How do you make your program more interesting to this potential sponsor than the tens of hundreds of other child-sponsor programs? How do you convince someone that the needs of your kids are great enough to warrant their attention, and their money?

The usual routines, which I’ve seen used, are to take photos of children when they’re looking especially woebegone, poverty-stricken, or sad. And offer those children up to be sponsored. You describe the economic climate of the area you’re serving, focusing on how desperate and without resources it is.

You emphasize how poor, and how without all-the-things-that-children-merit your kids are. You emphasize how important your project is to the future of these children.

I didn’t think about any of these things as I wrote my letter to my friends and family asking them to donate or become a sponsor. I just wrote about how hard life is for some families here in San Pedro La Laguna, especially for single mothers, or women who’ve taken in the child of another family member (daughter, sister, brother). And how appreciative the moms are for the relatively small basket of food we give them every six weeks; how excited the kids are to have new pants, shirts and shoes for Feria. I wrote about our classes to teach the children to draw and paint, encouraging their imaginations and creativity while increasing their self-esteem, as well as future potential earning-power in this town known for its artists.

I talked about the life these kids lead—helping their mom carry wash to and from the lake, where the family bathes; carrying firewood from the mountains to feed the cooking fire; living in one room with several family members. Very few kids in this pueblo use outhouses or fetch water from a community tap, as occurs in the nearby pueblo of my other project. But toilets can be makeshift structures behind a curtain off the kitchen or patio; water in the tap is cold and not really clean. There’s mold on the walls of the rooms in the rainy season, and leaks in the roof. (Heck, I have those in my rented house!)

I wrote about the things that touch my heart. And I took photos of the kids that delighted me: Romeo hunched over his drawing board seated on top of a rock by the lake; three girls sitting in a boat while they painted; a boy in rapt attention while our director showed him a drawing technique.

I love these kids. They are as bright and sweet and sometimes sad, or as pesky as any kids anywhere, and they deserve an outing at times, a refreshment, a chance to stretch their wings. They deserve to learn and be appreciated.

I hope that love comes across.

I hope it’s enough.

Mira Talbot-Pope is currently volunteering with Ayudame a Pintar Mi Futuro.  For more on her adventures, check out her blog. For a different take on the ethics of poverty marketing, read “Photo Project Puts Poverty Into Perspective.“

I talk about Guatemalan culture and history, and tell stories about my life and the people I’ve met here. And I talk about the projects and what they are doing for the people they benefit.

I love the buying, selling and the talking about what I see and feel in Guatemala; so in many ways it’s no effort, except for hauling around the full suitcases, through airports, taxis, bus and train stations.

I’ve done small benefits at house parties and church service social hours, and last year we threw a big benefit dinner in conjunction with the students in the high school Spanish classes — good food, first class service and live music to boot. From this dinner and the sales, we were able to buy a photocopier for the office of the school – a huge boon to the teachers, who had been copying work for the students by hand.

My last visit home we did an art show at a local restaurant– with paintings by the painters I work with in APMF — as well as two house parties, a church social, a booth at a fair, and a sale at a bilingual preschool Mother’s Day event. My goal was to get enough donations to build a climbing structure for the preschool classrooms in the barren yard next to the classrooms and the director’s office. And joyfully, we met that goal.

It seems as though the consistency of my appearances in my hometown, the feedback and thank you letters I write to donors, and my ongoing work in these two projects in Guatemala has had some effect. After this visit to the States, one person who has helped considerably with the benefits is offering to make APMF a project of the NGO she’s connected with, which also helps in Belize and Haiti. This will enable us to have official status, give tax deductions for larger donations, and perhaps to receive funding from other organizations. This is very important for us as it would cost us nearly $1000 to do this for ourselves in Guatemala.

Then another friend has offered to push forward a “Friends of…” group in our hometown, to help us raise money more consistently, and encourage sponsorships for the kids in our program.

I am really excited about both these steps forward, which can only allow us to give better services to our client families in San Pedro and the children of the San Pablo preschool.

So I guess my message is, stick with it. Consistency and duration pay off.

Miranda Pope is currently living in San Pedro La Laguna, Guatemala and is volunteering with Pedagogia Basica, Estamos Listos, and Ayudame Escribir Mi Futuro. For more on her experiences, check out her blog. For more on fundraising, read “Organizing Fundraisers at Home and Abroad” by Kim Friedland; “How to Fundraise With No Funds” by Andrea Vogler; and “Need Some Cash? Top 10 Ways to Fundraise” by Laurie Norton.

