The entire platform is based upon the use of digital media as a means of sharing the progress/efforts of community leaders with donors online. Statistically, most charitable donations in Canada (95%) remain for causes in the country. Furthermore, the majority of Canadians cite donating to causes they can relate to as the primary reason for donating. Putting these statistics side-by-side, one can deduce that people do not feel connected to international projects. Since we believe in the power of the community leaders we've met abroad running very effective community projects, and we know there is a large donor base willing to donate to projects they can see and hear, using digital media is a means of bridging the gap between these two groups to unite community leaders in need with donors looking for projects they can connect with visually.
I think this is a great idea especially taking into consideration donor fatigue. I had a rather insightful conversation last night with my mother who is in her mid-fifties regarding donating to the recent crisis in Haiti. She was skeptical that is she donated money to a large organization to help with the situation that her money wouldn't make it to the people on the ground. This cynicism was due to how money was spend after the tsumani that hit Sri Lanka a few years back. There is speculation that a great deal of those funds still have not been spent on the ground. Ester's Echo connects the donor with direct results of those funds and shows them the power that they have to make a substancial difference. After explaining this model to my mom she said that she perfered it to the traditional donor model that we are so use to.
I just went through something similar Joanna. I wanted to donate money to Haiti and I kept on hearing that money and supplies were badly needed IMMEDIATELY but I kept on dithering and delaying because I just didn't know who I could trust with a donation.
I finally donated to Doctors Without Borders but only because I trust Engineers Without Borders and EWB only does work in Africa so they referred everyone to their sister organization. I also tried to go through the Stephen Lewis Foundation but they also donate only to Africa.
I would have preferred to just put the cash in the hand of any warm body going over to help in Haiti but I didn't know of anyone so I just made the donation and I'm crossing my fingers.
It's a sad world when you don't know if you can trust large organizations who claim to help the most vulnerable in times of tragedy.
Um, curiously speaking, have Esther's Echoes been heard far & wide enough to really know what its capable of, as i consider the freelance market? We've got journalist friends & other creatives & entrepreneurials (entrepreneurial-individuals) who are always having to search for the connections it sounds like you are hungry to provide, through public speaking. It would be cool to be able to grass roots 'her echoes' from beneath the souls (soils) where seeds take root.
You are definitely equipped to raise children's awareness,
They enjoy someone who lives what they know,
Another great question. Have we been heard of far and wide enough? I think most organizations feel that their net can always be cast farther. As we are in our early developmental phases, we have yet to receive a great deal of publicity. Competitions such as the We Media PitchIt! challenge certainly facilitates our reaching out to the community, development field, and hopefully grants us funds to truly take off. Furthermore, we do try to capitalize on any opportunities to speak about Esther's Echo to school groups, post secondary institutions, and professionals. If you know of some people who would be willing to host us, or those who would be willing to speak on our behalf in regions or to groups we could not yet reach, we would be very interested. We can connect on this topic off the discussion thread. I will send a message your way.
It's apparent now, what & how, "Using MEdia to Inspire the World"... 'Means to an End'... for WEMEDIA PitchIt!; in file thirteen for some, yet an opportunity to connect further for others. Thus, teamLEOnardo gazes forward to connecting with the Echo's Esther's spreading worldwide. You have a lot of support in this discussion thread, & we 'imaginnedia' (imagine needing you) to make the entire world a BETTER place for more than less, along with you & your team, from WiTHiN US.
Thanks for all your efforts Matthew,
a.
[teamLEOnardo].
Most of what I want to say have been stated above.. It's great to see such grassroot movement, where I can better trust how the money is being used.
The use of digital media is revolutionary in this decade, and its potential is being maximized through organizations like Esther's Echo. Keep it up Matt and crew!
One of the biggest challenges to making donations and contributing to organzations is the question "what are they going to do with the money?" and "who will it actually go to?" After various fundraising debacles like the Red Cross 9/11 donation mismanagement and the travesty that currently is the Humane Society in Toronto, people feel more and more reticent to hand their money to a group with no idea of what will happen with the funding.
This makes donating to a grassroots group in Africa even more questionable because at least with the Humane Society, you can walk down the street to volunteer with a local shelter, or pet Fluffy and Fido at your feet while you watch TV, grateful that you were able to adopt them. An orphanage in Uganda that only employs 5 people or a sports therapy center to help children who have lost limbs in the war in Sierra Leone that needs new soccer balls might be able to maximize the benefits of your donation even more so than the Red Cross but because they are so very far away, you may never have the chance to help. And you may not even want to help because you have no idea who they are and even if they are a legitimate organization.
This is where Esther's Echo and other web 2.0 organizations can step in to bridge the gap. They can investigate the organizations, highlight their needs and values and present them to you so you can make a decision about which group you connect with the most and how you can help them the best. Maybe you're a high school soccer coach who can send lightly used soccer balls since you just got a new shipment. Maybe you only need to donate $300 to the orphanage so they can pay rent for the year. Or maybe you're an engineer with some ideas to help a village fix their leaky water pump.
And what do you get in return for your donation? A connection with a group overseas, where you might be emailing a member of a women's farming co-op on the laptop you donated. Or a chance to see paintings that the kids in the orphange drew with the art supplies they bought from your donation.
What else do you get out of this? Something that especially in today's economy and polictical climate is even more valuable than money: Trust. A relationship can develop between you and your favourite grassroots organizations where you can trust that your money is being used effectively. Users can also trust Esther's Echo to provide connections to organizations overseas that are well deserving and honourable.
What do the recipients of your donations get out of this? Something that's more valuable than dollars and cents, soccer balls or experimental untested medications: Empowerment. They get the experience and honour of creating infrastructure and programming to help themselves and the members of their own community. They get to develop self-sustaining projects with assistance from you and other members of the global community to improve their lifestyles and environment.
Together, the donor and the organization can say: "This would never have happened without the hard work and expertise of the local people creating change and the overseas friends who provide resources to enact and sustain the change."
That is doing good. And that is feeling good about what you're doing.
As someone who has lived in various areas of the world I like the idea of being able to donate money to the grassroots organizations in different countries. The problem has always been how to get the money to them and how to know if the money is actually being used for what I am lead to believe it will be (most of us cannot fly to asia or africa or wherever to see how the organizations operate). Esther's Echo provides a wonderful bridge for me to be able to donate to local community driven projects with the assurance that my money is being used for what I was told it would be. It gives trust to the goodwill that many of us have.
Lesley,
I think your comment sums it up perfectly. As a donor, it's fantastic to know EXACTLY where your money is going!
I have donated to other organizations, and I'm sure that I've helped to pay to have "junkmail" delivered to homes across Canada.
With a donation to Esther's Echo, I can feel connected to the change. Change that can't always be profitable and paid back. And kudos to the team for recognizing that there is work to be done within our own borders as well.
This is a great idea and overcomes many of the difficulties in donating. It is also great how it is modeled on 'bottom-up' community building. The autonomy of community leaders and its members, usually in the position to know their needs, is preserved in this type of funding project.
Also seems to me like such a project will have low operating costs because it is not top heavy. Do you have an estimate of what percentage of money donated will go directly to the communities involved in a typical project, perhaps also in comparison to other models?
I agree with Nathan Nun about the group's potential for positive change through media, with an exceptionally low operating cost. The leaders and founders of Esther's Echo have already demonstrated their ability to make small donations have huge impacts on communities in third world countries, such as Sierra Leone, and a large part of that ability comes from their media-based resources and capabilities.
I support the nomination of Esther's Echo for the MediaPitchIt Challenge, and I feel that as a charity, they would use the proceeds from the competition in an efficient and effective fashion.
Hi Nate,
That is a great question. The plan for Esther's Echo is for our model to be financially supplemented by a social enterprise called Esther's Arts. Both Esther's Echo and Esther's Arts would operate as two independent legal entities but share a common goal of supporting communtiy development. Esther's Echo functions of the aid side of the equation while Esther's Arts operates on the trade side of the equation. As mentioned in the information in the "idea" section, we hope to provide market access to products such as handicrafts which are sold by many community based organizations to cover their operating costs. These products are sold in relatively saturated markets as many community initiatives sell similar handicrafts/clothing in a small geographic location. We would import these products, showcased on our online network, for sale in Canada where they would turn a much higher profit. Most of the proceeds would be reinvested into the community organizations that produced them. A fraction of these sales would be used to offset the costs of running Esther's Echo. The advantage to this model is that we are using sales of products to fund the organization rather than skimming off the top of charitable donations made through the online network.
One of the major challenges to the model we are facing is how to efficiently transfer funds. In the past we were using Western Union, however this can become quite costly. Local banks are an option, but often very slow in processing transactions. We are exploring Pay Pal as an option. Furthermore, since Western Union formed a partnership with Canadian Financial Institution Scotiabank, their rates for Canadian users with accounts at these branches has been cut in half.
