Support Something

Support Something. Something good. Something powerful. Here are some good places to start.

Engineers Without Borders Canada. One of the most impressive organizations of globally-focused young Canadians I’ve come across. Creating leaders within Canada and change around the world. And relentlessly efficient. I know. I was on their board. Staff refuse to take raises. The CEOs earn about a third of those in similar organizations. Volunteers live among the communities they work in, on a modest stipend. They take uncommon approaches are aren’t afraid to take risks. Much of my perspective has been shaped by EWB Canada.

Acumen Fund. Acumen supports entrepreneurs all over the world through funding and a dedicated and passionate army of supportive social entrepreneurs. Canada didn’t become what it did by hosting 2-5 year externally planned and funded ‘development’ projects. We did it out of a combination of vision and self interest. We emerged. We weren’t planned. Support the powerful emergence of entrepreneurs all over the world. Support Acumen.

Medecins Sans Frontieres. Remember that cheesy line in Jerry McGuire: “You had me at Hello?” Well MSF had me at “No.” In the tsunami disaster of 2004 they refused donations when they felt they could no longer properly spend the money. To me this shows integrity in a field that sometimes feels like it’s all about snagging donations. A Nobel Peace Prize doesn’t hurt either. One the ground their reputation is an organization that heads to the need, often in very difficult circumstances. They have developed a system that gets people part of the help they need in some of the roughest situations. An organization worth backing.

Kiva. Okay. Forget donating. Just lend something. Directly to entrepreneurs working to build small businesses around the world. My Dad got hooked on Kiva. Mom won’t let him lend money until payday comes around. He has to sneak it off to Senegal, Guatamala, Ethiopia, wherever. Kiva’s doing something right: several times in the past few months they’ve temporarily stopped accepting loans, as they were 100% funded. 100%. The power of directly connecting people with means with those with needs.

Practica Foundation. Practica recently had me in Ethiopia. I know they make it tough to give small donations. They don’t really act like a charity - most of their funds come from the organizations that they work with. I like that, as I feel it indicates that what they provide has value. Practica does great work in developing and disseminating low cost technology that helps people irrigate, get power and drink clean water. If you have a spare 100K kicking around and feel like helping them develop new solutions, let me know.

…more to come.