also in the role of CEO of Earthwise Ferries Uganda Limited, a Ugandan based company that is helping to restore economic growth in East Africa by connecting cities through waterways.
“I think it is fair to say Pilgrim Africa restored hope to the hopeless when it was able to deliver lifesaving medicines to families in the camps; when it resettled families giving them the ability to restart their lives after years in the camps; when it provided an educational opportunity to children with no hope of getting secondary education; and when it energized the community and government to defeat malaria,” said Calvin. “All of these things give the community hope.”
“I knew about Calvin and his work with refugees before we met,” said Dorothy Echodu. “I was enormously impressed by his courage.” The two met in Olympia when Calvin came to the U.S. to study trauma counseling. At the time, Pilgrim Africa was working toward founding Beacon of Hope School, a secondary school created for former LRA child soldiers who were forced to fight, and orphaned during the war. “At first, Pilgrim Africa tried to re-integrate these shell-shocked, severely traumatized abductees into their families after short courses with trained trauma counselors,” said Dorothy. Beacon of Hope School opened in 2006 to create a safe environment for children to live and rehabilitate. “We started the school to meet the educational and counseling needs of this special population, and we never looked back.”
Dorothy was no stranger to working with disadvantaged populations. Before graduate school she worked for Values Project Northwest, an NGO in Washington state that conducts workshops between Native American tribes and companies in conflict over natural resources. She believes working there gave her a lifelong appreciation for indigenous efforts. She also feels strongly that her education has helped prepare her for the role as CEO. As an undergraduate at Yale she studied literature, which she feels has helped her with cross-cultural communication. And she said her graduate studies have taught her how to solve complex problems. “The common theme in both my studies of the sciences and of the humanities was an appreciation for rigor,” she said. “I’d like to impart that appreciation to others.”
Today as CEO, Dorothy has helped expand the focus of Pilgrim Africa’s global education program. Beacon of Hope School, while initially for LRA abductees, today educates nearly 700 students, almost 400 of whom are on a full scholarship. Applicants are accessed on merit and need, with an emphasis on educating students from rural areas with little access to secondary education. Students go on to attend college, and continue into a range of professions from doctors to engineers. “I am passionate about education in part because I’ve been so extremely fortunate in having a broad and excellent one,” said Dorothy. “I had the fortune of being exposed to very wonderful teachers and stimulating instruction, and I very much want others to have the same opportunity.”
Dorothy also leads Pilgrim Africa’s malaria eradication work. In 2007, Uganda experienced severe flooding and Pilgrim Africa feared malaria would become a huge problem. “That was the beginning of our work in malaria and since then we have gotten incredible passionate about it,” she said. “We really feel malaria is holding the nation hostage and yet it is fully treatable and preventable.” In May 2016, Pilgrim Africa received a $2.49 million grant from the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation to continue its innovative malaria eradication efforts.
As part of the board, Calvin is working on developing Pilgrim Africa’s strategic plan and he hopes the organization he founded will to continue to evolve. They want to add innovative courses to Beacon of Hope School’s curriculum, such as robotics, computer science and welding to give students job-based skills, and want to eventually turn these courses into a Center of Innovation and Excellence to help respond to the emerging needs of the community. Pilgrim Africa’s leaders also dream of opening a university in Teso, Uganda, as well as starting secondary schools in places like South Sudan and Democratic Republic of the Congo, regions affected by conflict and war.
From the initial vision to help bring hope to people in refugee camps, to the current work expanding global education and malaria eradication programs, Pilgrim Africa continues to deliver hope. And the Echodus are the pilgrims leading the way. “Overall, while I am CEO, I would like to see God glorified in the work of Pilgrim Africa,” said Dorothy Echodu. “For me that means we need to be bold and to risk ourselves to try and bring about something wonderful.”
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Welcome New Members
Please welcome our newest Global Washington members. Take a moment to familiarize yourself with their work and consider opportunities for support and collaboration!
Boost! Collective
Boost! Collective is a story-driven boutique communications firm. They can help you discover, write and tell the powerful human stories that engage your audiences and drive deep and meaningful engagement. www.boostcollective.com
SIGN Fracture Care International
SIGN builds orthopedic capacity in developing countries. They partner with surgeons to provide orthopedic training and surgical implants for free or at minimal cost so that surgeons can provide swift and effective care to the injured poor. signfracturecare.org
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Member Events
Aug 28: Water1st International // Bike for Water – Seattle
Sep 8: Trade Development Alliance // Global Cookout
Sep 15: Medical Teams International // Annual Volunteer Appreciation Gathering
Sept 22: Pangea Giving // Coffee + Chat
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Career Center
Highlighted Positions
Development Director: VillageReach
Foundations Officer: Landesa
Program Coordinator: Splash
For more jobs and resources, visit https://globalwa.org/job-board/
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GlobalWA Events
August 18: Networking Happy Hour
September 20: Bringing Down the Walls
December 8: Global Washington’s 8th Annual Conference
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YPIN Global Cafe: Social Media and Global Relations
Posted on August 2, 2016.
By Amanda Clark
On Tuesday, July 26 at Rendezvous in Belltown, young professionals gathered to discuss the impact of social media in their lives as well as its impact on global relations. Attendees wrestled with questions of how social media is affecting media, politics and security, with a few lighter moments touching on Pokémon Go and Tinder. The discussion was part of YPIN’s Global Cafe Series. YPIN is the World Affairs Council’s Young Professionals International Network and its Global Cafe Series was created to engage participants in critical discussions about today’s leading global challenges.
Continue Reading
24 Financial Ventures Changing the World Through Social Impact Investing
By Grant Trahant, Founder at Causeartist
The world of social impact investing is expanding rapidly. In 2012 the Forum for Sustainable and Responsible Investment reported $3.31 trillion in US assets held by 443 institutional investors and 272 money managers. In addition,1,043 community investment institutions applied ESG standards into their investment portfolios. One of the most interesting parts about social impact investing is the returns investors are seeing. A 2015 Report by Morgan Stanley indicated that sustainable investing funds have actually met or exceeded the median returns of traditional equity funds. The report also made an excellent point about volatility. The report states that 72 percent of the companies surveyed with a social impact purpose showed higher profitability and lower volatility. This is important to note, because where there is low volatility and growth in a certain sector, big sums of money tend to pour in.