Could it be possible to secure sponsorship from a bank or merchant involved in funds transfer, which could perhaps reduce or eliminate the normal transfer fees? Scotiabank in particular has a tendency to sponsor everything under the sun.
Yes, I do believe such a partnership would be possible. One of the reasons I mentioned Scotiabank earlier was because of the connection they already have with Western Union. However, Scotiabank is also known for its charitable and community engagement work. I think it would certainly be worth exploring a potential relationship with them that would facilitate funds transfers for the Esther's Echo network.
I love the emphasis of this model on the self sufficiency of the people receiving support from Esther's Echo. To help communities receive what they need to help their own people means that organizations like Esther's Echo can move from location to location, organization to organization theoretically creating points of stability everywhere their network extends to. The network can expand without needing the same proportion of resources because a lot of the organizations may be able to support themselves after a certain duration of assistance from Esther's Echo.
Modern technology and media provides incredible opportunities for international development. For the donator and the receiver to be in contact, the overseeing organization to monitor the needs of the grassroots movement, and the donator to interact through the organization with the charity in a way that makes them feel connected and important to the cause.
Excellent thinking. I think this would be an extremely effective organization to support.
Having spent time in different developing countries, and having worked for multiple NGOs, I have seen first-hand the difference that non-profit organizations can make in the developing world.
However, through my travels I have also became aware of and connected with many small community-based organizations being run by passionate local leaders. Unfortunately, these CBOs were so small, that they consistently fell into a gap as did not qualify for funding through larger NGOs or government bodies. The creativity, quality of work, and effort shown by the locals leaders of CBOs continually amazed me and yet I felt frustrated to see them unable to secure funding and reach thier full potential.
Esther's Echo has identified this untapped niche in the development sphere, and put forward a tangible plan to support these CBOs with the incredible work they are already doing. This truly is a needs-based approach to development that could impact thousands of people as the Esther's Echo network expands and grows. I strongly support this idea because of the grassroots approach it takes to support local leadership and existing projects around the world.
Your idea sounds very similar to the web sites supported by the Grameen Foundation where donors can donate very small to large sums of money to small non-profits around the world and donors can monitor the progress of the causes/people they are supporting, such as in the case of micro-finance, how that person's $20 has been combined with the $20 from others to help someone in the third world start a small bakery or basket making operation, etc.
If you Google "Grameen Foundation" you will find a lot of resources and ideas that others have already successfully implemented to directly connect individual and small-scale donors with CBOs and non-profits in the developing world.
Esther's echo isn't micro-lending though, in raw terms it sounds more like micro-granting. CBOs that fall under the umbrella of this org would most likely already be operational and based on that alone the "leverage" of donor money would appear to be significantly higher than if the org was providing only seed money or micro-loans. (In carbon offsetting, this is called the additionality principle and is a highly effective way of leveraging small money for big change).
Further, CBOs don't necessarily have to be of a business nature. There are plenty of worthwhile CBOs (medical, educational etc.) that can't receive micro-loan funding simply because they don't return value in currency but rather in effected social change.
The Esther's Echo model is a fabulous middle-ground between the Grameen/Kivas and simple foreign aid.
I just visited the web site at www.kiva.org and it states that people that fund the micro-loans have options of whether they wish to be repaid or not. Thus if they choose not to be repaid, it is the equivalent of the "micro-granting" that you suggested and what Esther's Echo is attempting. But the difference with Kiva is that if I lend $50, that $50 is repaid, I can relend this same $50 to another project, and repeat the process. If ten entrepreneurs repay my $50 originally lent, that $50 investment has actually funded $500 worth of projects.
See Kiva's statement below:
" When lenders get their money back, they can re-lend to another entrepreneur, donate their funds to Kiva (to cover operational expenses), or withdraw their funds to their PayPal accounts."
If the focus were purely on "micro-granting" then there is a huge tendency for fraud in thieves and opportunists hiding behind a web site or online presence to profit from the guise of "charity" and "community development."
Furthermore, anyone could post updates on the "progress" that they are making on their "community project" but that doesn't mean the progress is real or even happened. If there are 10,000 CBOs that have registered and are soliciting funds online, how are you going to monitor the legitimacy of their work via a pure "micro-granting" model without having field offices/personnel and all the costs and administrative bureaucracy that entails? And once you have all that set up, isn't that now becoming more like an institutional charity or organized charity?
What I am trying to say is that the existing Kiva model, infrastructure, and platform works equally well whether it is for micro-lending or micro-granting, and currently, it can be used for both. I suspect that Kiva emphasizes micro-lending because it helps to ensure accountability and instead of giving a continuous and endless stream of handouts, the model helps people with their initial costs and then helps them develop the skills and knowledge and support system to become self-sufficient and self-sustaining. If funds are repaid, they can be used over and over again, and this "revolving fund" capability allows many more people to be helped.
There are many wonderful causes out there but that doesn't mean they can only exist on a grant or handout basis without any ability to sustain themselves.
Thank you for your comments. I will try to address all the points you've made.
First, with respect to Kiva, I am very familiar with their model. In fact, I lend through the organization and have had my loans repaid twice over. There are differences between the models; primarily that of target demographic and donor interaction. Kiva is mainly focused on assisting small scale businesses through micro-credit loans as you have pointed out. This is a necessary step of the development process as the growth of small and medium scale enterprises helps to raise the overall wages of the entire economy. Esther's Echo is instead directing support to non-profit community organizations that have been started by local individuals. These organizations may not feature a revenue generating activity that would allow for loans to be repaid. In the case that a CBO does feature a revenue generating project, there is a market access component to our model where CBOs will be given an opportunity to sell these products over our website. Market access is another feature of Esther’s Echo not offered by Kiva. While Kiva supports the production of goods locally, these same goods are still sold in local markets. From the donor perspective, the Kiva model does not place a large emphasis on digital media as a means of updating donors on the progress of specific projects. This is an element of Esther's Echo that we want to place central to the model (hence why our development model can be found under this application.) Previous fundraisers we held at University of Toronto were successful because we were able to show photo and video as a form of progress report from the field. Not only does this translate into a more tactile experience for donors, but also as a form of accountability and monitoring within the model. I want to reiterate that our online network also focuses on student leadership development within Canada. We didn't see a need to use our online network to support community initiatives in the Global South alone. My own thesis research focused on promoting global citizenship among youth. I discovered that most youth leadership programs directed students to fundraise for other projects but did not provide funding for youth to spearhead their own initiatives. As we use our online network to profile community leaders overseas, we also want to highlight the incredible work of young Canadians as well. None of the other Web 2.0 donation models spanned the Global North and South in this way. We didn't see a need to separate the two. In fact, we believe that supporting both community initiatives in the developing world and student-led initiatives in Canada would be a way for us to bridge communities in different regions of the world together for mutual support.
Cathy, with respect to legitimacy and evaluation, I don't believe that we would have over 10,000 CBOs registered in our organization. If we were ever fortunate to grow to this size, it would be through responsible growth. It would be irresponsible to run the organization without infrastructure or resources to deploy in the field. We presently have connections with 6 CBOs that we personally have worked with in the past and remain in communication with. These will be our pilot projects. The next projects we would expand to include are those that have been working closely with other international organizations that have resources on the ground to assist with monitoring and evaluation. World Vision Canada has already asked us to assist 75 indigenously formed community organizations in Columbia and El Salvador that the organization is connected to. While World Vision helped to provide the technical training necessary for these non-profit CBOs to form, World Vision was not mandated to continue to support these initiatives financially once they were launched. We aim work in partnership with their local staff to help achieve a transparent funding network and expect that to expand to other regions, similar partnerships would have to be formed with other organizations. I don’t plan to travel across world finding these organizations myself (the cost of a flight often equates to the annual operating cost of some of the best CBOs we’ve encountered) nor would I simply send money to people whom we have no connection to.
Cathy, I am not certain if your primary concern is that we are similar to another organization or if this is a question of sustainability. Are Kiva and Esther's Echo similar? Yes. Are Kiva and Global Giving similar? Yes. Are there now other Web 2.0 models? Yes. As you say "the existing Kiva model, infrastructure, and platform works...well." Yet statistically only a fraction of the demand for micro-credit is being met in the world. Simply pointing to another functional model and its success is not a reason in and of itself for another variant of the model not to exist if it may reach different regions, assist a different demographic (that in this case we feel is under supported by the existing models) and engage donors in innovative ways. With respect to sustainability, the model is designed to support infrastructure growth, skill development, local institutional growth for community organizations, and ultimately support income generating activities through market access. It would be our aim for a community project to grow beyond its need for our assistance rather than grow more dependent upon that assistance.
I hope that answers some of your questions, Cathy. Thank you for your critical review of what we're doing. It's necessary to ensure that efforts are not overlapping; a common critique of development programming.
I see Esther's Echo as a great tool for empowering micro-development projects throughout the developing world. It's no secret now that development done on a small scale, person to person, village to village, is experiencing success. This project could give these individuals much needed publicity, while also providing information to responsible donors. Not every NGO has a communications and marketing budget and team. Esther's Echo, from what I have read, may fill this niche.