I. Fundraisers from Abroad

a) The Pub Quiz

The idea of a Pub Quiz, or trivia night, is very popular in the English pubs around Cusco, and when used as a fundraising tool it creates a symbiotic relationship between pub owner and NGO worker. Here’s how it works:

Lauren and I create the quiz. This consists of five categories with ten questions each, with genres including history, current events, and pop culture. We publicize the event by posting flyers in bars and restaurants, and charge five soles ($1.75 USD) for each person to play. Be sure to make a short spiel before the quiz that introduces your organization and outlines its work. Pub owners like the event for the free publicity and the crowds it brings.

Peruvian goods to be auctioned off for donations.

b) Newsletters

Periodically sending out email updates to family and friends regarding the progress of your work abroad is a good way to spread awareness and raise interest in your cause. We do not use the newsletters explicitly as a fundraising tool, but it does sew the seeds to inspire donations later on. In the newsletter we include sections regarding recent happenings of GirlSportWorks, student spotlights, and new additions to the program.

II. Fundraisers from Home

a) The Gala

We will hold a fundraising gala upon our return to the States. Family, friends, and acquaintances will be invited. Here we will hold a silent auction, have a donations box, and provide food and the opportunity to purchase drinks. Speeches about our work, a slideshow, and Peruvian music will set the tone. To fund the event we will contact local restaurants and establishments and ask for food donations or items that we can auction off.

b) The City Fair Booth

Every fall the City of Berkeley holds an event called the Solano stroll, a massive street fair with parades, food stands, and various booths. For one hundred dollars we entered to have a GirlSportWorks booth. We expect that the donations we receive will make this fee a worthwhile investment. At the booth we will offer a variety of Peruvian goods for suggested donations, and will display a picture album and information pamphlet.

Hopefully these can inspire other fundraising ideas, and please feel free to help me out with suggestions!

Kimberly is currently serving as Program Manager for GirlSportWorks, a US-based NGO that seeks to enhance the lives of Peruvian girls through athletics. For more on fundraising, check out “How to Fundraise With No Funds” by Andrea Vogler and “Need Some Cash? Top 10 Ways to Fundraise” by Laurie Norton.

Shoveling is hard work. You bury the shovel in a mountain of mud, lift, dump into a bucket and repeat for hours on end. An odor lingers – a blend of death, decay and destruction. There are those rare moments when life resembles one’s favorite novel. In the past week, Love in the Time of Cholera has had more of a literal effect on my life than I ever would have expected literature to effect.

Relief workers aid the clean-up in San MIguel Escobar, Guatemala after Tropical Storm Agatha.

On May 15, I climbed my first active volcano, marveling at the sight of lava flowing down slopes. Less than two weeks later, with very little warning, this very volcano erupted and rivers of fire destroyed nearby villages, while blanketing Guatemala City with ash. Then Tropical Storm Agatha arrived – and did not stop pummeling our rooftops until, as of June 3rd, it had taken the lives of 150 people in Central America. The dawn of June 3rd found 108,000 homeless, 136,413 evacuated and 32,000 destroyed homes. 

The sun shone with an incongruous brightness on the morning after the storm. Armed with galoshes and shovels, aid workers poured into the hardest hit villages. Rescue workers pull out a grandmother and her child – both, unfortunately, dead because of a sudden mudslide. Mud reaches the level of the kitchen counter and buries wiring, computers, furniture and children’s toys underneath it. Health teams administer tetanus shots. Two days later, we add surgical masks to our uniform – an ominous sign that disease has arrived. Typhoid fever outbreaks and rumors of cholera, the results of a limited and contaminated water supply, complicate the act of shoveling.

With a specialty in conflict management, capacity building and women’s development work, I was a stranger to relief work. Relief work requires both empathy and the ability to distance oneself from the overwhelming pain. It demands every ounce of physical energy and every last grain of positivity. It is a quintessential team sport – one whose results will not show until days or months, making every lift of a shovel at turns disheartening and frustrating.

And in the disarray, hope emerges. The determination of the aid workers, the resilience of the locals, the random acts of kindness, the relentless teasing of one another about who smells worse or whose mud stains look more like face paint lighten up the load. Knee-deep in mud, inspired by the optimism, energy emanating from the shoveling crowds, it is hard to ignore the grave reminders of the storm – and even harder to not feel one’s own faith in humanity surging to new heights.