Click here to read the full article in Causeartist.
Navigating the Jungle Gym of a Career in International Development
By Annelise Matsuo, Membership & Events Intern, Global Washington
On July 20, 2016, Global Washington partnered with Landesa to lead a panel discussion on careers in international development, hosted at the PATH headquarters in Seattle. The discussion was moderated by Global Washington’s Executive Director, Kristen Dailey, and included Radha Friedman, Michele Frix, and Rebecca Okelo, three young professionals who have already made significant contributions to the vibrant international development community in Washington state. Friedman currently serves as Director of Programs at World Justice Project, Michele Frix is Chief of Staff at the Seattle Foundation, and Rebecca Okelo is founder and Executive Director of MED25 International. Continue Reading
July 2016 Newsletter
Welcome to the July 2016 issue of the Global Washington newsletter.
IN THIS ISSUE
Letter from our Executive Director
It was 1994 and I was in the Dominican Republic when I got caught in a torrential downpour. The dirt, mountain road I was on became completely washed out to the point where my car could not go any further. I was stranded. Two incredibly generous Haitians invited me into their small shelter to wait out the storm. Their home had no electricity, a leaky roof, and it was the only structure within miles. These are the people that are all too often left out of international development programs because they are so hard to reach on the “last mile” of the road.
Several Global Washington members are specifically working to improve the lives of those living in remote areas and they’re highlighted in the issue brief below. Two unique models are also featured this month — World Bicycle Relief that is increasing mobility and connectivity for people in rural areas, and VillageReach whose tagline is “Starting at the Last Mile.” These organizations are truly an inspiration to me.
I hope you enjoy these summer months and take time to reflect and recharge. In the fall, Global Washington will spotlight the issues of global education, mass migration and fragile states, and financial inclusion. In the meantime, I hope to see you at one of our upcoming events.
Kristen Dailey
Executive Director
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Question of the Month
What are you most looking forward to at this year’s GlobalWA Conference? In addition to the regular features, are there any topics or speakers that you would like to see included?
Please click here to respond.
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Issue Brief
Reaching the Last Mile: Challenges and Opportunities
By Amanda Pain
Adara Development
The 2014 Ebola outbreak in West Africa amounted to over 27,000 infections and 11,000 deaths, costing billions of dollars in economic loss and international aid spending. This crisis was traced back to a single two-year-old boy living in rural Guinea, a part of our world where services, such as healthcare, are extremely hard to deliver. We call this part of the world the last mile.
In economic terms, the last mile is the final leg in point of service delivery or retail sale. In international development terms, reaching the last mile, or rural, often isolated communities, involves reaching villages without paved roads, with little access to communication and poor infrastructure. Without services flowing in and out of these areas, people are disconnected from valuable products and often left in a perpetual state of poverty.
Seventy-five percent of the world’s poor live in rural areas with insufficient access to education, healthcare, clean water and sanitation. The percent of children not in school in rural areas is twice as high as in urban areas, and children in rural areas are 1.7 times more likely to die before their fifth birthday in comparison to urban areas. Nearly half of those living in rural areas lack improved sanitation facilities, and one in four practice open defecation. Investment in rural areas has been slow with policies often catering to the urban poor. Agricultural investment, which many rural families depend on, has been stagnant or declining for the past three decades. According to the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO), an additional 50 percent in annual investment is needed to eradicate huger and increase food production by 2050.
Part of the difficulty in reaching the last mile, in addition to the human and financial constraints and lack of infrastructure, is that interventions and services are not designed or equipped to reach these unique environments. In order for last mile solutions to be sustainable, they must address challenges specific to low-resource settings. While countries have policies to define how the supply chain should operate, a lack of resources can make the process on paper inconsistent with reality. Supply chain logistics might not be a popular cause for donors, but investment in it is crucial.
A number of organizations focus on using technology to bring services to those living in last mile regions. VillageReach uses information and communication technology specifically designed for low-resource environments to optimize data collection, improve data visualization and improve communication to ensure quality healthcare delivery. World Vision’s Last Mile Mobile Solutions were designed to streamline and improve upon aid delivery, whereby information can be exchanged wirelessly without the need for mobile phone networks, Internet connectivity or electricity. And World Concern, working with Seattle start-up ScanMyList, created a mobile app to streamline the process of tracking food distributed to poor rural families, as well as payments to local merchants in drought stricken areas in the Horn of Africa.
In addition to NGOs innovating new technologies to reach the last mile, public-private partnerships are also helping in this endeavor. Melinda Gates questioned why, if Coca-Cola can reach remote areas of the world, vaccines, medicines and other necessary services can’t also reach these places. This prompted the launch of Project Last Mile in 2010, a collaboration between The Coca-Cola Company, The Coco-Cola Africa Foundation, The Global Fund, United States Agency for International Development and the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation. In 2014, the partners announced they would invest $21 million, as well as in-kind resources, in order to deliver needed health services to ten African countries by 2020.
The consequences of not reaching the last mile affect everyone. When products and services cannot reach remote areas of the world, local and global economies are affected. When education services, food and improved sanitation cannot reach people everywhere, global development progress is slowed. And when needed health services cannot reach people living in the last mile, 11,000 people may die unnecessarily from disease outbreak. Below are several Global Washington members who focus their work on reaching the last mile.
Adara Development
Adara Development was established out of a passion to deliver essential services to people living in extreme poverty in extremely remote locations. That passion took Adara to the Humla District of Nepal, a community of more than 50,000 people who live high in the Himalayas with limited access to government and other services. They have some of the nation’s lowest literacy rates, their maternal and infant mortality is well above the national average, their sanitation is inadequate, and they run short of food each winter when families are sometimes snowed in for months. To address these challenges, and at the request of the community, Adara focused interventions in two main areas: community health and education. Humlis are now more often sending their children to school, trafficking has been almost eliminated from the district, complaints of respiratory and diarrheal disease have decreased, and families now have access to health services through the provision of health and roaming medical camps.