Helping community-based organizations overcome the hurdles of sharing progress with supporters / stakeholders and providing mechanisms to monitor and evaluate progress enables these organizations to focus on core competencies - purpose, vision, strategy, tactical planning and execution.
Many organizations fail because the seemingly little things (albeit criticial) are essential to success but often not within the forte of the organization's founders (or are not seen as important) and so these things are pushed aside until the organization dies.
Esther's Echo empowers organizations to be able to focus on what is important. I also believe that the founders have "been there" - they have witnessed first hand what empowers and disempowers organizations and so their background and their passion have enabled them to see what needs to be done - and the cost to organizations for not doing it.
I think Esther's Echo should be embraced as a new model in their space for the 21st century.
After traveling to the developing world, I have learned of so many community based organizations that are making a difference. These projects are hidden from the developed world, or only known about through very small connections. These projects are the ones that work very hard with little funding to continue to make a difference.
Esther's Echo allows people to become aware of these projects, giving them a chance to help out directly. Many individuals are very concerned with sending money to larger organizations because of administration costs, and the actual amount reaching the recipients needing help. With Esther's Echos we as a community can reach out and help people who are often kept in the shadows of the larger NGOS.
These project are very small scale, but it is never size that matters. One project can become two, and the chain continues to grow. These small community based projects can branch out helping millions of people. An idea starts small and leads to something so much bigger. With the right attention and resources, Esther's Echo can continue to grow, allowing many more projects to continue to help the hundreds of people they do.
Similar models have worked domestically (http://www.canadahelps.org/ for example), it's about time I see a model that supports international grass roots projects and organizations in developing areas. There's been some debate about this model versus microcredit organizations (like Kiva), but there's really no comparison. While Kiva allows you to support entrepreneurs in developing countries, Esther's Echo helps you support non-profits and NGOs. I believe that microcredit is a great way to support economic development (despite the lack of long-term macroeconomic studies/proof), but some organizations/projects (such as schools and orphanages) are rarely able to have sustainable revenue sources to pay back loans. These aren't businesses that we're investing in here, these are grass root non-profit initiatives that can have large impacts with a little support.
When you donate to any local soup kitchen or homeless shelter, you're not expecting these organizations to pay you back via a sustainable revenue source. Same idea with Esther's Echo, except it supports small community based organizations in developing areas.
The concept is great, and there's nothing else really comparable out there. You guys definitely have my support for getting this grant.
Thanks for your comment. You raise some very interesting and important points about the model itself. Particularly with regards to the distinction between a micro-credit model and the Esther's approach. Indeed, micro-credit is a great way to support economic development in under served regions, and it has a proven track record of success. To this end, we believe organizations like Kiva appeal to a very different demographic. Cathy did raise a very interesting point about how Kiva now allows its 'lenders' to opt out of their return on investment, thus making their contribution a donation rather than a loan. But where Esther's Echo and Kiva truly differ is the demographic we intend to serve. Kiva's mandate is to provide loans, and they primarily target business owners. Our mandate is to provide donations, and we target community leaders who run their own organizations.
Both Matthew and I have learned from our experiences in the field that the community leaders understand the context of their environment better than an interventionist ever could. Ethnography is important, and as many other people have mentioned, the community leaders who understand the culture, values, practices and overall vernacular within these regions often have much difficulty appealing to domestic or international entities for support.
What I have to say is not much different from what most of the people in this thread have already mentioned. For me, Esther's Echo is important because of its vision to support CBOs that don't necessarily turn a monetary profit - at home and abroad.
Kiva is a great website, but what Esther's Echo is doing is qualitatively different from Kiva and therefore addressing a niche that has gone primarily unnoticed.
I work for a health charity in Canada and most of our work is not 'profitable' in the short-run. However, I would not characterize our work as 'un-profitable.'
There is the untangible element to the work of many CBOs that provides the fuel for communities on the whole to succeed. In my view Esther's Echo is/will be doing this.
This initiative looks great. From my experience smaller, local projects are often overlooked by large donors although they are generally more culturally appropriate and efficient than international agency efforts. Building capacity and supporting local projects is key. I think the youth component of Esther's Echo is also crucial. Social media is the perfect tool here. I think you have excellent vision.
I think Esther's Echo would be a fantastic way of briding community development projects with philantropists - it is a organization that is clearly missing from the current development landscape and for which there is tremendous demand and interest. Looking at the success of Kiva and the limitations of microfinance as a concept, it seems to me that having such a bridge is of utmost importance in getting social needs and opportunities addressed in an efficient and appropriate fashion.
This is a sustainable initative making use of social media and creating change! Thanks to everyone who supports Esther's Echo and best of luck in the competition.
Bridging the gap with the Global South will hopefully create the links we need to support development projects that are initiated and directed by the people they are meant to serve. I hope this organization gets the publicity it needs and deserves to push forward its mandate.
Esther's Echo provides comprehensive information to everyone, especially those who wonder where their money goes. By creating strong ties with the Global South, we will be able to help many projects and initiative, but more importantly--the people. This is a phenomenal organization that will help bring awareness to many.
Not only is Esther's Echo an amazing organization for small, grass roots organizations in need of funding and recognition it also sounds like it will be a great tool for young people to become aware of real issues where they can be most effective to implement change. Expanding the world view of youth through media and also allowing them to become connected to causes they can help with is so empowering. So it seems to be an organization that can make an impact locally and globally.
I can't wait for Esther's Echo to launch. Kiva got me addicted to micro-lending through its engagement-based model, and I see Esther's Echo doing the same for philanthropy: making it exciting, engaging, and much more rewarding. It will be essential to be able to see the results of your donations, but this model/format is best suited for that purpose.
Compared to Kiva, in fact, E.E. may offer even more authentic engagement. It is now fairly well-known that when you make a loan on Kiva, you are *not* assigning that money to the individual entrepreneur that you have "chosen" rather your money actually goes to a larger pool of funds used to lend to many different people. Doing it otherwise would be impractical for Kiva because it would take too long for money to reach entrepreneurs.
Perhaps differences with the Esther's Echo model, however, could allow the connection between donor and recipient to be more genuine, since funds do not need to be repaid and recipients could receive funds in pieces, as soon as they are donated (perhaps?).
Also, would the donations be tax-deductible in Canada (and perhaps the U.S.?).
Looking forward to hearing more details and to using the system for much of my overseas donations, as soon as it is launched!
When I first heard about Esther's Echo it seemed to me so obvious - enabling transfers of support directly to overseas organizations - why hasn't anyone come up with this before? And then I stopped to think about how difficult it is to make donations directly to small groups overseas without having someone hand deliver the donation. I also realized the incredible hurdles that Revenue Canada puts up for charities working globally and the myriad of regulations that countries put up to stop foreign direct financing of NGOs. Well, after reviewing the obstacles I began to realize that only a small group of highly committed and tenacious individuals could make this happen. (And if you have met Matthew and his partners, you will agree - they have what it takes to put all of the pieces together). Esther's Echo will revolutionize the aid relationship. It will enable those of us who want to work in partnerships with individuals and groups doing great things in other countries with the means of doing so. I still believe strongly in great international NGOs like Oxfam and Interpares, but I'm glad I have a choice of working through a portal like Esther's Echo to directly support other organizations.
I strongly agree with Shauna about the potential that the Esther’s Echo model has to revolutionize the aid relationship. Through the different programs they plan to offer, Esther’s Echo has the potential to support and empower thousands of CBOs in the developing world, as well as engaging youth and donors in Canada on a whole new level. Working to found a small non-profit (Homes of Joy) and support one small CBO in Zambia has proven to me just how difficult it currently is to support small CBOs overseas. Esther’s Echo will provide a much needed platform to facilitate this process. Navigating the hurdles of Revenue Canada regulations and regulations surrounding foreign direct financing of NGOs will definitely be a challenging task for Matthew and Stephen. However, it is a task they have proven they are committed to, and a challenge I believe they are fully capable of overcoming once they secure seed funding.
What makes this idea/organization stand out is that it actually tries to empower people to take political action. Rather than simply give their money to a distant NGO whose annual report talks in vague language, people are--through Esther's Echo--able to better engage with a community and therefore respond to that community's political needs. A brilliant idea.
This model is exciting because it provides CBO’s a means to demonstrate their accountability and empowering community leaders all while ensuring that they retain full responsibility and ownership of their work. It is evident that the founder’s of Esther’s Echo don’t want to recreate a generic donor system that perpetuates unhealthy dependency and causes unintended harm. Rather they have developed a means of facilitating holistic, meaningful partnerships that will contribute towards healthy social and economic change.
I just read about Esther's Echo, building strong communities is key in many situations where state institutions lack effect and economic stagnation lingers in the air. But I'm really impressed with the idea of using a diverse and adaptable medium like digital media to bring communities together.