For a photomontage of relief efforts in Guatemala and information on how to donate to the victims of Tropical Storm Agatha, please visit Roxanne’s blog.

The event had to be simple because of our limited resources and short amount of time to prepare. Some of the older children from the orphanage and some of the volunteers provided the music;  we offered cheap food options such as chilaquiles and enfrijoladas; and we spread the word via hand to hand flyering and word-of-mouth. Everyone decided that come what may come of the event – at least we were going to have a good time!

Not worrying about every expense and the amount of people who showed up was a huge help. As the sun shone down, we laughed and played the day away while eating good food and listening to music. The next day we learned, to our surprise, we had helped raise 5,000 Mexican Pesos for the Ixaya School!

It was incredibly encouraging to see how much can be done with pure energy and dedication, and how successful fundraisers can be, even if they’re thrown together at the last minute. And don’t be put off by the idea that you won’t be able to raise as much money in a Latin American country – every little bit helps and it’s great to get the local community involved. Think of a coffee shop that might be down with letting local musicians play a benefit night for the organization you’re volunteering with. Or find a public park where you can do some street theatre, and with a big sign advertising that says the money is going to a good cause, watch your hat fill up.

Anyone have creative, low-preparation fundraising ideas while one’s on the road?

For more tips on putting together a low-cost fundraiser, check out “Need Some Cash? 10 Ways to Fundraise.” For more traditional money-making ideas, check out Idealist.org’s Community Action Center.

Over the past two and a half years, I have really come to understand philanthropy on both a personal and societal level. Neatly packing up my content life in Los Angeles and shipping it on the adventure express to the Western-most corner of the Iberian Peninsula, I slowly settled into a very different sort of existence in Portugal’s capital city of Lisbon.

Why Lisbon and what spurred the move is pretty irrelevant. For lack of a more exotic answer, I was just ready for something else, and that something was the slightly mysterious and little touched corner of the Iberian Peninsula which spoke a language I wanted to learn and was a mix of what I envisioned to be Latin, European, and Arabic influences with a bit of salty Atlantic sea. What unfolded was a journey in learning Portuguese, making friends, working and supporting myself on local currency, and all the while being an observer of the Portuguese culture, with my eyes and ears privy to a bit more local access than the average, thanks to my acquired language skills and job stints at Médicos de Mundo and International House language school.

There is much to be applauded about this humble, fairly homogeneous culture that has somehow steered clear of Western consumerism and nutritional excesses, maintaining their local traditions and honoring their sea-faring ancestors by living off a healthy diet of fish and non-processed foods. But the living experience (which for the sake of this particular argument) was really just a foreign context – it could have been any – for gleaning insight on another culture, which in turn, shed light on my own. As I struggled to plan fundraising events for the foreign humanitarian organization I was working for while trying to understand their relationship to philanthropy, I began to better understand my own country’s thoughts on the matter. Having traveled for pleasure and work all of my adult life, I’ve had plentiful experiences in the Americas and Europe, chances for both insight and participation. But it wasn’t until I was truly part of somebody else’s system – visa and social security number to prove it – could I understand, and more importantly, appreciate, what was so special about my own.

Growing up as a middle-class Californian girl, I was taught to share with others, expected to give of my time and energies for fundraising events andcommunity projects, learned that I had the power to initiate and create opportunities that would impact someone other than myself, and then also learned how to nicely package it all up in documented form as part of an unspoken admissions requirement to get into a good university.

The fact is, we Americans grow up doing just that. Giving, lending, sharing, partaking, creating, and organizing: all for a greater good. (Of course there are plenty of other motives too; we could all write a piece on the “Me generation” so just stick with me on this one.) We do not wait for someone else to instruct us about what to do, how to start, or where to take initiative. We founded our own system by joining forces with each other, volunteering, and gathering as individuals to build something for the larger community’s benefit. Now that the system is in place and age has shown its wrinkles and ailing parts, we – through organizations, community partnerships, and individual action – fill in the gaps and mend those broken parts. The scale extends from small to large and community threads are patched together thanks to the free-willed help of many. Cultural institutions are built due to the initiatives of individuals and meanwhile the state has its citizens to thank for a job well done.

Recently settling back in my own culture, I find myself in the middle of the job search like so many others out there. What keeps my spirits high in this gloomy economy are the amount of amazing organizations out there mobilizing people and their energy to tackle these little and also really big issues that affect all of us on a daily basis. (And yes, volunteerism is on the rise thanks to unemployment.) What I am really getting at here though is our deeper-seeded relationship with the culture of philanthropy. I know that even for myself the common definition has probably strayed a bit from its origins. It’s not about giving money or handing out charity. Philanthropy is about private initiatives for public good in order to improve the quality of life. As the name well embodies, it’s about loving (philos) humankind (anthropos). And it is in action all around us, all the time.

