Innovation Fund Round Two Winners Announced: Four Nonprofits Selected For Project Funding

"Best-In-Class" Winners combine nonprofit mission and business model for sustainable social good

GREENSBORO, N.C., Nov. 6, 2013 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- A solar powered "Energy Center" designed to meet growing consumer energy needs and reduce the use of kerosene and charcoal in rural African homes.  Pre-paid health services for the poorest women in Bolivia.  An e-training to develop competence of microfinance field agents throughout Latin America, and thus expand availability of funds.  A new surgical facility that will help to stabilize the finances of a critical hospital in Cameroon. These are the proposals that were selected to be the Second Round grantees of the Alliance for Global Good's Innovation Fund following a national competition. 

"We were extremely pleased by the creativity of all of the applicants. There is a growing appreciation of the role that market-related activity has in producing sustainable social impact," said David Brand, AFGG's president and CEO. Qualified applicants were medium-sized, US-based nonprofits that work on solving global problems in the Alliance's critical areas of emphasis: poverty, health, education, environment, and world relations. "In comparison to the first round of grants, we were more insistent on sophisticated business models, and the applicants, for the most part, rose to the occasion," Brand added.

Those applications meeting the Fund's objective requirements were reviewed by an external panel consisting of Paul Holmes, Terra Lawson-Remer, and Glenn Yago, where they were scored based on the innovation the proposal presented—its creativity, the clarity of its goal and role, and the consistency of the innovation with the organization's mission. 

That review narrowed the field to six finalists, all of which made in-person presentations to a second independent group, which included Amy M. Bell, Walter (Skip) Auch, and Michael D. Park.  The finalists' presentations focused on business elements, such as understanding of markets, business strategy, viability, and management capacity.

The Round 2 winning applicants and their proposals are:

Freedom from Hunger | Latin America

• Challenge:  Many Latin American microfinance institutions lack capacity to provide professional development necessary for optimal field agent performance that jeopardizes performance and exposes clients to the risk of over-indebtedness.
• Solution:  Transform existing training series for field agents into a long distance learning e-platform, thus providing cost-effective and accessible training opportunities that will build field agent capacity and comply with emerging regulatory requirements.

Innovation: Africa | Uganda

• Challenge:  Provide resources and facilities for off the grid individuals to have electrical power in their lives.
• Solution:  Create a readily replicable "Rural Energy Center" where individuals can access services including internet access, photocopying and printing, television access, and cellphone charging, and purchase items including solar lanterns, haircuts, water packs, and cold drinks.

Global Health Ministries | Cameroon

• Challenge: How to address dramatically reduced funding of missionary hospital so as to continue providing essential services for population.
• Solution: Increase capacity for providing elective and fee-paying surgery for local population by expanding surgical facilities.

Pro Mujer | Bolivia

• Challenge: Chronic diseases—obesity, high blood pressure, elevated glucose levels, etc.—are a major health burden, particularly for the poor.
• Solution: Building upon existing financial services infrastructure and resources to deliver health services, implement a new health plan addressing these concerns designed to be client focused, market‑driven, and self‑sustaining.

Round One Grantees included Children of God Relief Fund, East Meets West, High Atlas Foundation, and Sisters of Notre Dame de Namur.   "The first group confirmed the tremendous need this fund addresses," said Dr. Susan Raymond, Executive Vice President of Changing Our World, who assisted AFGG in shaping the Fund's focus.  "With Round Two's grantees, the organizational community envisioned by the Fund, comprised  of nonprofits engaged with the market and dedicated to global development goals, begins to take shape."

The Fund was first announced at the Alliance's Inaugural Bipartisan Congressional Conference on Innovation in Giving & Philanthropy in November, 2011.  For more information about the Innovation Fund, or about the Alliance for Global Good, call (305) 527-4143 or visit www.afgg.org.

About the Alliance for Global Good
Founded by philanthropist Leonard Kaplan out of concern for global crises that threaten succeeding generations, the Alliance for Global Good is the realization of the maxim that "the whole is greater than the sum of its parts."  Focused more on how philanthropy is practiced rather than on any single cause or need, the Alliance promotes philanthropic efficiency and effectiveness.  Five guiding principles—innovation, collaboration, leverage, sustainability, and scalability—are used to evaluate and engage in opportunities to impact five areas: health, poverty, education, the environment, and world relations.

CONTACT: Jerry Chasen
305 527 4143 | [email protected]

SOURCE Alliance for Global Good