Agros International
Even in poor Central American countries, the urban underclass accesses services, infrastructure and economic opportunities that the rural poor only dream of. Robbed of security, stability and hope, generationally illiterate rural families are forced to migrate for menial labor and raise children without sanitation, education or healthcare access. Here in these “last mile” communities, Agros International offers families the opportunity to rebuild the social, economic and civic systems that characterize dignified life. For 34 years, Agros has been going deep and prioritizing impact, giving rural poor families the chance to own land, plug into health and education systems, develop profitable, market-led agricultural businesses and establish community organizations. Eventually, as families pay off a land loan financed by Agros and reach milestones on Agros’ Path to Prosperity development framework, their communities transition to sustainable self-governance. Agros’s mission is to provide a fair opportunity for families to reach their God-given potential and permanently break the cycle of rural poverty.
Awamaki
Awamaki is a nonprofit social enterprise that empowers rural Andean women with skills training, connects them to global market opportunities and enables them to earn an income to transform their communities. Awamaki strives to teach women’s cooperatives to start and run their own businesses through its programs in fair trade artisanal crafts and sustainable tourism. With the help of Awamaki staff and volunteers, Andean women are able to sell their products to international retailers of ethically-sourced handmade goods, connect with global volunteers who make a difference, and welcome tourists into their culture. Awamaki envisions these highly-skilled Andean women artisans from remote communities engaged in the market economy, running successful cooperative businesses and leading their communities out of poverty.
Construction for Change
Because buildings can transform lives, Construction for Change (CfC) provides construction management to under-resourced communities that have identified the need for a building to house their critical work. They do this through partnerships with nonprofits, by leveraging a vast networks of volunteers, tapping into resources and expertise, and transferring industry standards and best practices. An organization’s ability to make an impact in their community is directly affected by the infrastructure they have at their disposal. Here’s why: global populations are increasing at exponential rates and new infrastructure is required to keep up with growing demand for education, healthcare and social services; current infrastructure in last mile communities is often unsafe and insufficient, if it exists at all; and government budgets, the traditional source of funding for CfC infrastructural projects, has dramatically decreased in recent years, leaving a significant gap in resources. Together with global partner communities, CfC is building towards the end of the last mile to establish a just and equitable society for all.
Guatemala Village Health
Guided by the United Nations Millennium Development Goals, Guatemala Village Health (GVH) develops and implements programs that involve communities and their leaders in moving toward a healthier life. The organization’s work is focused on three key areas: education, health and economic development. Within education, GVH provides students with basic health and nutrition information, as well as offers scholarships for continued learning; it trains midwives and provides birth kits for healthy deliveries; and it provides residency training opportunities for U.S. doctors in rural Guatemala. Within healthcare, GVH is working to improve childhood health and nutrition, maternal health, midwifery, preventive dentistry, sanitation, and chronic disease treatment. And finally, GVH is providing microfinance support for an artisan textile project.
Literacy Bridge
Over 750 million adults are illiterate, and 1.4 billon people live without electricity. Illiteracy and lack of access to knowledge inhibit socioeconomic development and equity in remote and rural areas. Literacy Bridge aims to significantly improve the health, income and quality of life for the world’s most underserved communities by providing life-changing knowledge through innovative technology. Literacy Bridge provides a comprehensive program that uses an audio learning computer, the Talking Book, to deliver relevant, accessible and accurate information on health and agricultural challenges, including messages on financial services, marketing and gender issues. They leverage local expertise and existing research, recording messages in song, drama and interview formats, as well as in local languages and dialects. Through a dedication and focus on research and development, Literacy Bridge programs are a continual learning lab with carefully designed and tested feedback loops and mechanisms to ensure delivery of the latest information in a continually improving, creative learner-centered program.
Schools for Salone
Schools for Salone is a nonprofit that revitalizes Sierra Leonean communities, empowers children and improves socioeconomic conditions for families, communities and future generations. Schools for Salone improves access to and quality of education, and has built 18 schools and 3 libraries since 2005. They also train teachers at intensive summer institutes. With a proven track record of working with Sierra Leoneans as they rebuild after a ten-year civil war, the organization builds new schools within three months after funds are raised. Through opportunities that only an education can provide, Schools for Salone strives to break the cycle of poverty, one school at a time.
VillageReach
VillageReach is a global health innovator that develops, tests, implements and scales new solutions to critical health system challenges in low-resource environments, with an emphasis on strengthening the “last mile” of healthcare delivery. VillageReach improves health outcomes by extending the reach and enhancing the quality of healthcare, focusing on the most critical barriers at the last mile: lack of infrastructure, information availability, healthcare access, and human resource constraints. With more than a decade of experience studying and working in low-resource communities around the globe, VillageReach capabilities include supply chain design, software development, human resources for health, advocacy and change management, and private sector engagement. Through partnerships with governments, local communities and other non-governmental organizations, VillageReach combines expertise across public health, technology, and business to bring life-saving innovation – new systems, programs and technologies – to scale and sustainability.
World Bicycle Relief
In rural developing countries, a bicycle is a powerful tool that can connect students with education, health care workers with patients and entrepreneurs with markets. In these remote, rural areas, often the primary mode of transportation is walking and distance becomes a barrier to accessing education, health care and economic opportunities. Riding a bicycle is four times faster than walking; with the efficiency a bicycle provides, people can accomplish so much more. World Bicycle Relief provides rugged, high quality bicycles to students and health care workers through study-to own and work-to-own programs. Reliable transportation is a basic building block of any economy, big or small, and a bicycle can spark the tremendous untapped human potential in rural developing areas and mobilize millions to change their lives.
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Featured Organization
Featured Organization: World Bicycle Relief
By Amanda Pain
World Bicycle Relief
Dave Neiswander, President of World Bicycle Relief (WBR), remembers his first trip to Zambia in 2007. As he rode in the back of a pick-up truck with WBR co-founder Leah Missbach Day, they imagined seeing bicycles along that same road connecting resources to people living in the last mile community of Palabana. Today, WBR has provided over 15,000 Buffalo Bicycles to the rural, isolated area of Palabana, and their dream has become a reality.
WBR was founded when FK Day, who also founded SRAM Corporation (a bicycle parts manufacturer), and his wife Leah wanted to find a way to reconnect people to resources after the 2004 Indian Ocean Tsunami. Approximately 24,400 bicycles were donated to people in Sri Lanka; one-third went to healthcare workers, one-third to students and one-third to entrepreneurs. “A post-evaluation done on this program showed that the bicycles made a big difference in terms of connecting people to schools, clinics and the marketplace,” Neiswander explained. World Vision, WBR’s field implementation partner in Sri Lanka, then asked WBR to help provide volunteer health workers with bicycles to reach more people living with HIV/AIDS in sub-Saharan Africa.
