Our blog features hot-off-the press Few for Change news, facts and figures about Comarca Ngöbe-Buglé and tips from our exploits in the DIY philanthropy world.
Application Cycle Two, New Donation Site
Hello! We have just switched to a new donation site through WorldLearning.
As we are now directly connected to WorldLearning, they have begun their own alumni reciprocity site that will better accommodate our needs as a small non-profit! Thank you, World Learning! Our FewForChange members are continuing to collect donations and we are only $1200 from our goal for this year!
We are aiming to send three more students to school for another three years. Perhaps we will be able to send four. Check out our new site by clicking the Donate button on the right hand side and we hope that you will continue to help us acheive our goals!
New Fundraising Projects
New Year, New Fundraising!
At Emory University, there will be a charity poker tournament. Go to www.fewforchange.com/poker.html for more info! We also have members who are holding dinners, half-marathons, and other fun events! Hope to see you there! Email fewforchange@gmail.com if you want to attend one near you!
Scholarship Winners
It’s been a while since the last update. Why? Because we’ve been busy with this application cycle!
We are proud to award three full, three-year long scholarships to Aquilino Andrades Santo, Corina Carrera Santo, and Lorena Carpintero Palacio. This weekend in Guabo in the Ngobe Comarca, there will be an awards ceremony celebrating their success! Photos to come…
FirstGiving
The change has finally been made.
We ran into some admin/paperwork issues so the changeover took longer than thought. But now donations ARE tax-deductible and are made through the FirstGiving site. We are still in the process of transferring funds over to the FirstGiving site, so the meter may not 100% reflect our current funds status. Furthermore, the applications have been received and we have begun the reviewing process. We hope to post info on our first-year scholarship winners soon!
Non-Profit Status
Big news.
FewForChange is now partnering with the FirstGiving program (part of WorldLearning) and will thus have non-profit 501c3 status shortly! The donations will no longer be through PayPal once the transfer is complete. Instead, the ‘donate’ link on the side will transfer you to the FirstGiving site, where you can receive view up-to-the-minute updates on how well we’re reaching our goals!
New School Year, New Beginning!
WorldLearning recently included our cause in an article found here.
Thanks so much for the support! We’re closing in on three scholarships. Please help as we’re trying to reach $2000 before the end of the year! At Emory on Sept 26, there was a birthday benefit event held by Tim Soo; again, thanks to all who could make it and donated, even when the weather was particularly harsh. We look forward to this year with new fundraising projects, non-profit status (hopefully soon!), and a new energy.
Viva Panama!
Plans well…
…underway.
We’ve laid out and defined an entire schedule. The FAQ and How to Help section has been updated to reflect our recent progress. One of our members will be heading to Panama soon for a second visit to coordinate more specifically with the Ngobe comarca themselves. This step is crucial to the entire process and we wish her the best of luck!
Successful…
…meeting with Aly, our program director. We’ve tentatively set a schedule for the first year of scholarships, which will be posted once voted on by the entire group. We’re making a difference folks!
Update: Tim’s Back from Panama
I’ll get straight to the point. Please read it all, as it took a long time to type and is extremely important information. After a talk with Aly and Gillian, this is what we came up with…
Timeline (tentative):
August: Gillian Locascio travels to Ngobe Area to talk about scholarship, ask questions/discuss with community, and distribute applications (details below) –> Sometime During First Semester: Aly will go to Ngobe to receive the applications and send them to us. –> December: After discussion and deliberation we choose who the scholarships will go to. –> January: Aly will return to Ngobe to give the scholarships to said people
Now before you ask a million questions, here’s the FAQ:
When does their school year start? February/March, depending on the region.
What will the application consist of? Our hopes are that it will contain questions about what they want to study, why they merit the scholarships, and if all works out, a part of the application in which the community would be able to offer their opinion on the strength of the application (community recommendation). We would also require grades from their Primer Ciclo (middle school) in Guabo.
To what will the money apply? As previously decided, the scholarships will apply those going into Segundo Ciclo (high school) in order to offer the greatest chance and completing a full education (going to high school has more financial/geographical barriers than does middle school.
To who will the money apply? The applicant pool will be limited to the graduates of Guabo, in order to best facillitate control of the process (knowing which high schools they could potentially attend, the cost of transportation, managing the size of the applicant pool for our first year.
What all will Gillian be doing in/for August? Thanks to her extensive work with the Ngobe, she has connections in the area as well as a greater knowledge of how to proceed. She will be talking to some people who run scholarships down there to see how we can best transfer the money to the people, i.e. finding a way to pay the school directly rather than hand cash over to the parents. She will also be finding more detailed information about costs for public and private schools, costs of transportation and living, and other basic information. Furthermore, it is our hopes that she’ll be able to discuss with the community about their opinions on how to proceed (although will already have been decided) in terms of preferring to offer more half-scholarships over fewer full scholarships and how to best manage a way to get a “community recommendation.”
So uh… how are we giving them the money? Inevitably we have to face the possibility that we might have to give them the money directly, if this ends up being the case, we’d set up a continued incentive, meaning in order to be up for renewal the following year, we would require evidence of grades (report card) and possibly a teacher recommendation (we’ll see). We would not be able to guarantee that all the money would be put towards education, but at the least, this would (hopefully) provide motivation for using the money correctly. Our first option, as mentioned, is still finding away to pay the school directly.
How goes the 501c3 status? People want tax-deductions! Unfortunately, the many organizations we’ve contacted have not resulted beneficial. However, our best lead right now is to go through World Learning (as they have the status). Aly will be going up to Vermont soon, so let’s hope her convincing skills are powerful.
Final comments: We’re still hopeful that one day we’ll be able to partner with the FirstGiving program set up through SIT, but until then, we continue forward by ourselves. PLEASE send all comments and questions ASAP. Also we will have a meeting next Thursday June 11th at 11:00 pm EST. Please all make a point to attend as this will be a very important meeting. Thank you.
Tim Soo
Brook’s Dinner Update
Hey everyone!
The dinner last night was a huge success! We raised over $600 total, half of which will go to Few for Change. It was a really awesome event and I got a chance to tell everyone there about the Ngobe and our organization. Check out this link for some pictures of the dinner:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/ianyaffe/sets/72157617890506928/
Just figured I’d share the good news. I hope you’re all doing well and surviving the end of the semester and finals and such.
Saludos,
Brooks
