fAQS and Financial data

When did you receive your nonprofit designation?

We received our IRS 501(c)3 determination letter in 2014 granting us nonprofit status .

How can we visit a project?

We love when people see the work. Trips are fully customizable and planned around your schedule and objectives.

 

Learn about extreme poverty and best practices all while getting a unique cultural experience. We also try to incorporate side excursions to see local natural and historical sites.

 

Our most interesting projects to visit:

 

  • An award-winning orphanage in Nairobi, Kenya (with a side excursion to take a safari on a large nature preserve).
  • A vocational school in Lagos, Liberia that trains impoverished people to become self-sufficient (with an excursion to see traditional villages).
  • Leadership development initiatives in Nigeria and Uganda that are transforming community leaders across the country (with side excursions to see a nature preserve). 

 

For more information on taking a trip to visit the work we are funding, please fill out our contact form.

How have you traditionally received funding?

99% of our funding comes from donations of hard-to-sell assets such as real estate and airplanes.

How much does receiving hard-to-sell assets differ from receiving cash donations?

Let’s consider two charities. Charity A receives only cash contributions. They deposit this money into their bank and begin helping people.

 

Charity B has an asset donation model similar to End Poverty Now. They receive an asset donation, in this case, a house that is valued at $25,000. 

Before recognizing the revenue in their books, the charity must pay for an appraisal, cover legal fees, closing costs, and taxes, and often pay contractors to secure access and make repairs.

At the end of the day, Charity B is typically left with about 60% of that $25,000 asset donation.

Besides these external contractor costs, we have our internal staff that manages the property analysis, prepares listing forms, negotiates offers, and pushes through often complex closings. We also have a robust accounting department for every the extra receipts created by handling such donations. We also have the other normal costs such as IT, phones, website development, and computers similar to Charity A. We estimate about 100 hours goes into each donation. On a cash donation, none of these costs would exist. It is a very different model than just asking people for cash donations.

Another interesting element from this hard-to-sell assets model is that most of our donations come in during December. So it might appear we brought in a lot of revenue one year, but it usually the start of a very long road of managing, negotiating, sometimes legal battles to turn this “revenue” into money we can use to further our mission.

What do your staff get paid?

Our top paid individual had a salary of $72,000 in 2021. Our significant others often say, you are definitely not in it for the personal income.

Why should we give to you versus say Red Cross?

Often large nonprofits are not set up to handle donations of real estate. Additionally, we are able to deploy our capital at a higher rate of benefit. While the Red Cross spends 2.7B per year, our nonprofit stretches every dollar for absolute maximum impact. Our favorite example is that for about $4,000 we were able to pay for a life-saving surgery for Clara, the leader of an orphanage in Kenya. The benefit to the children of having a stable upbringing and the benefit to the society to have 60 good citizens instead of 60 radically traumatized youth is an astounding return. Or the $10,000 we spent on data and speaker fees for 17 zoom training sessions for up to 75 NGO leaders in Africa to increase their leadership potential and that of the thousands they serve.

What percent goes to projects?

Since our salaries and office expenses are covered by other donors, if requested, your donation will go 100% to projects (after direct handling costs such as real estate taxes and closing costs).

Can you let me look at an Income/Expense report?

Here is a copy of a high-level look at our expenses and income. If you scroll down you will see that information in more detail.

What countries do you operate in?

Here is our map of projects.

Who do you partner with and how do you know they are legitimate?

The American nonprofits we support have a very accessible track-record. Our African work generally flows through highly-recommended heads of local institutions or service programs such as an orphanage. Often the primary humanitarian institution in the areas where we work are outgrowths of local faith-groups. Their leaders are accepted and valued by their community and are plugged into the other institutions whether schools or government.

Why do you focus on resourcing leaders?

Often nonprofit founders build an organization based on a new idea. They fail to realize at the outset that in this huge world there are often hundreds of other people who have already built a complete organization doing this exact “new” idea. We believe in skipping reinventing the wheel and finding the people who already built an organization and helping them to accomplish more. This is even more efficient than merging nonprofits to reduce overhead. We focus on leaders as they control the culture of the organization. We believe a healthier perspective reduces and thereby doubles productivity organization-wide.