At that time, the bicycles available in Africa were not reliable and required frequent replacement. “We call them BSOs – bicycle shaped objects,” said Neiswander. This inspired FK Day to build a new bicycle, one that was made for the tough terrain of rural communities. As WBR continued to improve their bicycle design, which is now on its 17th generation, NGOs and local businesses began to inquire about purchasing the bikes. Thus, the social enterprise Buffalo Bicycles Ltd. was born in 2009 with the proceeds funding WBR philanthropic endeavors. During its tenure, WBR has successfully partnered with the United States Agency for International Development and the UK’s Department for International Development for programs in Zambia and Zimbabwe. WBR has also collaborated with corporate partners such as UBS, Volkswagen, Deloitte and Mondelez International, Inc.
Since its founding in 2005, WBR has delivered nearly 300,000 bicycles to 18 different countries. Today, WBR focuses on three main program areas: healthcare, education and economic development. And impact evaluations have shown program success. Buffalo Bicycles, which are designed to carry 100kg, allow people to carry five times more weight and travel four times the distance when compared to walking. Entrepreneurs using Buffalo Bicycles can increase profits by 50 percent, and healthcare workers can reach 40 percent more patients. Buffalo Bicycles have also increased student attendance by 28 percent, and increased academic performance by 59 percent (especially among girls who receive 70 percent of the bikes in WBR’s education program).
World Bicycle Relief
“When we first started the Bicycles for Educational Empowerment Program (BEEP) back in 2009, we were thinking of providing 60 percent of bicycles to girls and 40 percent to boys,” Neiswander explained. “However, the Ministry of Education came back to us and told us that 70 percent should go to girls, because research shows that magical things happen as girls stay in school.”
WBR does much more than just drop off bikes. Partnering with local and international development organizations, WBR runs programs in Zambia, Kenya, Zimbabwe and South Africa. “We want to make sure that it is not just about dropping off bicycles and leaving,” Neiswander explained. “We train field mechanics — 1,209 have been trained to date — and ensure a robust spare parts supply chain in order to make a sustainable impact.” Within the healthcare and education programs, WBR holds distribution ceremonies within the local community, whereby the healthcare workers or students publicly sign a contract for their bicycles. The contracts are two-year service-to-own or study-to-own agreements, with the understanding that they will lose their bicycle if they drop out of the program.
“I think we learned early on that it’s important to engage the community before you walk in and start delivering bicycles,” said Neiswander. “The contract puts the receiver’s skin in the game, and signing the contract in front of the community creates a social contract.” In order to ensure that the bicycles are being used appropriately, WBR works with implementing partners on the ground, such as PATH, World Vision and Plan, as well as local village leaders. Implementing partners play an important role in educating communities about the importance of girls attending school, and how that can lead to a reduction in poverty and infant mortality rates. Community leaders form a committee to choose healthcare workers or students to receive bicycles, and then ensure the bikes are being used for their intended purpose. “Sometimes people will sell their bike, or not use it for the program,” said Neiswander. “But it doesn’t happen often, and I think it’s important that it happens because it demonstrates the consequences of breaking the contract to the community.”
World Bicycle Relief
WBR’s economic development programs work a little differently. One example is a partnership with the Palabana Dairy Cooperative in Zambia. The program provides bicycles to dairy farmers for transporting milk from their farm to the local chilling center. The Palabana Dairy Cooperative pays WBR for the bicycles, and then the cooperative collects payment from the farmers over a three-month period. WBR has similar programs with other businesses in Zambia, Zimbabwe and Kenya, and NGOs also purchase Buffalo Bicycles for their own programs. Neiswander explained, however, that WBR does not sell bikes to everyone who asks. “I get requests every day for bicycles from all over Africa. But if we aren’t operating there, meaning we don’t have field mechanics or spare parts, that means we can’t support the bicycles, which won’t lead to sustainable impact.”
Neiswander believes WBR’s work in helping rural girls living in last mile communities access education has been empowering. “We have had situations where a girl was sold for her dowry into an early marriage, but the WBR bicycle contract was then used to keep that girl in school,” he said. “That to me has been the greatest impact of our programs.”
And what about those in the last mile gaining access to basic goods and services? “In the rural areas we are working, you could build more roads, more schools and more clinics, but that is going to take a long time,” said Neiswander. “How are you going to reach that last mile? I think the bicycle is a very effective, sustainable and environmental friendly tool to connect people to resources. We are focused on building the best bicycle we can, and designing the best programs,” he said. “We are not just a bicycle organization, we are creating mobilized communities.”
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Changemaker
Evan Simpson, President, VillageReach
By Amanda Pain
After 15 years at PATH, most recently serving as interim Country Program Director for PATH India, along with extensive education, training and a passion for global health, Evan Simpson is embarking on a new journey. As the new President of VillageReach, a post he took over earlier this month, Simpson will lead efforts to bring innovative global health solutions to the last mile.
Accessing remote or isolated communities, often rural, to deliver needed services such as vaccines, interventions or health information is what reaching the last mile is all about. This has been the focus of VillageReach’s efforts since it was founded in 2001, and it is partly what attracted Simpson to his new position. “The global health field is changing and I think VillageReach represents the future of international non-governmental organizations (NGOs),” he said.
During his tenure at PATH, Simpson held a variety of roles starting as the organization’s first director of communications in 2001. “My job was to tell PATH’s story, which was a complicated and challenging role,” he explained. With a desire to do programmatic work and apply the training from his Master of Public Health degree from the University of Washington, Simpson left his communications role to work on Rotavirus vaccine introduction. He held a variety of positions before taking over the interim director role with PATH India. “PATH has given me so many different opportunities along the way to create programs and projects of interest to me, which is why I stayed so long,” said Simpson. “I learned a lot and had a lot of diverse experiences.” While at PATH, Simpson was accepted into the Executive Doctoral Program in Health Leadership at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and will soon complete his DrPH degree.