Sometimes more than the micro-credit, its the human spirit that needs a bit of mobilization in the right direction. After all, the whole success of micro-credit schemes was based on the belief in the most basic of human sentiments -i.e. trust and hope. It was this belief in the human spirit that challenged years of rational-choice economic theory (endorsed with inconsequential results by the World Bank and IMF).
Digital media with a "CBO" approach can provide such a revolutionary platform within communities. It can give the voice, knowledge and impetus required to uplift beleaguered communities on a spiritual (internal) as well as economic (external) level. Cheers to that!.
You couldn't have summarized my own sentiments on this topic more eloquently. Unquestionably a stigma surrounds direct funding of community level projects the assumption being that the poor with mismanage funds. And yet that same assumption was destroyed by the Nobel Peace Prize winning predictions of Muhammad Yunus through his micro-credit models. The same distrust of small scale CBOs extends to the direct investment/donation models as well. Yet I ask, haven't these community leaders already demonstrated that they can be trusted? Each day, these leaders work tirelessly to support those in their own communities and work with meager resources to do so. Aren't these leaders exactly the individuals whom we should be trusting and hoping in for making significant social change? They are proven and tested by their own circumstances. And rather than using their education, skills or talent for their own benefit or to emigrate from their nations, they have made a commitment to stay and rebuild broken lives, build homes, increase access to education, fight addiction, run for office, shelter youth, and share their vision for a better country. These are the leaders we are seeking, and their community projects, to partner with through digital media and the powers of information technology to make a better world.
The fact that youth is one of Esther's Echo focus groups is very positive. The idea of donating to a CBO digitally will be especially appealing to this demographic.
Can't wait to start making donations to this worthy network.
Helen C.
Empowering youth to become leaders in their community has become a growing phenomenon. As a teacher, I have discovered many students wanting to support various initiatives such as relief efforts or community based organization, but have limited engagement and involvement due to the nature of the organization's accessibility. Esther's Echo bridges gap between the large and growing socially aware youth, to these various community based organizations. Teachers can assist in developing the tools for students/youth to support these initiatives, however, students are frequently disappointed by their seemingly inconsequential contributions. Through the mediums currently used by youth, Esther's Echo would be able to adequately utilize and facilitate these mediums to directly connect and engage students to organizations that require tremendous amounts of support. The online network supported by Esther's Echo, can allow students to track their support
through digital mediums students are all too familiar with.
Besides the obvious complications of making sure that people who recommend projects are legitimate and keeping track of the money, which have already come up and I know will be done in the most transparent way possible, my only comment is that this makes so much sense. People keep doing this on a project by project, overseas by overseas trip basis. I've run fundraisers for projects that friends have found when overseas. I've seen people rally their past elementary and secondary schools and families to support worthy causes that they have only found because they are on the ground in another country. I can only imagine how much more productive this will all be when the full potential of these discoveries can be realized, beyond the personal connections that people have "back home".
I know so many people that donate money to organizations and choose the quickest fastest "most credible" international development agencies. They don't have time to research smaller more locally oriented projects.
It seems that there are lots of current donors and potential donors that would jump on the opportunity to donate directly to a local project. If Esther's Echo could grow to that capacity in gathering projects, and if their web platform was widely marketed, this project has amazing potential. This could change the way we give.
In Haiti, for example, I would much rather donate money directly to the reconstruction of a specific program, home, or service rather than to one of the huge development agencies. That is my personal feeling and also a feeling shared by many of my friends and co-workers. I have a feeling the government of Haiti might, in some instances, prefer more of this direct giving as well. Esther's Echo could facilitate that.
Esther's Echo's power is that it isn't about making itself bigger. It is about changing the capacity by which we give, opening up whole new channels of giving. There just needs to be an amazing web 2.0 platform and a lot of collaborators willing to inform and keep these projects accountable.
My major question is who will Esther's Echo say "no" to when asked if they can showcase their project on the website. There are local issues that a broader giving program can involve itself too much.
For example, condom distribution or women's reproductive rights. There may be projects that re-enforce a standpoint that the community is grappling with and hasn't really decided on. How does Esther's Echo ensure the projects don't also create division by privileging a certain perspective that not everyone in the community agrees with.
I really believe in this idea. I am an extremely critical person when it comes to international development, and Esther's Echo is the first organization that I can really get behind, 100%.
That is a fantastic and very thoughtful question. I actually with a situation that reflects your concern when I was working in Sierra Leone with international sport-for-development organization Right to Play. In the aftermath of the Blood Diamond civil war, there was a great deal of political fragmentation in the rural regions of the country. We were working with a community about an hour outside of Freetown, the capital city, and providing sports equipment to a group of coaches in the community. As it turned out, we discovered that our cache of sports equipment had become a politically contentious issue. The coaches, who possessed the equipment, were of a minority group that was opposed to the rightfully elected leader of their community. We were unaware of their political disposition or the delicate nature of the situation at the time. Unknowingly, we had lent political clout to this group of coaches as they began to associate themselves with our large international organization in a power struggle with the local leadership and other community members.
When we discovered the nature of the situation, we held a community meeting and determined that if the sports programming was to continue, the cache of sports equipment would be kept with the local leadership that was democratically elected by the majority of the community members. Our small group of coaches, while at first disappointed with our decision, eventually came to understand that their actions were against the very spirit of our projects; community development and unity through sport. It was not in our mandate to upset local power balances.
I learned a great deal from this experience. I could not help but associate this lesson with your question. Are there competing interests in communities? Yes. There are voices in Sierra Leone that believe girls should not be educated at all. There are voices in the country that believe it is a cultural right to mutilate young women. There are voices in the country that claim HIV is a hoax. These perspectives are met and challenged, not by international organizations, but by other community members who believe in equality and human rights. The core principle of Esther's Echo is the support of indigenous community leadership that is directed toward positive social change. Esther herself serves as the archetype model which is why our organization carries her namesake. Esther's Echo is not implanting new ideologies. Views such as Esther's have arisen from the grassroots; from people within the community itself.
The perspectives of community leaders will ultimately be reflected in the work that they do. As an organization, we are determining how to select key partners that will help to unify communities through democratic practices, employment opportunities, economic growth, and education. In Sierra Leone, when I was with Right to Play, we inadvertently privileged a group that sought to divide. We corrected this oversight. Now we want to support leaders that are seeking to unify communities. There will be conflict with those who also wish to restrict rights and freedoms, but poverty itself is ultimately the greatest source of division in these nations. We see our work not as a means of privileging a select few and their views but rather empowering those leaders who have proven their ability to bring communities together and raise the quality of life for members of those communities.
Rob, your question is valid and is reflective of a larger overarching debate of international development which views development as colonialistic. Our caution of the neocolonial tendencies of development is partly what catalyzed Esther's Echo. We are not bringing new projects to the field, or new ideas. We are working to enhance the brave changemakers who are already on the ground making their vision of change a reality. When I saw Esther's amazing achievements, the sacrifices she had made, her intense care for the young girls in her community and the impact of her project, I didn't see my potential support to Esther's organization as Esther's privilege. I believe she deserves our support and that she has earned the right to have the support of donors who are looking to make smart investment in social change projects across the globe.
"The function of leadership is to produce more leaders -- not more followers." -Ralph Nader
I heard this quote today and immediatley thought of the Esther's Echo model. Supporting CBOs rather than starting your own initiatives for community members to follow will really help foster local leadership, especially if you require a certain level of transparency and reporting. And the school-based leadership development programming is another great example of how Esther's Echo will help develop new leaders, rather than simply recruit a bunch of students to fundraise without providing real skill development.
Just another reason why Esther's Echo will have a unique and rippling impact.
I have a logistics question, and perhaps it's already been outlined, but I can't help but wonder about this as I picture Esther's Echo functioning. How will the research be done so organizers can continue to support and encourage donators to give to particular local projects? In my mind, this must be a big expense for the organizers to travel and "scout out" new initiatives. Or, are you thinking of hiring others to connect with you in terms of sharing information on local programs? And if this is the case, who will these people be and how will it work, especially so that everyone involved can be comfortable?
The reason I'm asking this and trying to raise real, critical concerns is that I believe in Esther's Echo very much and want to make sure I understand how it works, and that it is successful.
Also, what kind of follow up, or long term engagement will there be with groups or leaders in their projects? Once one donates can one then continue to contribute to a school for instance, or are projects strictly one time initiatives to get them off the ground?
It is very exciting to hear about a project like this that is providing help in a real way, that is direct and in the hands of the people who know most about what their communities need. I'm looking forward to hearing more.
Comments
Please explain why your idea/project, is suited/perfect to using... 'media' ...to bring about A BETTER "WORLD"...the entire planet...? Thank you. a.
