ViviendasLeon

Who I am:
My name is Thomas Dude, I am a senior at USF. I am currently majoring in International Business, and will be graduating next may. My goal after graduation is to join a multinational/NGO/ or School of some sort in Latin America. I have studied for a semester in Spain and will be participating with a company through Aiesec after I graduate. I will be teaching English in Latin America for a year. If I find it to be something that I love, then I think I will try to get a teaching credential/Masters in Teaching ESL, then, with a bit of luck and hard work, on to a PH.D. When I saw the opportunity to work ViviendasLeon, it seemed like a perfect fit.

Who I am working with: http://www.viviendasleon.org/
ViviendasLeon is a non-profit organization headquartered in San Francisco, CA and Leon, Nicaragua. They work to alleviate rural poverty in Nicaragua and improve understanding through cultural exchange, service learning and travel. They send students and families to Nicaragua through internship and volunteer programs to help the rural communities achieve permanent and measurable gains in standards of living.
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What I’m doing to help them:
The task given to me is to find potential sources of funding through grants as well as to find other organizations
To Do this I am to:
Research and list the organizations working in Nicaragua in the towns of Leon, Managua, Granada, Matagalpa, Jinotepe, Chinandega and Estelí.
Categorize organizations by their keyword search and if they are Bay Area, U.S. or from another country. Also categorize organizations by type: In-country programs (ViviendasLeon, Heifer Project), Umbrella organization (ACCION), Re-granting organization (Global Fund for Women), and Fiscal sponsor (Tides).
Review their website for their sources of funding: Individual, Foundation, Corporate, or Government. If they do not provide this information, either write or call for their annual report.
From their funding information, create a list of foundations, corporations, and government agencies that are funding these organizations.
For Foundations, go to their website or request their annual report. Identify their giving strategy. Identify program officers to contact.
For Corporations and Government agencies, repeat this identifying their funding requirements and funding strategy.
During my research, I managed to find the directory of all developmental organizations with operations within Nicaragua. I began to catalog all of the information onto a spread sheet; however, after going over it with Evan Markiewicz of ViviendasLeon, we have decided that it would be better to take the information gathered and to make a list of companies. For each company I am to list 1) Who they are, 2) What they do, and 3) Where do they get their funding.

Final Thoughts

While participating in the PSIP program with ViviendasLeon, I have learned so many things that I was not aware of before hand. I learned the difference in the goals that a NGO has as opposed to those of a public company, as well as how vital information is, and how it is necessary to have people working infield as well as behind the scenes to make a company success full.

It has become apparent to me that most public companies can not accomplish the same things as a NGO can simply because their overall goals seem to differ to greatly. In many cases, a public corporation has a series of stakeholders that it aims to please. Most of these stakeholders seem to have a main focus on maximizing profits and ROR. With this as a main goal it hinders the effectiveness of the amount of overall help it can contribute to a given community because it puts profits above all else gives the company a competitive nature to it. In the case of the NGO, however, the main focus is the enhancement of living standards with in a given community. With the conditions of the community that the NGO is helping being the focal point of all of their goals, they are able to link up with other sources with similar goals to further maximize the amount of help the community can receive.

In the case of ViviendasLeon, the main focus of their organization is to enhance the living standards of those in the community of Leon. I was given the task of finding out what other organizations are operating in Nicaragua in order to a) find out other sources of fund and b) find out what other companies share their same goals and can contribute to the amount of help that can be given to the community of Leon. During my research, I was fortunate enough to stumble upon the a directory that contained a list of all developmental organizations in Nicaragua ( a 36pg. PDF ). Though there is such an abundant amount of organizations in Nicaragua that can provide some sort of help to ViviendasLeon in accomplishing their goals, I also realize how vital it was to find the information, because without conducting the research it would be near impossible to know who these other organizations are or even that they exist. So, while it is important to have people working infield, showing physical results which helps to raise the morale within the community, it is also important to have people behind the scenes doing the research to find all sources of help, collaboration, and funding, so that all sources that are available can be used.

I found working with ViviendasLeon to be a great learning experience. I world recommend working with them for any student that is curios about the non for profit and NGO sector and what they provide and contribute to society.