VillageReach
Simpson believes local governments around the world are looking for greater autonomy in establishing and implementing public health programs, a sentiment echoed by his team at VillageReach. He explained that while countries need technical guidance, they ultimately want to be in charge of programs themselves, a role which historically has gone to large global development organizations. “I think there is a desire for a smaller footprint, and the future of global health is moving towards smaller, more nimble NGOs providing technical assistance to local partners,” said Simpson. “When working to establish systems abroad, local governments are ultimately the ones to carry forward and sustain those systems, and the governments want to utilize local talents and build local capacity.”
Simpson feels VillageReach is now at a point where it can decide how best to grow in order to have the most impact. “We want to think carefully about how we grow and I am looking forward to working with the leadership team and the board to look at growth over the next five to ten years,” said Simpson. He believes VillageReach’s steady growth to date has allowed it to become a major player in global health while bringing to light the importance of reaching the last mile. “VillageReach has done a tremendous job in making sure that 70 or 80 percent vaccine coverage, for example, is not a job complete. I credit the organization with really pushing the last mile agenda, not just with advocacy but also with solutions.”
Simpson hopes last mile efforts will garner more attention in the future. “The big sign that the global community was not paying attention to the last mile was the Ebola crisis,” he explained. “That was a clear indicator that a segment of our world is isolated without health systems or infrastructure.” In Simpson’s opinion, reaching the last mile requires three key resources: human, financial and technical. He believes difficulty is largely due to constrained resources, particularly when there are places without trained staff, roads or infrastructure for medicine and vaccine storage. “Reaching the last mile is an objective that requires appropriate use of technology, which is an area in which VillageReach has been a real game changer.”
VillageReach
Simpson has learned the importance of relationships in global development work, including relationships with governments, donors, partners, communities and individuals. “If you don’t have those relationships and try to accomplish things without building them, you probably won’t succeed,” he explained. This is especially true when it comes to reaching the last mile. Simpson believes organizations have to build relationships with local institutions in order to get local buy-in. “The long term sustainability of programs and interventions only occurs when the community adopts them.”
One aspect of global health work that Simpson appreciates is the diversity of experiences. “You are exposed to and interact with so many diverse actors,” he explained. “I really like the diversity of culture, language and even working with diverse partners across sectors.” One of Simpson’s career goals is to demonstrate how small to mid-size organizations like VillageReach can have a big impact by providing technical assistance while letting local partners carry out program implementation. “I look forward to being at VillageReach as long as I am helpful, impactful and enjoy what I am doing,” said Simpson. “I would really like to, at the end of my career, say I contributed to the establishment of a more cost effective way of doing business for global health organizations.”
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Welcome New Members
Please welcome our newest Global Washington members. Take a moment to familiarize yourself with their work and consider opportunities for support and collaboration!
Guatemala Village Health
Guatemala Village Health uses the United Nations Millennium Development Goals to help families move toward a healthier life. The organization’s strategies and programs always involve villagers and community leaders, and work is focused in three areas: education, health and economic development. guatemalavillagehealth.org
TiE Seattle
TiE Seattle is a nonprofit global community welcoming entrepreneurs from all over the world. The organization believes in the power of ideas to change the face of entrepreneurship, and believes in growing business through five pillars: mentoring, networking, education, incubating and funding. seattle.tie.org
Tiller
Tiller designs, develops and manages high-impact events, meetings, conferences and trips. Tiller believes in a hands-on approach and values working directly with clients to build customized programs. tillerglobal.com
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Career Center
Highlighted Positions
Development Associate: Seattle International Foundation
Job Placement AmeriCorps: International Rescue Committee
Program Advisor: Global Washington
For more jobs and resources, visit https://globalwa.org/resources/careers-in-development/
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GlobalWA Events
July 20: Careers in International Development
July 21: Networking Happy Hour
August 7-12: Accelerating for Social Transformation Certification Course
September 20: Bringing Down the Walls
December 8: Global Washington’s 8th Annual Conference
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Update from the Field – Mifos Initiative in Ecuador
By Jacob Kobzi, Mifos Initiative
The week is almost over but the Mifos Innovation team is still hard at work in Ecuador.
The day started with the Innovation Team meeting with an organization that oversees a network of cooperatives. The biggest takeaway from the meeting was that the organization sees the value that the Mifo’s Financial Inclusion Cloud can bring to their network of financial institutions. Continue Reading
Cervical Cancer: A Map of Inequity
By Sally G. Cowal, Senior Vice President, Global Cancer Control, American Cancer Society
The 2016 Women Deliver conference is an unprecedented gathering of the some of the world’s most committed women and men. Midwives, Presidents, youth advocates, physicians, policymakers and mothers fill rooms to take stock of our successes, our failures and our future efforts to improve the health and well-being of women around the world. We learn that much has changed—the challenges of pregnancy-related complications and HIV and AIDS have been forcefully and creatively tackled for many and in most countries. We also know that in order to protect those hard-earned successes, we must now turn to the diseases that are increasingly taking the lives of women—often mothers in their most productive years.
Click here to read the full article in Ms. Magazine.
June 2016 Newsletter
Welcome to the June 2016 issue of the Global Washington newsletter.
IN THIS ISSUE
Letter from our Executive Director
Washington state is home to several globally recognized companies such as Microsoft, Starbucks, and Costco. Our state also has a number of companies that value giving back to their communities and being good corporate citizens. We have a healthy mix of traditional corporate philanthropy along with new approaches to Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR), as companies understand that it can help with employee recruitment and retention.
As companies increase their global operations and recruit employees worldwide, many are adding a global lens to their CSR. Several companies in Washington state have increased giving to international issues through their employee giving and match programs, others have started new foundations, and some have embraced the concept of shared value to align their core business with philanthropy.
Companies that are members and supporters of Global Washington are leaders in doing good around the world, and I am proud to spotlight them in this issue of our newsletter. Our feature articles highlight philanthropic programs at JPMorgan Chase and Microsoft, and you can read more about CSR and other corporate members in our issue brief.
This topic will also be spotlighted at Global Washington’s Annual Conference on December 8, 2016. With the theme Allies in Action, Global Washington companies alongside their NGO partners will share opportunities and challenges of collaborating on international development projects. I hope to see you there.
Sincerely,
Kristen Dailey
Executive Director
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Question of the Month
What is the most interesting NGO/Business partnership you’ve seen or been a part of?
Please click here to respond.