The entire platform is based upon the use of digital media as a means of sharing the progress/efforts of community leaders with donors online. Statistically, most charitable donations in Canada (95%) remain for causes in the country. Furthermore, the majority of Canadians cite donating to causes they can relate to as the primary reason for donating. Putting these statistics side-by-side, one can deduce that people do not feel connected to international projects. Since we believe in the power of the community leaders we've met abroad running very effective community projects, and we know there is a large donor base willing to donate to projects they can see and hear, using digital media is a means of bridging the gap between these two groups to unite community leaders in need with donors looking for projects they can connect with visually.
I think this is a great idea especially taking into consideration donor fatigue. I had a rather insightful conversation last night with my mother who is in her mid-fifties regarding donating to the recent crisis in Haiti. She was skeptical that is she donated money to a large organization to help with the situation that her money wouldn't make it to the people on the ground. This cynicism was due to how money was spend after the tsumani that hit Sri Lanka a few years back. There is speculation that a great deal of those funds still have not been spent on the ground. Ester's Echo connects the donor with direct results of those funds and shows them the power that they have to make a substancial difference. After explaining this model to my mom she said that she perfered it to the traditional donor model that we are so use to.
I just went through something similar Joanna. I wanted to donate money to Haiti and I kept on hearing that money and supplies were badly needed IMMEDIATELY but I kept on dithering and delaying because I just didn't know who I could trust with a donation.
I finally donated to Doctors Without Borders but only because I trust Engineers Without Borders and EWB only does work in Africa so they referred everyone to their sister organization. I also tried to go through the Stephen Lewis Foundation but they also donate only to Africa.
I would have preferred to just put the cash in the hand of any warm body going over to help in Haiti but I didn't know of anyone so I just made the donation and I'm crossing my fingers.
It's a sad world when you don't know if you can trust large organizations who claim to help the most vulnerable in times of tragedy.
Greetings daily greetings Matthew,
Um, curiously speaking, have Esther's Echoes been heard far & wide enough to really know what its capable of, as i consider the freelance market? We've got journalist friends & other creatives & entrepreneurials (entrepreneurial-individuals) who are always having to search for the connections it sounds like you are hungry to provide, through public speaking. It would be cool to be able to grass roots 'her echoes' from beneath the souls (soils) where seeds take root.
You are definitely equipped to raise children's awareness,
They enjoy someone who lives what they know,
Enjoying the flow,
a.
Hello a b,
Another great question. Have we been heard of far and wide enough? I think most organizations feel that their net can always be cast farther. As we are in our early developmental phases, we have yet to receive a great deal of publicity. Competitions such as the We Media PitchIt! challenge certainly facilitates our reaching out to the community, development field, and hopefully grants us funds to truly take off. Furthermore, we do try to capitalize on any opportunities to speak about Esther's Echo to school groups, post secondary institutions, and professionals. If you know of some people who would be willing to host us, or those who would be willing to speak on our behalf in regions or to groups we could not yet reach, we would be very interested. We can connect on this topic off the discussion thread. I will send a message your way.
-Matthew
Aloha Matthew,
It's apparent now, what & how, "Using MEdia to Inspire the World"... 'Means to an End'... for WEMEDIA PitchIt!; in file thirteen for some, yet an opportunity to connect further for others. Thus, teamLEOnardo gazes forward to connecting with the Echo's Esther's spreading worldwide. You have a lot of support in this discussion thread, & we 'imaginnedia' (imagine needing you) to make the entire world a BETTER place for more than less, along with you & your team, from WiTHiN US.
Thanks for all your efforts Matthew,
a.
[teamLEOnardo].
Most of what I want to say have been stated above.. It's great to see such grassroot movement, where I can better trust how the money is being used.
The use of digital media is revolutionary in this decade, and its potential is being maximized through organizations like Esther's Echo. Keep it up Matt and crew!
One of the biggest challenges to making donations and contributing to organzations is the question "what are they going to do with the money?" and "who will it actually go to?" After various fundraising debacles like the Red Cross 9/11 donation mismanagement and the travesty that currently is the Humane Society in Toronto, people feel more and more reticent to hand their money to a group with no idea of what will happen with the funding.
This makes donating to a grassroots group in Africa even more questionable because at least with the Humane Society, you can walk down the street to volunteer with a local shelter, or pet Fluffy and Fido at your feet while you watch TV, grateful that you were able to adopt them. An orphanage in Uganda that only employs 5 people or a sports therapy center to help children who have lost limbs in the war in Sierra Leone that needs new soccer balls might be able to maximize the benefits of your donation even more so than the Red Cross but because they are so very far away, you may never have the chance to help. And you may not even want to help because you have no idea who they are and even if they are a legitimate organization.
This is where Esther's Echo and other web 2.0 organizations can step in to bridge the gap. They can investigate the organizations, highlight their needs and values and present them to you so you can make a decision about which group you connect with the most and how you can help them the best. Maybe you're a high school soccer coach who can send lightly used soccer balls since you just got a new shipment. Maybe you only need to donate $300 to the orphanage so they can pay rent for the year. Or maybe you're an engineer with some ideas to help a village fix their leaky water pump.
And what do you get in return for your donation? A connection with a group overseas, where you might be emailing a member of a women's farming co-op on the laptop you donated. Or a chance to see paintings that the kids in the orphange drew with the art supplies they bought from your donation.
What else do you get out of this? Something that especially in today's economy and polictical climate is even more valuable than money: Trust. A relationship can develop between you and your favourite grassroots organizations where you can trust that your money is being used effectively. Users can also trust Esther's Echo to provide connections to organizations overseas that are well deserving and honourable.
What do the recipients of your donations get out of this? Something that's more valuable than dollars and cents, soccer balls or experimental untested medications: Empowerment. They get the experience and honour of creating infrastructure and programming to help themselves and the members of their own community. They get to develop self-sustaining projects with assistance from you and other members of the global community to improve their lifestyles and environment.
Together, the donor and the organization can say: "This would never have happened without the hard work and expertise of the local people creating change and the overseas friends who provide resources to enact and sustain the change."
That is doing good. And that is feeling good about what you're doing.
As someone who has lived in various areas of the world I like the idea of being able to donate money to the grassroots organizations in different countries. The problem has always been how to get the money to them and how to know if the money is actually being used for what I am lead to believe it will be (most of us cannot fly to asia or africa or wherever to see how the organizations operate). Esther's Echo provides a wonderful bridge for me to be able to donate to local community driven projects with the assurance that my money is being used for what I was told it would be. It gives trust to the goodwill that many of us have.
Lesley,
I think your comment sums it up perfectly. As a donor, it's fantastic to know EXACTLY where your money is going!
I have donated to other organizations, and I'm sure that I've helped to pay to have "junkmail" delivered to homes across Canada.
With a donation to Esther's Echo, I can feel connected to the change. Change that can't always be profitable and paid back. And kudos to the team for recognizing that there is work to be done within our own borders as well.
This is a great idea and overcomes many of the difficulties in donating. It is also great how it is modeled on 'bottom-up' community building. The autonomy of community leaders and its members, usually in the position to know their needs, is preserved in this type of funding project.
Also seems to me like such a project will have low operating costs because it is not top heavy. Do you have an estimate of what percentage of money donated will go directly to the communities involved in a typical project, perhaps also in comparison to other models?
Best
I agree with Nathan Nun about the group's potential for positive change through media, with an exceptionally low operating cost. The leaders and founders of Esther's Echo have already demonstrated their ability to make small donations have huge impacts on communities in third world countries, such as Sierra Leone, and a large part of that ability comes from their media-based resources and capabilities.
I support the nomination of Esther's Echo for the MediaPitchIt Challenge, and I feel that as a charity, they would use the proceeds from the competition in an efficient and effective fashion.
Hi Nate,
That is a great question. The plan for Esther's Echo is for our model to be financially supplemented by a social enterprise called Esther's Arts. Both Esther's Echo and Esther's Arts would operate as two independent legal entities but share a common goal of supporting communtiy development. Esther's Echo functions of the aid side of the equation while Esther's Arts operates on the trade side of the equation. As mentioned in the information in the "idea" section, we hope to provide market access to products such as handicrafts which are sold by many community based organizations to cover their operating costs. These products are sold in relatively saturated markets as many community initiatives sell similar handicrafts/clothing in a small geographic location. We would import these products, showcased on our online network, for sale in Canada where they would turn a much higher profit. Most of the proceeds would be reinvested into the community organizations that produced them. A fraction of these sales would be used to offset the costs of running Esther's Echo. The advantage to this model is that we are using sales of products to fund the organization rather than skimming off the top of charitable donations made through the online network.
One of the major challenges to the model we are facing is how to efficiently transfer funds. In the past we were using Western Union, however this can become quite costly. Local banks are an option, but often very slow in processing transactions. We are exploring Pay Pal as an option. Furthermore, since Western Union formed a partnership with Canadian Financial Institution Scotiabank, their rates for Canadian users with accounts at these branches has been cut in half.
