May 16, 2002 | Read Time: 2 minutes
A new company founded by two former World Bank officials is working to create an online marketplace where people with an idea for an international-development project can promote their work and donors can contribute to the projects directly.
Among the 113 projects listed on the Washington company’s Web site, which is called DevelopmentSpace, are programs to provide Internet access to female entrepreneurs in Cameroon, build schools in India, and train indigenous teachers who will provide bilingual instruction in Peru.
When DevelopmentSpace’s co-founders, Dennis Whittle and Mari Kuraishi, left the World Bank in 2000, they were senior partners in the bank’s Innovation and Corporate Strategy Group. While he says he is proud of his time there, Mr. Whittle, DevelopmentSpace’s chief executive officer, says that one of the things that always bothered him during his World Bank tenure was the inability of individuals and small development organizations to gain access to the bank and other sources of development aid.
“If you don’t know someone or you’re not on the inside,” says Mr. Whittle, “it’s very difficult to get your ideas heard.”
DevelopmentSpace, he says, is different in that it opens up the process, both for people who have an idea for a project and for donors who would like to get involved. “Anybody in the world can submit a project. Anybody in the world can fund the project.”
Individuals and organizations that run international development projects can post a short description of their work directly to the site. DevelopmentSpace then verifies the project’s legitimacy through its network of contacts. The company, for example, recently spoke with the Roman Catholic Archbishop of Sierra Leone to authenticate a proposed project.
The next step in the process is for an applicant to develop a detailed business plan. Potential donors are able to communicate with a project leader as soon as a project description is posted, but they can make a contribution only after DevelopmentSpace accepts the applicant’s business plan.
Since DevelopmentSpace went online February 14, donors have contributed $12,000 through the site.
For its services, DevelopmentSpace charges projects 7 percent of the money donors contribute through the site. Mr. Whittle says that while the company hopes to succeed by keeping the fees at 7 percent, he thinks it might have to raise them to 10 percent.
To get there: Go to http://www.developmentspace.com.