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Issue Brief
Beyond Profit: Corporate Philanthropy and the Evolving Culture of Giving
By Amanda Pain
Corporate social responsibility (CSR), defined as a business approach that contributes to sustainable development by delivering economic, social and environmental benefits for all stakeholders, is a concept that often guides business practices today. Corporate philanthropy, defined as the act of a corporation or business promoting the welfare of others, generally via charitable donations of funds or time, is an important aspect of CSR. While both concepts have historical roots dating back to the 20h century, each has evolved as social, economic and political landscapes have changed.
Early forms of charitable giving were influenced primarily by chief executive officers (CEOs) based on their philanthropic interests, and often had little to do with business strategy. Fueled by a CEO’s desire to give back, corporate giving typically addressed an issue of personal interest, or within a community of interest (often the community where the company was based). Economic prosperity in the United States led to increased corporate giving and CEOs from companies such as Chase Manhattan Bank, General Electric and Cummins created foundations and programs that institutionalized philanthropy as part of company mission. Companies also began to focus more intently on CSR in relationship with how business makes profit and how, through and alongside this process, they are serving society.
However, this era of giving came under criticism from economists who thought the role of a corporation in a free society was to make as much money as possible for its shareholders, and that philanthropic ideals undermined this goal. Those in favor of corporate giving believed that companies had a responsibility to be good corporate citizens, and that business should serve stakeholders such as customers, employees and the community; not just their shareholders.
This debate, as well as the changing landscape of the 1980s and 1990s, led to more strategic corporate giving. Issues such as globalization placed more stringent cost controls on businesses, and philanthropic giving that was not seen as advancing business objectives was often eliminated. Other influences such as the Earth Summit in 1992 and the rise of the anti-sweatshop movement in the 1990s highlighted a company’s impact on issues like the environment and human rights. People started paying more attention to business ethics (or lack thereof), which in turn influenced corporations to better align business strategy and corporate giving.
While philanthropy can help build a positive reputation for a company, philanthropy alone does not define a company’s integrity, trustworthiness and/or values. Today, companies often focus their giving where they can make the biggest impact among all stakeholders. Three current CSR trends include: conscious capitalism, a philosophy that a more complex form of capitalism is emerging that will enhance corporate performance and people’s quality of life; shared value, a management strategy focused on creating business value through solving social problems that intersect with their business; and social business, a non-dividend business that seeks to solve a social problem through business methods.
Corporate giving is often in the form of direct cash giving, foundation grants, stock donations, employee volunteer time, product donations and other in-kind gifts. Research has shown that companies that encourage employees to donate and volunteer have higher employee retention rates, which is a huge cost savings for the business. Two common programs for employees are matching gift and volunteer grant programs. Matching gift programs allow the company to match an employee donation made to the charity of his/her choice. Over 65 percent of Fortune 500 companies offer matching gift programs, and an estimated $2-3 billion is donated annually through these programs. Volunteer grant programs offer monetary grants to organizations where employees volunteer, usually within the community where a company’s employees live or work. Nearly 40 percent of Fortune 500 companies offer volunteer grant programs, and a majority of these programs donate anywhere from $8 to $15 per hour volunteered.
CECP (formerly known as the Committee Encouraging Corporate Philanthropy), a coalition of CEOs committed to philanthropy that was founded in 1999, tracks corporate giving. In 2014 as part of an annual survey, CECP surveyed 271 companies and found that companies surveyed gave $18.5 billion in cash and in-kind donations. Between 2012 and 2014, total corporate donations as a percentage of revenue remained stable at .13 percent, and according to a Giving USA 2015 report, corporate giving rose by 13.7 percent between 2013 and 2014. In 2014, religion, education and health and social services received the most charitable donations. Internationally, most corporate giving went to European-based charities, which received USD 410 million, followed by charities in Asia, which received USD 374 million. Charities in Africa received giving, but the overall philanthropic investment in the continent was the lowest regional investment, at USD 88 million.
CSR as part of company culture leads to creative, thoughtful and ongoing philanthropic giving that helps non-profits throughout the world and, in turn, helps the communities those non-profits serve. There are a number of corporations in Washington state that have established successful foundations and giving programs. Here are a handful of Global Washington members who are on the front lines of corporate giving.
Alaska Airlines
Alaska Airlines gives to a number of charitable organizations that focus on the issues affecting communities served by Alaska Airlines. Areas of giving include youth and education, medical (emergency/research) environmental and community outreach. The Alaska Airlines Foundation offers cash grants to non-profit organizations based in Alaska, Hawaii and Washington that focus on educational and workforce development.
Clark Nuber PS
Clark Nuber is dedicated to the success of its people, its clients and its community at large. Though Clark Nuber is strongly rooted in the Pacific Northwest, its charitable giving extends globally – supporting international businesses, industries and communities for over six decades. In 2015 alone, Clark Nuber made direct monetary contributions to over 100 organizations, was involved in nearly 70 charitable community organizations, served on over 50 boards, and was included in the Puget Sound Business Journal’s top 75 Corporate Philanthropists in Washington for the third time.
Emirates
The Emirates Airline Foundation is a non-profit which aims to improve the quality of life for children, regardless of geographical, political or religious boundaries, and to help them maintain or improve their human dignity. The foundation’s aim is to help disadvantaged children realize their full potential by providing them with the basics, which most of us take for granted such as food, medicine, housing and education. Emirates is also a supporter of United for Wildlife, helping to raise awareness about the threat that the illegal wildlife trade poses to the survival of some of the planet’s most endangered and iconic animals.
JPMorgan Chase & Co.
JPMorgan Chase believes it has a fundamental responsibility to its client and communities to meet economic and social challenges. JPMorgan Chase works with community partners on issues such as workforce development, financial capability, small business development and community development in regions where it does business. In 2015, the firm and its Foundation gave more than $200 million to thousands of non-profit organizations across 47 U.S. states, the District of Columbia and 43 countries. More than 47,000 employees provided 310,000 hours of volunteer service in local communities around the globe.
Microsoft
Microsoft’s mission is to empower every person and every organization on the planet to achieve more. With a foundation of more than 30 years of giving, Microsoft Philanthropies invests its strongest assets – technology, employees, and partnerships – to drive greater inclusion and empowerment of people who do not have access to technology and the opportunities it offers and enables.
