Life Bloom Services International. Catherine Mumbi Wanjohi, a teacher and therapist, is Founder and Executive Director of Life Bloom Services, an NGO that helps Kenya’s commercial sex workers, trafficked women and children, survivors of domestic violence, single and teenaged mothers---via programs that educate and empower. Since 2004, Life Bloom has helped 2,500 women and girls. Catherine says, “help them find their self worth, support them to sustain it, and they will break walls with unstoppable energy!”
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I met Ashwini Narayanan at Opportunity Collaboration. She runs MicroPlace
for eBay and says the world needs ten times more money than we've raised
to help the billion people who need a micro loan. MicroPlace makes it easy
for you to invest in organizations that loan to the poor: you can fight
poverty and get your money back with interest! Check it out
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Kiva. Stanford MBA Jessica Jackley Flannery and her husband founded this web-based nonprofit that helps individuals make $25 micro-loans to specific small businesses in developing countries whom they select on line. Since its launch in 2005, more than 123,000 lenders have used PayPal to loan more than $12million to some 18,000 entrepreneurs in 39 countries. According to one magazine, “Kiva is transforming philanthropy.”
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Health Keepers. Members of a network of rural microenterpreneurial women can each start her own business and sell health-protection products door to door---from a basket on her head that contains insecticide-treated mosquito nets, water purification pills, reading glasses and condoms, which she can counsel her customers about using. Health Keepers’ businesses are funded by Freedom from Hunger, whose Credit with Education program trains and qualifies them.
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There are some principaled, effective
non-profits that give grants to women. They do careful research
on the groups who receive funding, help them run effective programs,
and monitor their results. Global Fund for
Women, Mama Cash and the African Women’s Development Fund all belong to the International Network of Women’s Funds,
which has 17 members in countries as diverse as Nepal and Brazil,
Hong Kong and Germany. All understand “philanthropy”
to be “a shared responsibility and opportunity to give,
to receive, and make a difference, so women participate fully
in society with full human rights in a just, equitable world.”
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*African Women’s
Development Fund is a grant-making organization that
mobilizes and distributes human and material resources to enable
marginalized women take their destinies into their own hands.
The AWDF shares in the cause and work of the African women’s
movement to strengthen women’s leadership capacities,
develop knowledge, and build viable women’s organizations.
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*Mama Cash focuses
its international grants on organizations that work with women’s
leadership, peace and security, economic justice, art/media,
and women’s health. They also run an unusual educational
program, Women with Inherited Wealth, and offer donor-advised
funds.
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Women
for Women International helps women overcome the horrors
of war by helping rebuild their lives, families and communities.
You can sponsor a woman for $25 a month, and provide her with
emotional support with your letters. You can also find excellent
ideas for raising money to contribute by clicking
here. A special project this year: Women for Women and
Soroptimists International, hope to raise a million dollars to
provide skill training for women in Afghanistan, Bosnia and Rwanda.
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Women's Funding Network, one of the largest collaborative philanthropic networks in the world, includes 160 foundations, charities and funds that invest $65 million annually in women and girls worldwide. The network, which began with Ms. Magazine's Foundation 40 years ago, is creating lasting change in women's human and economic rights, healthcare and education in the US and around the world. MORE MORE listing (insert alphabetically after Women for Women International) Women's Funding Network, 505 Sansome, 2nd Floor, San Francisco, CA 94111. Tel: 415-441-0706; Fax: 415-441-0827; Email: info@womensfundingnetwork.org; Website: http://www.womensfundingnetwork.org/
Women’s Initiative for Self Employment. This California organization propels low-income women (including minorities, immigrants and welfare recipients) into business ownership. During an intensive 20-session course in English or Spanish, women complete a business plan, learn technology, access capital and meet business people who can help them succeed. Graduates have started/expanded 1,600 businesses whose average income has doubled after four years. Michele Grau Young, Board Chair, and Julie Castro Abrams, CEO, invite you to volunteer or donate.
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*The Global Fund for
Women advocates for and defends women's human rights
by making grants to support women's groups around the world.
They believe that women should have a full range of choices,
and that women themselves know best how to determine their needs
and propose solutions for lasting change. This philosophy is
reflected in their flexible, respectful, and responsive style
of grant making.
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jessica’s hope. This organization was founded by the five children of Jessica C.J. Clere to increase awareness of Ovarian Cancer symptons, treatments and research. One hundred percent of all contributions to jessica’s hope support research at Georgia Tech to find a test for early Ovarian Cancer detection and improve the survival rate. MORE
Ergonomics. Karen Piegorsch founded Synergo Arts to teach local carpenters to produce and distribute an ergonomic bench that improves
Latin American blackstrap weavers’ health, productivity, quality and income. Synergo is producing training materials now to launch early in 2008 and your contribution can help!
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The Ethical Traveler is sponsoring a letter writing campaign to protest trafficking in Cambodia, which is the subject of a chapter in Women Who Light the Dark. Click here to send a letter to the Minister of Tourism in Cambodia advising him that you will not visit a country that has done so little to stop this untenable violation of human rights.
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Some organizations offer Donor Advised
Funds, which are set up to let you send money to the specific
international charities you want. If you live in the United States,
you get a domestic tax deduction for your contributions. Two are: Charities Aid Foundation America and Give2Asia
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Micro Credit Enterprises, which gives entrepreneurial women in the developing world small loans, launched in 2005 and started what I hope will be a new trend in microfinance. MCE has only one employee. It's a virtual organization run by newly-retired top executives who volunteer their time so that virtually all of the organization's funds benefit the poorest of the poor. MCE posts documents on the Internet and waives copyright because they hope others will use their model and materials. So do I!
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Some Community Foundations will allow you to donate
money overseas (the Silicon Valley Community Foundation is one.)
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If you want to set up your own global fund, and are a client of Citigroup Private Bank who wants to make a minimum donation of $250,000 to women in other countries, their Philanthropic Advisory Services can help. MORE
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