Could it be possible to secure sponsorship from a bank or merchant involved in funds transfer, which could perhaps reduce or eliminate the normal transfer fees? Scotiabank in particular has a tendency to sponsor everything under the sun.
Hi Nick,
Yes, I do believe such a partnership would be possible. One of the reasons I mentioned Scotiabank earlier was because of the connection they already have with Western Union. However, Scotiabank is also known for its charitable and community engagement work. I think it would certainly be worth exploring a potential relationship with them that would facilitate funds transfers for the Esther's Echo network.
I love the emphasis of this model on the self sufficiency of the people receiving support from Esther's Echo. To help communities receive what they need to help their own people means that organizations like Esther's Echo can move from location to location, organization to organization theoretically creating points of stability everywhere their network extends to. The network can expand without needing the same proportion of resources because a lot of the organizations may be able to support themselves after a certain duration of assistance from Esther's Echo.
Modern technology and media provides incredible opportunities for international development. For the donator and the receiver to be in contact, the overseeing organization to monitor the needs of the grassroots movement, and the donator to interact through the organization with the charity in a way that makes them feel connected and important to the cause.
Excellent thinking. I think this would be an extremely effective organization to support.
Jon
Having spent time in different developing countries, and having worked for multiple NGOs, I have seen first-hand the difference that non-profit organizations can make in the developing world.
However, through my travels I have also became aware of and connected with many small community-based organizations being run by passionate local leaders. Unfortunately, these CBOs were so small, that they consistently fell into a gap as did not qualify for funding through larger NGOs or government bodies. The creativity, quality of work, and effort shown by the locals leaders of CBOs continually amazed me and yet I felt frustrated to see them unable to secure funding and reach thier full potential.
Esther's Echo has identified this untapped niche in the development sphere, and put forward a tangible plan to support these CBOs with the incredible work they are already doing. This truly is a needs-based approach to development that could impact thousands of people as the Esther's Echo network expands and grows. I strongly support this idea because of the grassroots approach it takes to support local leadership and existing projects around the world.
Your idea sounds very similar to the web sites supported by the Grameen Foundation where donors can donate very small to large sums of money to small non-profits around the world and donors can monitor the progress of the causes/people they are supporting, such as in the case of micro-finance, how that person's $20 has been combined with the $20 from others to help someone in the third world start a small bakery or basket making operation, etc.
If you Google "Grameen Foundation" you will find a lot of resources and ideas that others have already successfully implemented to directly connect individual and small-scale donors with CBOs and non-profits in the developing world.
Esther's echo isn't micro-lending though, in raw terms it sounds more like micro-granting. CBOs that fall under the umbrella of this org would most likely already be operational and based on that alone the "leverage" of donor money would appear to be significantly higher than if the org was providing only seed money or micro-loans. (In carbon offsetting, this is called the additionality principle and is a highly effective way of leveraging small money for big change).
Further, CBOs don't necessarily have to be of a business nature. There are plenty of worthwhile CBOs (medical, educational etc.) that can't receive micro-loan funding simply because they don't return value in currency but rather in effected social change.
The Esther's Echo model is a fabulous middle-ground between the Grameen/Kivas and simple foreign aid.
I just visited the web site at www.kiva.org and it states that people that fund the micro-loans have options of whether they wish to be repaid or not. Thus if they choose not to be repaid, it is the equivalent of the "micro-granting" that you suggested and what Esther's Echo is attempting. But the difference with Kiva is that if I lend $50, that $50 is repaid, I can relend this same $50 to another project, and repeat the process. If ten entrepreneurs repay my $50 originally lent, that $50 investment has actually funded $500 worth of projects.
See Kiva's statement below:
" When lenders get their money back, they can re-lend to another entrepreneur, donate their funds to Kiva (to cover operational expenses), or withdraw their funds to their PayPal accounts."
If the focus were purely on "micro-granting" then there is a huge tendency for fraud in thieves and opportunists hiding behind a web site or online presence to profit from the guise of "charity" and "community development."
Furthermore, anyone could post updates on the "progress" that they are making on their "community project" but that doesn't mean the progress is real or even happened. If there are 10,000 CBOs that have registered and are soliciting funds online, how are you going to monitor the legitimacy of their work via a pure "micro-granting" model without having field offices/personnel and all the costs and administrative bureaucracy that entails? And once you have all that set up, isn't that now becoming more like an institutional charity or organized charity?
What I am trying to say is that the existing Kiva model, infrastructure, and platform works equally well whether it is for micro-lending or micro-granting, and currently, it can be used for both. I suspect that Kiva emphasizes micro-lending because it helps to ensure accountability and instead of giving a continuous and endless stream of handouts, the model helps people with their initial costs and then helps them develop the skills and knowledge and support system to become self-sufficient and self-sustaining. If funds are repaid, they can be used over and over again, and this "revolving fund" capability allows many more people to be helped.
There are many wonderful causes out there but that doesn't mean they can only exist on a grant or handout basis without any ability to sustain themselves.
Hello Cathy,
Thank you for your comments. I will try to address all the points you've made.
First, with respect to Kiva, I am very familiar with their model. In fact, I lend through the organization and have had my loans repaid twice over. There are differences between the models; primarily that of target demographic and donor interaction. Kiva is mainly focused on assisting small scale businesses through micro-credit loans as you have pointed out. This is a necessary step of the development process as the growth of small and medium scale enterprises helps to raise the overall wages of the entire economy. Esther's Echo is instead directing support to non-profit community organizations that have been started by local individuals. These organizations may not feature a revenue generating activity that would allow for loans to be repaid. In the case that a CBO does feature a revenue generating project, there is a market access component to our model where CBOs will be given an opportunity to sell these products over our website. Market access is another feature of Esther’s Echo not offered by Kiva. While Kiva supports the production of goods locally, these same goods are still sold in local markets. From the donor perspective, the Kiva model does not place a large emphasis on digital media as a means of updating donors on the progress of specific projects. This is an element of Esther's Echo that we want to place central to the model (hence why our development model can be found under this application.) Previous fundraisers we held at University of Toronto were successful because we were able to show photo and video as a form of progress report from the field. Not only does this translate into a more tactile experience for donors, but also as a form of accountability and monitoring within the model. I want to reiterate that our online network also focuses on student leadership development within Canada. We didn't see a need to use our online network to support community initiatives in the Global South alone. My own thesis research focused on promoting global citizenship among youth. I discovered that most youth leadership programs directed students to fundraise for other projects but did not provide funding for youth to spearhead their own initiatives. As we use our online network to profile community leaders overseas, we also want to highlight the incredible work of young Canadians as well. None of the other Web 2.0 donation models spanned the Global North and South in this way. We didn't see a need to separate the two. In fact, we believe that supporting both community initiatives in the developing world and student-led initiatives in Canada would be a way for us to bridge communities in different regions of the world together for mutual support.
Cathy, with respect to legitimacy and evaluation, I don't believe that we would have over 10,000 CBOs registered in our organization. If we were ever fortunate to grow to this size, it would be through responsible growth. It would be irresponsible to run the organization without infrastructure or resources to deploy in the field. We presently have connections with 6 CBOs that we personally have worked with in the past and remain in communication with. These will be our pilot projects. The next projects we would expand to include are those that have been working closely with other international organizations that have resources on the ground to assist with monitoring and evaluation. World Vision Canada has already asked us to assist 75 indigenously formed community organizations in Columbia and El Salvador that the organization is connected to. While World Vision helped to provide the technical training necessary for these non-profit CBOs to form, World Vision was not mandated to continue to support these initiatives financially once they were launched. We aim work in partnership with their local staff to help achieve a transparent funding network and expect that to expand to other regions, similar partnerships would have to be formed with other organizations. I don’t plan to travel across world finding these organizations myself (the cost of a flight often equates to the annual operating cost of some of the best CBOs we’ve encountered) nor would I simply send money to people whom we have no connection to.
Cathy, I am not certain if your primary concern is that we are similar to another organization or if this is a question of sustainability. Are Kiva and Esther's Echo similar? Yes. Are Kiva and Global Giving similar? Yes. Are there now other Web 2.0 models? Yes. As you say "the existing Kiva model, infrastructure, and platform works...well." Yet statistically only a fraction of the demand for micro-credit is being met in the world. Simply pointing to another functional model and its success is not a reason in and of itself for another variant of the model not to exist if it may reach different regions, assist a different demographic (that in this case we feel is under supported by the existing models) and engage donors in innovative ways. With respect to sustainability, the model is designed to support infrastructure growth, skill development, local institutional growth for community organizations, and ultimately support income generating activities through market access. It would be our aim for a community project to grow beyond its need for our assistance rather than grow more dependent upon that assistance.
I hope that answers some of your questions, Cathy. Thank you for your critical review of what we're doing. It's necessary to ensure that efforts are not overlapping; a common critique of development programming.