This weekend I was privileged to be in company with a group of about forty women writers in a WriteGirl volunteer training session for their upcoming year activities. Uniting to pool their talents and resources for a community in greater need, these women showed their commitment not just for a day of service, but they committed for the upcoming nine months of events. The group committed to each other and the community they were to serve as if it were a job, their duty. The return on their investment? Immeasurable social benefit for all parties involved.

As we moan and complain about the current state of affairs, raise hairs over the future of this health bill and shake in fright and disgust as the school system erodes on a daily basis, we have the power to take action and do what we can to contribute to something better. Idealist.org recently launched their proposal to facilitate a massive community network of idealists, using the brain power and resources we already have to address the gap between our desire to influence change and our action.

So all I am sharing here is that we’ve already got what it takes. As the daily news focus seems to consistently thrive off of the lack, the broken, the corrupt, let us not forget we do not need to wait for the help of the state to take a small action of responsibility for our future and the betterment of humanity. We created this nation, and we have set an example to the rest of the world of how individuals, working together outside of the traditional workforce, can make a difference. But we need to keep our model strong by taking initiative now so we can access and enjoy all of the human potential that is waiting.

The world is a big place!

I try to help out as much as I can. Listed below are the most important things you can do to get them started with a volunteer experience abroad:

1. Be upfront about costs. While not impossible, it can be difficult to find an organization that will pay for your housing and/or cost of living. People say, “Hey, well I want to do it but I don’t have the money.” They need to know this is an obstacle and that saving a lump sum of money beforehand may be required. Not an insurmountable obstacle: there are sites such as CouchSurfing that can help with free lodging.

2. Lend your English skills. A lot of organizations, as well as sites that locate volunteer opportunities, have the majority of their volunteer positions listed in English. Be a translator, and help them articulate what they want and what they can offer an organization via phone and/or email.

3. Assist with researching visa requirements. Getting a visa can be extremely difficult (especially for Colombians). Make sure they can find all the information they need regarding forms, ID’s, etc…

Did I miss anything? If anyone has any additional tips, please post them in the comments.

Preparing and serving breakfast, a fruit snack and lunch everyday for 500 kids is no small feat; even the busiest restaurant in town does not serve that many people on a daily basis. While the school did have a couple of good stoves, the amount of food being cooked definitely warranted something more industrial, as the regular stoves could not properly handle the work load.

Enter  Tony and Ginger Rogers of Texas, a couple who volunteered at Holy Cross this past summer. Ginger was helping with literacy and remedial reading while Tony assisted with building. During their stay, they asked the school what was needed most and were told a heavy duty stove. They went back home to Texas and and set the wheels in motion to raise the money needed to buy a quality stove of the kind most restaurants possess.

After raising the funds, Ginger and Tony were able to get the stove to Amarillo, Texas to Pastor Tim Tam from the Word at Work Ministry. Transportation from Texas to San Pedro was generously provided by Belize Natural Energy Trust (BNET), headquartered in Belmopan. Last but not least, Sterling Vorus of Island Ferry stepped up and volunteered to get the stove from Belize City to San Pedro.

This was definitely an event to capture for the school blog. I decided to ask my friend Mitch to come along to check out Holy Cross School, and catch the ribbon cutting ceremony celebrating the new stove which was followed by lunch prepared by Chef Victor Nal of Sunset Grill. Among the people who came out to celebrate were Sterling Voris of Island Ferry, officials Sylvia Baumgart Laasner and Deborah Sewell from BNET, representatives from local papers and of course, school staff. Mitch told me afterward she was glad she went and got to see firsthand what the school was like, not to mention hear the stove story. She was also able to taste something cooked on the new stove by Chef Victor – Belize’s 2009 Chef of the Year and a frequent volunteer with the feeding program – and Miss Rosalia, head kitchen staff.

So you can see that all of these people were the drops of water that helped fill the bucket to get a much needed industrial stove for the school. And it’s a gift that keeps on giving – the kids will continue to benefit from the feeding program and get served two meals a day and a mid-morning snack, keeping their bellies full.

If you need some cash for your nonprofit or project but aren’t sure where to begin, here are ten fundraising ideas to get your creative juices flowing.

