September 1, 2005 | Read Time: 2 minutes
A Washington organization that uses the Internet to match American donors with grass-roots social and economic-development projects in the developing world has received two large grants to expand its operations.
GlobalGiving has received $1.5-million from the Omidyar Network, the philanthropy in Redwood City, Calif., that was created by the founder of eBay, Pierre Omidyar, and $800,000 from the Hewlett Foundation, in Menlo Park, Calif.
Visitors to the GlobalGiving Web site can read about and donate to more than 300 projects, such as a program in the Philippines led by indigenous peoples that promotes environmentally friendly agriculture. Other efforts include an alternative school in India for children who live in or around a railway station, and a project to provide netting to families in Tanzania to cover their beds and keep out malaria-spreading mosquitos. Donors can send e-mail messages to project leaders, and recipient organizations provide progress reports on how the money was used.
The organizations included on the site are identified and vetted by GlobalGiving’s network of 31 project sponsors, which range from small groups, like the Dreams Can Be Foundation/Dreams Brasil, a charity in Johnstown, Pa., and Rio de Janeiro that supports groups that work with Brazilian streetchildren, to large multinational organizations, such as the United Nations Development Program and the World Bank.
GlobalGiving is working to open up its network and expand the universe of organizations that can post projects to the site.
“Our goal is to make it possible for any legitimate grass-roots group in the world to list their project,” says Dennis Whittle, co-founder of GlobalGiving. “We want it to be kind of like the Nasdaq, where if you’re a legitimate company that meets certain standards, you can list yourself.”
As a first step, the group plans to start an eBay-style ratings system in which donors rate projects. GlobalGiving hopes the ratings system will help maintain high standards as the selection of projects grows and also help weed out lower-quality projects.
To date, the primary way that GlobalGiving has reached out to donors has been through its inclusion in annual charity campaigns run by companies such as Applied Materials, the Gap, Hewlett-Packard, and Visa.
With the new grants, the organization plans to add features to its Web site that will allow employees to tell friends and family members about the service and set up giving circles with them.
According to Mr. Whittle, one of the biggest challenges GlobalGiving has faced in the three years since it was founded is raising awareness of its Web site and the fact that Americans can make contributions to organizations overseas. But, he says, the need — and the potential — for the service is great.
Says Mr. Whittle: “There are literally hundreds of thousands of people and groups in the developing world who can do amazing work with a very modest amount of money.”
To get there: Go to http://www.globalgiving.com.