-Matthew
I see Esther's Echo as a great tool for empowering micro-development projects throughout the developing world. It's no secret now that development done on a small scale, person to person, village to village, is experiencing success. This project could give these individuals much needed publicity, while also providing information to responsible donors. Not every NGO has a communications and marketing budget and team. Esther's Echo, from what I have read, may fill this niche.
Helping community-based organizations overcome the hurdles of sharing progress with supporters / stakeholders and providing mechanisms to monitor and evaluate progress enables these organizations to focus on core competencies - purpose, vision, strategy, tactical planning and execution.
Many organizations fail because the seemingly little things (albeit criticial) are essential to success but often not within the forte of the organization's founders (or are not seen as important) and so these things are pushed aside until the organization dies.
Esther's Echo empowers organizations to be able to focus on what is important. I also believe that the founders have "been there" - they have witnessed first hand what empowers and disempowers organizations and so their background and their passion have enabled them to see what needs to be done - and the cost to organizations for not doing it.
I think Esther's Echo should be embraced as a new model in their space for the 21st century.
After traveling to the developing world, I have learned of so many community based organizations that are making a difference. These projects are hidden from the developed world, or only known about through very small connections. These projects are the ones that work very hard with little funding to continue to make a difference.
Esther's Echo allows people to become aware of these projects, giving them a chance to help out directly. Many individuals are very concerned with sending money to larger organizations because of administration costs, and the actual amount reaching the recipients needing help. With Esther's Echos we as a community can reach out and help people who are often kept in the shadows of the larger NGOS.
These project are very small scale, but it is never size that matters. One project can become two, and the chain continues to grow. These small community based projects can branch out helping millions of people. An idea starts small and leads to something so much bigger. With the right attention and resources, Esther's Echo can continue to grow, allowing many more projects to continue to help the hundreds of people they do.
Similar models have worked domestically (http://www.canadahelps.org/ for example), it's about time I see a model that supports international grass roots projects and organizations in developing areas. There's been some debate about this model versus microcredit organizations (like Kiva), but there's really no comparison. While Kiva allows you to support entrepreneurs in developing countries, Esther's Echo helps you support non-profits and NGOs. I believe that microcredit is a great way to support economic development (despite the lack of long-term macroeconomic studies/proof), but some organizations/projects (such as schools and orphanages) are rarely able to have sustainable revenue sources to pay back loans. These aren't businesses that we're investing in here, these are grass root non-profit initiatives that can have large impacts with a little support.
When you donate to any local soup kitchen or homeless shelter, you're not expecting these organizations to pay you back via a sustainable revenue source. Same idea with Esther's Echo, except it supports small community based organizations in developing areas.
The concept is great, and there's nothing else really comparable out there. You guys definitely have my support for getting this grant.
Tom Snell
Director
Provictus Consulting
www.provictus.ca/blog
Hi Tom,
Thanks for your comment. You raise some very interesting and important points about the model itself. Particularly with regards to the distinction between a micro-credit model and the Esther's approach. Indeed, micro-credit is a great way to support economic development in under served regions, and it has a proven track record of success. To this end, we believe organizations like Kiva appeal to a very different demographic. Cathy did raise a very interesting point about how Kiva now allows its 'lenders' to opt out of their return on investment, thus making their contribution a donation rather than a loan. But where Esther's Echo and Kiva truly differ is the demographic we intend to serve. Kiva's mandate is to provide loans, and they primarily target business owners. Our mandate is to provide donations, and we target community leaders who run their own organizations.
Both Matthew and I have learned from our experiences in the field that the community leaders understand the context of their environment better than an interventionist ever could. Ethnography is important, and as many other people have mentioned, the community leaders who understand the culture, values, practices and overall vernacular within these regions often have much difficulty appealing to domestic or international entities for support.
What I have to say is not much different from what most of the people in this thread have already mentioned. For me, Esther's Echo is important because of its vision to support CBOs that don't necessarily turn a monetary profit - at home and abroad.
Kiva is a great website, but what Esther's Echo is doing is qualitatively different from Kiva and therefore addressing a niche that has gone primarily unnoticed.
I work for a health charity in Canada and most of our work is not 'profitable' in the short-run. However, I would not characterize our work as 'un-profitable.'
There is the untangible element to the work of many CBOs that provides the fuel for communities on the whole to succeed. In my view Esther's Echo is/will be doing this.
This initiative looks great. From my experience smaller, local projects are often overlooked by large donors although they are generally more culturally appropriate and efficient than international agency efforts. Building capacity and supporting local projects is key. I think the youth component of Esther's Echo is also crucial. Social media is the perfect tool here. I think you have excellent vision.
Hi everybody:
I agree with what Leah and Abdullah has said.
I think Esther's Echo would be a fantastic way of briding community development projects with philantropists - it is a organization that is clearly missing from the current development landscape and for which there is tremendous demand and interest. Looking at the success of Kiva and the limitations of microfinance as a concept, it seems to me that having such a bridge is of utmost importance in getting social needs and opportunities addressed in an efficient and appropriate fashion.
This is a sustainable initative making use of social media and creating change! Thanks to everyone who supports Esther's Echo and best of luck in the competition.
Bridging the gap with the Global South will hopefully create the links we need to support development projects that are initiated and directed by the people they are meant to serve. I hope this organization gets the publicity it needs and deserves to push forward its mandate.
Esther's Echo provides comprehensive information to everyone, especially those who wonder where their money goes. By creating strong ties with the Global South, we will be able to help many projects and initiative, but more importantly--the people. This is a phenomenal organization that will help bring awareness to many.
this post went to the wrong place so i'm deleting it and re-posting it.
Not only is Esther's Echo an amazing organization for small, grass roots organizations in need of funding and recognition it also sounds like it will be a great tool for young people to become aware of real issues where they can be most effective to implement change. Expanding the world view of youth through media and also allowing them to become connected to causes they can help with is so empowering. So it seems to be an organization that can make an impact locally and globally.
I can't wait for Esther's Echo to launch. Kiva got me addicted to micro-lending through its engagement-based model, and I see Esther's Echo doing the same for philanthropy: making it exciting, engaging, and much more rewarding. It will be essential to be able to see the results of your donations, but this model/format is best suited for that purpose.
Compared to Kiva, in fact, E.E. may offer even more authentic engagement. It is now fairly well-known that when you make a loan on Kiva, you are *not* assigning that money to the individual entrepreneur that you have "chosen" rather your money actually goes to a larger pool of funds used to lend to many different people. Doing it otherwise would be impractical for Kiva because it would take too long for money to reach entrepreneurs.
Perhaps differences with the Esther's Echo model, however, could allow the connection between donor and recipient to be more genuine, since funds do not need to be repaid and recipients could receive funds in pieces, as soon as they are donated (perhaps?).
Also, would the donations be tax-deductible in Canada (and perhaps the U.S.?).
Looking forward to hearing more details and to using the system for much of my overseas donations, as soon as it is launched!
When I first heard about Esther's Echo it seemed to me so obvious - enabling transfers of support directly to overseas organizations - why hasn't anyone come up with this before? And then I stopped to think about how difficult it is to make donations directly to small groups overseas without having someone hand deliver the donation. I also realized the incredible hurdles that Revenue Canada puts up for charities working globally and the myriad of regulations that countries put up to stop foreign direct financing of NGOs. Well, after reviewing the obstacles I began to realize that only a small group of highly committed and tenacious individuals could make this happen. (And if you have met Matthew and his partners, you will agree - they have what it takes to put all of the pieces together). Esther's Echo will revolutionize the aid relationship. It will enable those of us who want to work in partnerships with individuals and groups doing great things in other countries with the means of doing so. I still believe strongly in great international NGOs like Oxfam and Interpares, but I'm glad I have a choice of working through a portal like Esther's Echo to directly support other organizations.
Shauna Sylvester
I strongly agree with Shauna about the potential that the Esther’s Echo model has to revolutionize the aid relationship. Through the different programs they plan to offer, Esther’s Echo has the potential to support and empower thousands of CBOs in the developing world, as well as engaging youth and donors in Canada on a whole new level. Working to found a small non-profit (Homes of Joy) and support one small CBO in Zambia has proven to me just how difficult it currently is to support small CBOs overseas. Esther’s Echo will provide a much needed platform to facilitate this process. Navigating the hurdles of Revenue Canada regulations and regulations surrounding foreign direct financing of NGOs will definitely be a challenging task for Matthew and Stephen. However, it is a task they have proven they are committed to, and a challenge I believe they are fully capable of overcoming once they secure seed funding.
What makes this idea/organization stand out is that it actually tries to empower people to take political action. Rather than simply give their money to a distant NGO whose annual report talks in vague language, people are--through Esther's Echo--able to better engage with a community and therefore respond to that community's political needs. A brilliant idea.
This model is exciting because it provides CBO’s a means to demonstrate their accountability and empowering community leaders all while ensuring that they retain full responsibility and ownership of their work. It is evident that the founder’s of Esther’s Echo don’t want to recreate a generic donor system that perpetuates unhealthy dependency and causes unintended harm. Rather they have developed a means of facilitating holistic, meaningful partnerships that will contribute towards healthy social and economic change.
