Hiatus... Hoping: Connecting the Dots

(even for a Digital Parking Lot of half-baked ideas with nothing but unvetted links, this post is PARTICULARLY half-baked with almost completely unvetted links... but the idea is, as I dream about places we'd love to go and experiences we'd love to plunge into in a hiatus year, we also remember the skills we can bring to the table)

(Thousand) Points of  Light Institute: Focus on "skills-based volunteer" matching and corporate partnerships.  Existing centers in El Salvador, the Philippines (particularly good website -- useful model),  Shanghai, Delhi (interesting-looking structured professional sabbatical with legal / pharma potential), Brazil, Korea (link doesn't work) and Zimbabwe (link doesn't work); as well as Amsterdam, Ottawa and Tokyo.  All have NYC Cares-type short term opportunities; Philippines and India have longer term as well; the better websites demonstrate corporate sponsorship and in some cases USAID and Netherlands development assistance.

Idealist.org: Massive, global database searchable by countries which includes both agency and direct volunteer placements.  Good starting point by country.

Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation: Focus on grants (wide range, but bulk in developing world seem to be $0.5-1.5M) oriented mostly to public health and post-secondary education.  Remarkably transparent site, including primer on strategy / grantmaking / assessment / adjustment cycle with extraordinarily matter-of-fact assessment of lessons learned.  Generally awards to smaller implementing NGOs (Heifer, Habitat, CARE etc) within strategy areas, which in turn appear to be set regionally; though some larger awards are to UN affiliates (ie IFPRI) and some smaller ones to local institutions (particularly universities).  Relatively less active in South America; no projects in either Ecuador or Peru.

Ford Foundation: Focus on grants (most $150-250K) to smaller NGOs.  Programs in all regions; strategic emphasis on Expanding Community Rights over Natural Resources (projects in Brazil, Indonesia, China, East Africa, Mexico) most obvious fit; many other bits and pieces, particularly for training, under economic justice, climate change, and expansion of microfinance.  Partners with both big (UNDP, Oxfam) and tiny local NGOs.  Regional offices in Santiago (serving Peru), Johannesburg (serving Southern Africa), and Delhi (India, Nepal and Sri Lanka), among others.

Clinton Global Initiative: All-star board and membership; focus on private-public partnerships.

Business Call to Action: Private-public partnerships; privates include Barclays, Pfizer, Microsoft, Ericcson, Tata; publics include USAID, UNDP, UK, Canadian and Australian aid organizations

Open Society Foundation (Soros): Main focus is Eastern Europe / democratization; but limited selected projects in education (particularly secondary and post-secondary) in South America and Asia.

LexMundiProBono: Legal work to various projects (unclear if you have to be in a participating firm to participate)

Whole Planet Foundation (Whole Foods!!): Focus (obviously) on organic / sustainable agriculture, apparently mostly by supporting microcredit.  Surprisingly large grants (up to 300K), many in Central America, handful in Peru, Bolivia etc.

GMR Varalakshmi Foundation (GM Rao): Historic focus on public health, entrepreneurial development and community-based institutional development; Rao recently pledged $340M more, the bulk of which is slated for primary education.  (India only)

Global Giving: Simple site that (apparently) enables funds to flow more or less directly from global donors to (relatively) local NGOs.  Process for nominating local organizations, which then undergo due diligence process.  Affiliated with Whole Planet Foundation and other vetted organizations; written up in NYT and WSJ.

stay-another-day.org: IFC-initiated partnership to facilitate sustainable tourism; currently have Mekong programs in Cambodia, Laos and Vietnam; plan to expand into Southern Africa as well.  Partners include LP, Climate Care, Sustainable Travel International and worldhotel-link.com. Short term, well-vetted opportunities for volunteering and engagement.  (We participated in one of these projects in Cambodia several years ago and ate/shopped at several of the Vietnam projects; it's definitely worth tracking down the country booklet.)  Link isn't working today (4/14).

Worldhotel Travel is a global search/booking database, putatively for hotels, tour operators and eco-lodges that are locally run and sustainably operated (self-selected, I think).  For some countries that are otherwise hard to get good information on (Swaziland), it might be a good starting point.

Sustainable Travel International appears (?), among other things, to act as a clearinghouse for online donors to contribute (more or less) directly to local organizations/projects once they have been (?) vetted for appropriateness.  Program is somehow (?) linked with Global Giving, which is 501(c)3; however it's not clear if donations through it are deductible.

Pack for a Purpose: Devote 5 pounds of your suitcase capacity to bringing in school or medical supplies when you're otherwise staying at a participating eco-lodge (just drop package off at the check-in desk). US 501(c)3 affiliated with Sustainable Travel International. (Many of my already-discovered gems, including Hotel de la Paix and Black Sheep Inn, participate -- site is probably useful just to search for funky accommodations.)  This pretty much defines low-hanging fruit.

Virgin Money Giving: Evidently a lot of businesses are setting up similar programs to funnel donations to (not particularly vetted) local organizations; I like this one because it's unusually transparent on its fee structure.  Eventually I'll find a US-based one, but for the moment this is the model.