PwC
PwC has been in the Pacific Northwest since 1907 and has seen the region and the world continuously transformed by the innovation of business. PwC is well-equipped to help organizations address issues that arise in this high growth business climate. They believe business can go beyond products and services to have a measurable impact. PwC is committed to building trust in society and solving important problems for their clients, their people, the marketplace, and society as a whole. Working collaboratively with all of their stakeholders, they aim to deliver positive social impact, with measurable and long-lasting results. PwC is proud of their local, national and global impact.
Tableau Foundation
The Tableau Foundation believes data can unlock innovation and drive collaboration to help solve global challenges. They are using data to make a difference in the world in various ways including: in human rights, where Tableau works with REDLAYMC utilizing data to advocate for children’s rights in Mexico and Latin America; in global health, whereby PATH uses Tableau software to better track and eliminate malaria in Zambia and South Africa; and in civil society development, helping the people of Myanmar learn to use data to bring about democracy in their country.
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Featured Organization
JPMorgan Chase & Co
By Amanda Pain
JPMorgan Chase & Co. is no stranger to philanthropy. With a corporate history dating back to 1799, this financial institution was built by successful business leaders and philanthropists such as John Pierpont Morgan. Today, JPMorgan Chase operates in more than 100 countries, and donates nearly $270 million annually.
JPMorgan Chase philanthropic giving is centered on its four pillars: Work Force Readiness, Financial Capability, Small Business Development and Community Development/Affordable Housing. “We really focus on what we call the four pillars of philanthropy,” said Phyllis Campbell, Chairman, Pacific Northwest for JPMorgan Chase & Co. “We put our dollars, our thought capital and volunteerism into these targeted areas where we have expertise and can make a difference.” Campbell believes this style of philanthropy is unique because it focuses on core issues and utilizes strong local community partners to implement programs.
Campbell, former president and CEO of the Seattle Foundation, came to JPMorgan Chase in 2009. After JPMorgan Chase bought Washington Mutual (WAMU) Bank in 2008, Campbell wanted to carry forward WAMU’s strong commitment to the region. “I really have to say, with my years of working at the Seattle Foundation, I am really impressed with the way (JPMorgan Chase) goes about its corporate giving and partnerships,” said Campbell. She sees all organizations as serving three main stakeholders: customers, employees and the community. “The JP Morgan Chase philosophy of doing the right thing by its customers, employees and communities was an important part of why I took this job, and why I think that JPMorgan Chase has done well wherever it does business.”
JPMorgan Chase’s community spans across the globe, which is why Campbell describes its philanthropy as a combination of global focus with local implementation. For example, in Seattle, there is a team of executives who head philanthropic efforts for the company. Those executives then work with local partners to carry out initiatives specific to community needs. Seattle initiatives include working with partners such as the Pacific Science Center, Brenthaven, University of Washington Foster School of Business and the Seattle Housing Authority. Programs in Seattle funded by JPMorgan Chase include Startup Week Seattle, Fresh Bucks and the redevelopment of Yesler Terrace. “We tend to focus globally on the four pillars,” she said. “But we tell our local teams to find the best partners and tell us what the best strategies are to get from point A to point B, and we will commit to working with those partners.”
In addition to leading JP Morgan Chase’s philanthropic efforts, Campbell is also heavily involved with the Global Cities Initiative. She explains that this initiative provides cities with data on their competitive standing, brings city leaders together to discuss this data, and links cities worldwide to exchange ideas and learn from one another. In 2014, Seattle was the 20th U.S. city to launch Global Cities. Challenge Seattle was then born, an initiative to improve Seattle’s infrastructure, educational opportunities, job placement and city branding. Campbell said Challenge Seattle is a perfect example of how the Global Cities Initiative is encouraging cities to be more globally competitive.
According to Campbell, JPMorgan Chase employees take pride in their corporate responsibility efforts. In 2015 alone, 47,000 employees provided 310,000 hours of volunteer service. “I think this region values philanthropy, volunteering and giving back. I think it is just part of who we are and people really value that in the employers they work for,” said Campbell. She went on to explain that JPMorgan Chase aims to be a steward to communities where it does business. “I think our philanthropy has been driven by a real emphasis on corporate responsibility. We have an obligation to give back as a large corporation and to be a good corporate citizen.”
One of the biggest challenges for corporations is that sustainable change requires long-term commitment. “You can throw money at anything, but to be successful you have to have the right partners, address the right stakeholders and have the will to sustain change when it gets hard,” said Campbell. In addition, she believes philanthropy is evolving to include both local and global, and company initiatives must address both. “Donors today want to get involved in solving some of the world’s biggest problems. Here in Seattle, we have more globally aware donors than almost any place in the nation,” said Campbell. She believes Global Washington has raised the bar in terms of how Washingtonians think of themselves as part of a global community by helping local organizations solve problems that affect lives worldwide.
Campbell is pleased with the positive changes that JPMorgan Chase has made in the communities where it does business. She wants stakeholders to acknowledge that JPMorgan Chase is fulfilling its promises by investing in the four pillars and investing in long-term, sustainable change. “What drives us is our sense of responsibility, especially to the economy and to the financial underpinnings of the communities where we do business,” explained Campbell. “We want to help all parts of the community do well and succeed.”
Campbell is excited that partners are already lauding JPMorgan Chase’s philanthropic efforts. She says that her work, however, and that of her team, is far from over.
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Changemaker
Jane Meseck, Director of Global Programs, Microsoft Philanthropies
By Amanda Pain
When Jane Meseck took a job at Microsoft in 1997, she planned to stay for a few years before returning to school to get her Ph.D. in Public Policy. Nearly 20 years later, Meseck, now Director of Global Programs for Microsoft Philanthropies, has no plans to leave anytime soon.
Meseck was a technology consultant in the private sector before pivoting to the public sector. I was not planning to stay in the corporate sector,” explained Meseck. “I fully intended to get out of corporate work all together when I went to graduate school, and planned on getting my Ph.D. and teaching.” Working in the business sector in the 1990s, Meseck saw how technology could positively impact private sector productivity, and she believed the non-profit sector could benefit, as well. “I didn’t fall for the old adage that non-profits needed to apply more business acumen to be more effective, because I saw non-profits doing so much with so little.” Meseck wanted to play in role in advancing non-profits use of technology so that they could be even more efficient.