I just read about Esther's Echo, building strong communities is key in many situations where state institutions lack effect and economic stagnation lingers in the air. But I'm really impressed with the idea of using a diverse and adaptable medium like digital media to bring communities together.
Sometimes more than the micro-credit, its the human spirit that needs a bit of mobilization in the right direction. After all, the whole success of micro-credit schemes was based on the belief in the most basic of human sentiments -i.e. trust and hope. It was this belief in the human spirit that challenged years of rational-choice economic theory (endorsed with inconsequential results by the World Bank and IMF).
Digital media with a "CBO" approach can provide such a revolutionary platform within communities. It can give the voice, knowledge and impetus required to uplift beleaguered communities on a spiritual (internal) as well as economic (external) level. Cheers to that!.
Amna,
You couldn't have summarized my own sentiments on this topic more eloquently. Unquestionably a stigma surrounds direct funding of community level projects the assumption being that the poor with mismanage funds. And yet that same assumption was destroyed by the Nobel Peace Prize winning predictions of Muhammad Yunus through his micro-credit models. The same distrust of small scale CBOs extends to the direct investment/donation models as well. Yet I ask, haven't these community leaders already demonstrated that they can be trusted? Each day, these leaders work tirelessly to support those in their own communities and work with meager resources to do so. Aren't these leaders exactly the individuals whom we should be trusting and hoping in for making significant social change? They are proven and tested by their own circumstances. And rather than using their education, skills or talent for their own benefit or to emigrate from their nations, they have made a commitment to stay and rebuild broken lives, build homes, increase access to education, fight addiction, run for office, shelter youth, and share their vision for a better country. These are the leaders we are seeking, and their community projects, to partner with through digital media and the powers of information technology to make a better world.
The fact that youth is one of Esther's Echo focus groups is very positive. The idea of donating to a CBO digitally will be especially appealing to this demographic.
Can't wait to start making donations to this worthy network.
Helen C.
Empowering youth to become leaders in their community has become a growing phenomenon. As a teacher, I have discovered many students wanting to support various initiatives such as relief efforts or community based organization, but have limited engagement and involvement due to the nature of the organization's accessibility. Esther's Echo bridges gap between the large and growing socially aware youth, to these various community based organizations. Teachers can assist in developing the tools for students/youth to support these initiatives, however, students are frequently disappointed by their seemingly inconsequential contributions. Through the mediums currently used by youth, Esther's Echo would be able to adequately utilize and facilitate these mediums to directly connect and engage students to organizations that require tremendous amounts of support. The online network supported by Esther's Echo, can allow students to track their support
through digital mediums students are all too familiar with.
Besides the obvious complications of making sure that people who recommend projects are legitimate and keeping track of the money, which have already come up and I know will be done in the most transparent way possible, my only comment is that this makes so much sense. People keep doing this on a project by project, overseas by overseas trip basis. I've run fundraisers for projects that friends have found when overseas. I've seen people rally their past elementary and secondary schools and families to support worthy causes that they have only found because they are on the ground in another country. I can only imagine how much more productive this will all be when the full potential of these discoveries can be realized, beyond the personal connections that people have "back home".
I know so many people that donate money to organizations and choose the quickest fastest "most credible" international development agencies. They don't have time to research smaller more locally oriented projects.
It seems that there are lots of current donors and potential donors that would jump on the opportunity to donate directly to a local project. If Esther's Echo could grow to that capacity in gathering projects, and if their web platform was widely marketed, this project has amazing potential. This could change the way we give.
In Haiti, for example, I would much rather donate money directly to the reconstruction of a specific program, home, or service rather than to one of the huge development agencies. That is my personal feeling and also a feeling shared by many of my friends and co-workers. I have a feeling the government of Haiti might, in some instances, prefer more of this direct giving as well. Esther's Echo could facilitate that.
Esther's Echo's power is that it isn't about making itself bigger. It is about changing the capacity by which we give, opening up whole new channels of giving. There just needs to be an amazing web 2.0 platform and a lot of collaborators willing to inform and keep these projects accountable.
My major question is who will Esther's Echo say "no" to when asked if they can showcase their project on the website. There are local issues that a broader giving program can involve itself too much.
For example, condom distribution or women's reproductive rights. There may be projects that re-enforce a standpoint that the community is grappling with and hasn't really decided on. How does Esther's Echo ensure the projects don't also create division by privileging a certain perspective that not everyone in the community agrees with.
I really believe in this idea. I am an extremely critical person when it comes to international development, and Esther's Echo is the first organization that I can really get behind, 100%.
Hi Rob,
That is a fantastic and very thoughtful question. I actually with a situation that reflects your concern when I was working in Sierra Leone with international sport-for-development organization Right to Play. In the aftermath of the Blood Diamond civil war, there was a great deal of political fragmentation in the rural regions of the country. We were working with a community about an hour outside of Freetown, the capital city, and providing sports equipment to a group of coaches in the community. As it turned out, we discovered that our cache of sports equipment had become a politically contentious issue. The coaches, who possessed the equipment, were of a minority group that was opposed to the rightfully elected leader of their community. We were unaware of their political disposition or the delicate nature of the situation at the time. Unknowingly, we had lent political clout to this group of coaches as they began to associate themselves with our large international organization in a power struggle with the local leadership and other community members.
When we discovered the nature of the situation, we held a community meeting and determined that if the sports programming was to continue, the cache of sports equipment would be kept with the local leadership that was democratically elected by the majority of the community members. Our small group of coaches, while at first disappointed with our decision, eventually came to understand that their actions were against the very spirit of our projects; community development and unity through sport. It was not in our mandate to upset local power balances.
I learned a great deal from this experience. I could not help but associate this lesson with your question. Are there competing interests in communities? Yes. There are voices in Sierra Leone that believe girls should not be educated at all. There are voices in the country that believe it is a cultural right to mutilate young women. There are voices in the country that claim HIV is a hoax. These perspectives are met and challenged, not by international organizations, but by other community members who believe in equality and human rights. The core principle of Esther's Echo is the support of indigenous community leadership that is directed toward positive social change. Esther herself serves as the archetype model which is why our organization carries her namesake. Esther's Echo is not implanting new ideologies. Views such as Esther's have arisen from the grassroots; from people within the community itself.
The perspectives of community leaders will ultimately be reflected in the work that they do. As an organization, we are determining how to select key partners that will help to unify communities through democratic practices, employment opportunities, economic growth, and education. In Sierra Leone, when I was with Right to Play, we inadvertently privileged a group that sought to divide. We corrected this oversight. Now we want to support leaders that are seeking to unify communities. There will be conflict with those who also wish to restrict rights and freedoms, but poverty itself is ultimately the greatest source of division in these nations. We see our work not as a means of privileging a select few and their views but rather empowering those leaders who have proven their ability to bring communities together and raise the quality of life for members of those communities.
Rob, your question is valid and is reflective of a larger overarching debate of international development which views development as colonialistic. Our caution of the neocolonial tendencies of development is partly what catalyzed Esther's Echo. We are not bringing new projects to the field, or new ideas. We are working to enhance the brave changemakers who are already on the ground making their vision of change a reality. When I saw Esther's amazing achievements, the sacrifices she had made, her intense care for the young girls in her community and the impact of her project, I didn't see my potential support to Esther's organization as Esther's privilege. I believe she deserves our support and that she has earned the right to have the support of donors who are looking to make smart investment in social change projects across the globe.
"The function of leadership is to produce more leaders -- not more followers." -Ralph Nader
I heard this quote today and immediatley thought of the Esther's Echo model. Supporting CBOs rather than starting your own initiatives for community members to follow will really help foster local leadership, especially if you require a certain level of transparency and reporting. And the school-based leadership development programming is another great example of how Esther's Echo will help develop new leaders, rather than simply recruit a bunch of students to fundraise without providing real skill development.
Just another reason why Esther's Echo will have a unique and rippling impact.
I have a logistics question, and perhaps it's already been outlined, but I can't help but wonder about this as I picture Esther's Echo functioning. How will the research be done so organizers can continue to support and encourage donators to give to particular local projects? In my mind, this must be a big expense for the organizers to travel and "scout out" new initiatives. Or, are you thinking of hiring others to connect with you in terms of sharing information on local programs? And if this is the case, who will these people be and how will it work, especially so that everyone involved can be comfortable?
The reason I'm asking this and trying to raise real, critical concerns is that I believe in Esther's Echo very much and want to make sure I understand how it works, and that it is successful.
Also, what kind of follow up, or long term engagement will there be with groups or leaders in their projects? Once one donates can one then continue to contribute to a school for instance, or are projects strictly one time initiatives to get them off the ground?
It is very exciting to hear about a project like this that is providing help in a real way, that is direct and in the hands of the people who know most about what their communities need. I'm looking forward to hearing more.
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