1.  Hold an auction.
For the past two years and counting, we have been running a Cinco De Mayo auction fundraiser for Holy Cross School. We set up a committee and get local businesses to donate prizes, and have the newspapers help promote the event.

2.  Host an event at a local restaurant or bar.
Most businesses are willing to help support local organizations and fundraising efforts by holding events and even donating a portion of the proceeds to the cause.  The curry cook off at Lime  and and the July 4th pool party at Pedro’s are both good examples where the involvement of local businesses can make a difference.

3. Organize a community yard sale.
Friends of the Humane Society periodically organize community yard sales in the park. People pay for use of a table to sell their goods, and the money raised from tables plus the $1 entry fee goes to the local humane society, SAGA. This type of fundraiser is always a big hit here in San Pedro.

4.  Sell raffle tickets.
Selling raffle tickets – which is very common here in Belize – is a great way to raise money. At $5 – $10 a pop, it’s easy to sell tickets for great prizes such as a cell phones and iPods, which are often donated by people visiting on vacation.

5. Get out the barbecue.
Doing a community barbecue and getting local businesses to donate food is a delicious way to raise money. We did this when we needed to fundraise medical expenses for Gaspar, one of the Holy Cross kids who had been having back-to-back seizures.

6.  Organize a torch run or walk.
Organizing a torch run or walk is a great way to get people together. San Pedro has an Annual Torch Run/AIDS walk that has been successful in not only securing funds, but creating awareness.

7.  Set up a school fair.
In Belize, when a school has a “fair,” it is commonly known among locals that this is a fundraiser for the school done by the teachers, parents and kids to include the broader community in its money-making efforts. Holy Cross School uses calender events such as Halloween and Valentine’s Day as great excuses to host fairs.

8.  Become active on Facebook groups and message boards.
Since volunteering at Holy Cross School, I have found that members of the Ambergris Caye message board are more than willing to help from afar. They love the island and the people on it, and have stepped up to the plate on numerous occasions to help when money or various items were needed. Same goes for people who have joined our Facebook group, Holy Cross Journey of Hope.

9.  Approach bigger businesses for donations.
Our good friend Joanne started a company in Canada called Direct Abundance, which is working toward using the resources available in Canada to help those in Belize who need it most. They do this by securing donations from different businesses and organizations who are willing to donate.

10.  Contact schools back in your home town.
Heather, a teacher at Greenholme School in Canada who is also involved with Direct Abundance, has taught her kids who do not have a lot themselves the importance of helping those less fortunate. She has gotten them to donate school supplies for kids in Belize, and they are also planning a program where the students are required to complete 40 hours of community service work before graduating.  Through activities such as selling chocolate bars, the money raised will go to sponsoring a student’s high school education in Belize.

Whether you are volunteering abroad or want to help from afar, I hope you find the ten ideas listed above a useful starting point in your own fundraising efforts.

For some reason I was suspicious of how sponsorship would really work, how the money would be used and if children really benefited.

With so many nonprofits out there, it can seem difficult to gauge how effective and legitimate an operation is, and to get a good sense of the organization’s philosophy. Luckily, even if you’re far away from a nonprofit’s central office, there are many avenues to evaluate your potential fit with an organization’s culture as a volunteer:

• Peruse the organization’s website thoroughly, looking for information on the mission, programs and recent achievements. Many organizations will also post information on their financial and fundraising structure and, ideally, an annual financial report.
• Type the organization’s name into an Internet search engine and see what pops up. You might find recent news coverage about the organization or other helpful references.
• You can check rating websites, such as Charity Navigator for U.S.-based nonprofits, to get a sense of how the organization is perceived. A word of caution, however, as these websites usually perform cursory evaluations based on tax returns as opposed to a more in-depth analysis that measures outcomes against strategic plans.
• Call, Skype, e-mail or visit several members of the organizations’ staff, current or former volunteers, or even donors. Ask why they support the organization, how they describe the philosophy and work environment, and what strategic challenges lay ahead for the organization.
• If available in your area, attend a fundraising or informational event about the nonprofit.

In my case, after speaking with current volunteers and staff members at Common Hope, I found myself transformed from skeptic to champion of child sponsorships. When it’s done right, sponsors’ exchange of letters and photos with affiliated schoolchildren nourish a long-term personal link that sustains both student and donor in their efforts. About half of the sponsors feel such a strong connection with their affiliated child that they travel at some point to Guatemala to visit the child in their family’s home.