After moving to Seattle and getting an M.P.A. from the University of Washington, Meseck took a research and teaching job at UW’s Institute for Public Policy and Management. She heard Microsoft was hiring in what was then called its Community Affairs department. They were seeking someone with a business background who could explore ways in which technology could advance the non-profit sector. “It was a really unique opportunity to bring my business background and my social good interest together,” said Meseck. “I took the job and it has been 19 ½ years, so things have worked out pretty well.”
On her first day at Microsoft, Meseck was handed a large stack of letters from non-profits that were requesting the technology giant’s help. “One of the biggest things I wanted to do when I first started was to look at what role Microsoft could play in bringing technology to non-profits,” Meseck explained. When she started with the company, Microsoft was donating a couple million dollars in software every year to a handful of U.S. states. Today, Meseck has helped expand product donation to over $1 billion annually, with products shipped to markets worldwide. “When I step back, that is probably my biggest accomplishment,” she said. “I really scaled our product donations to be accessible to non-profits all over the world.”
Meseck’s current role as Director of Global Programs for Microsoft Philanthropies involves leading Technology for Good, Humanitarian Response and Employee Giving programs. She feels fortunate to have been a part of corporate giving at Microsoft over the past 20 years, and she truly enjoys the people she surrounds herself with every day. “The people I work with are amazing,” she said. “They are all truly focused on doing good and helping others do good.”
Meseck is passionate about both technology and humanitarian issues and feels lucky that her role allows her to address both. “One of the biggest issues of today surrounds migrants and refugees,” Meseck explained. “In working in humanitarian response programs, I am trying to figure out how Microsoft can approach this crisis in new ways.” Meseck also cares deeply about animals, and is a devoted volunteer at the Seattle Humane Society. “My passion is saving puppies and kitties,” said Meseck. “I do stuff like clean kennels, which I like because, in my profession, often the type of volunteer work non-profits want me to do is very similar to what I do in my day job. At the Seattle Humane Society, I can just help the animals, and it’s really nice.”
Microsoft Philanthropies was launched in December 2015 to consolidate the company’s philanthropic work and utilize all company assets in order to better achieve the mission “to empower every person and every organization on the planet to achieve more.” Meseck said this new approach goes beyond dollar and product donations by expanding employee engagement to better utilize their expertise, and raising the company’s voice to advocate for issues important to Microsoft, such as counting computer science coursework as STEM credit. One way Meseck would like to see Microsoft Philanthropies expand during her tenure is to connect employee volunteers with non-profits that need technology skills training. Meseck lauds Microsoft employees for their generosity and service. In 2015, the company raised and matched $125 million in employee donations, and employee’s volunteered over 570,000 hours. “We want (employees) to volunteer more, but we would love to see more of those hours go towards skills-based volunteering to help non-profit organization’s staff increase their technology skills and better use technology to pursue their mission.”
Meseck believes corporate philanthropy is important because corporations have valuable assets such as products and employee expertise that go beyond foundation funding that non-profits seek. “Especially with a multinational corporation like Microsoft, we are everywhere, so we have people everywhere that can support projects all over the world. Because we have people on the ground in so many places, we understand the communities we work in, and can bring relevant programs to those communities.”
Meseck understands the external and internal challenges companies face in making their philanthropic programs a success. Externally, they need to find and support the right partners who have mutual goals. “That’s the hardest part,” she said. “But when you get it right, it is also the best part because of the huge impact you can have.” Internally, a company’s philanthropic efforts need to be positioned to employees as a critical part of the company and its culture. “In my job, I play this dual role of driving external impact while simultaneously ensuring the work you do reflects back positively on the business, and supports the business.”
Meseck loves what she does and plans to stay at Microsoft until she “graduates” and can devote more time to volunteering. “I probably have one of the best jobs here,” she said. “I’m given the resources to do what I love, which is to help the non-profit sector use technology for social good. That mission is still resonating with me in a big way.”
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Welcome New Members & Partners
Please welcome our newest Global Washington members and partners. Take a moment to familiarize yourself with their work and consider opportunities for support and collaboration!
American Cancer Society
For over 100 years, the American Cancer Society (ACS) has worked relentlessly to save lives and create a world with less cancer. Together with millions of supporters worldwide, ACS helps people stay well and get well, find cures, and fight back against cancer. www.cancer.org
International Rescue Committee
The International Rescue Committee (IRC) responds to the world’s worst humanitarian crises and helps people to survive and rebuild their lives. At work in over 40 countries and 25 U.S. cities to restore safety, dignity and hope, the IRC leads the way from harm to home. rescue.org/seattle
JPMorgan Chase & Co.
JPMorgan Chase & Co. is an American multinational banking and financial services holding company. www.jpmorganchase.com
Vista Hermosa Foundation
Vista Hermosa Foundation (VHF) was established by Ralph and Cheryl Broetje in 1990 to carry out the mission of “bearing fruit that will last.” In addition to supporting local education programs in the Vista Hermosa community, VHF invests in the development of holistic, sustainable communities in East Africa, India, Haiti, Mexico and the United States. www.firstfruits.com/vista-hermosa-foundation.html
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Career Center
Highlighted Positions
Program Advisor: Global Washington
Director of Sponsorship: Nuestros Pequenos Hermanos
Strategic Partnerships Director: Vista Hermosa Foundation
For more jobs and resources, visit https://globalwa.org/resources/careers-in-development/
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Upcoming Events
June 23: Networking Happy Hour
July 18: WCIT 2016 Summer Luncheon: Leading on Trade
August 7-12: Accelerating for Social Transformation Certification Course
December 8: Global Washington’s 8th Annual Conference
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The winner will be honored at the Globie Awards on October 14, 2016 at the Georgetown Ballroom. Click here to buy tickets for the party!
One Equal Heart Foundation’s Indigenous Vision for a Sustainable Future
By Meaghan Bogart
Throughout this election year, news outlets are constantly pushing out political commentary, debates and advertisements, and the heated rhetoric around immigration is at an all-time high. It is undeniable that Latin American migrants play a role in the U.S. economy and our society as a whole. But why are people from across Latin America choosing to leave their families in order to travel to a country that does not always welcome them with open arms? Continue Reading