Medtronic, a global leader in medical technology, launched the Medtronic Healthy Communities Fund in Ireland in June 2015. The company, and the Medtronic Foundation, made a €1 million commitment over three years to fund health-focused charities in Irish communities, in partnership with The Community Foundation for Ireland and the Ireland Funds.
March 18, 2016 marked the third anniversary of NGOsource’s launch. In three short years, we’ve come a long way towards fulfilling our mission: to make equivalency determination (ED) easier for both grantmakers and NGOs.
Here are highlights from the last year, and some notes about what to expect from us in the year ahead.
Highlights
At NGOsource, our mission is to make equivalency determination easier, both for grantmakers and NGOs. One of the ways we do it is by delivering completed EDs as quickly as possible. Grantmakers rely on us to send their ED certificates and summary legal analyses in time to meet their funding deadlines.
Alliance magazine is the leading publication for philanthropy and social investment worldwide. The latest issue features a piece by Kyle Reis and Sheila Warren about NGOsource’s growth and impact in the philanthropic sector over the last three years, and their vision for the future of international grantmaking. Read the article in PDF format here.
Girls Not Brides is a global partnership of more than 550 civil society organizations from over 70 countries committed to ending child marriage and enabling girls to fulfill their potential.
Celebrating NGO stories
Since launching in 2013, NGOsource has received over 1100 equivalency determination (ED) requests for NGOs in 99 countries around the world. NGOsource EDs enable the NGOs to receive grant funding that helps them achieve their missions and serve their communities. An NGO we certified in 2014, the Institute for Development Studies and Practice (IDSP) in Pakistan, recently shared their story with us.
IDSP’s pathway to success
The legal team at NGOsource works hard to certify as many non-U.S. NGOs as possible in order to streamline and increase international giving. Our equivalency determination (ED) process has certified over 700 NGOs in 96 countries to date as equivalent to 501(c)(3) organizations in the United States, allowing them to receive funding from U.S. grantmakers. One of the primary requirements for most international NGOs seeking equivalency is that they satisfy one of two public support tests.
On May 15, 2015, a staff member at a rural development organization in India registered with TechSoup. NGOs around the world register every day to receive support from TechSoup's many technology-based services, but this registration was significant because the staff member was the millionth to sign up.
Since certification by NGOsource, Blue Ventures Conservation’s equivalency determination has been used by three different US grantmakers to give grants supporting the largest Locally Managed Marine Areas in the Indian Ocean. Blue Ventures has developed new models for community-led fisheries management, built sustainable aquaculture businesses, and developed effective approaches for integrating community health services with marine conservation.
As our central ED repository grows, grantmakers have a greater chance of finding that the ED they want to request has already been certified by us. EDs are delivered within one business day for $250. This sharp reduction in cost makes it much easier for U.S.-based donors of all sizes to provide funding to NGOs around the world, in amounts large and small. This shared system allows all our grantmaker members to save thousands of dollars and precious hours of staff time. Get the numbers on the repository’s rapid growth and learn what that means for international philanthropy.