Mercy Corps

Mercy Corps is a universal humanitarian support agency involved in intermediary environments that have occurrence some types of shock: conflict, economic collapse, or natural disaster. People working under it budge as fast as possible from fetching in food and supplies to enabling people to reconstruct their nation with society-driven and market-led programs. To arrange the groundwork for long-term revival, Mercy Corps centers on inter-connecting to both government and business for the transformations they would like to see. "We truly center on access to financial services as the vital element for helping to shift people out of poverty", Nancy Lindborg stated who is also Mercy Corps President. Mercy Corps provides an area for unlimited periods of time to promote local entrepreneurship, recreate social capital, and motivate markets on the basis of "cash for work" programs and a range of lending models. Mercy Corps, in the past 14 years, has established 12 different finance organizations. Ever since 1979, Mercy Corps has distributed more than US$1.95 billion in support to people in more than107 nations. Sustained by headquarter offices in North America and Europe, the organization's cohesive worldwide programs provide work for 3,700 staff globally and get in touch with nearly 16.7 million people in over 40 countries. 

History

The organization was established as Save the Refugees Fund in 1979, a task force structured by Dan O'Neill in reaction to the troubles of Cambodian refugees escaping the food shortage, war and genocide of the Killing Fields. By 1982, the organization had extended its work to other nations, was united by Ellsworth Culver (Mercy Corps co-founder) and was renamed Mercy Corps International to echo its wider mission. Following a move from merely distributing relief aid to centralize its mission on long-term resolutions to hunger and poverty, Mercy Corps' foremost development project started in Honduras in 1982. Commencing 2009, Mercy Corps' international headquarters are located in the Old Town locality of Portland, Oregon, at 45 SW Ankeny St. 97204 at present. Opened October 9, 2009, the building addresses the agency's headquarters offices, The Mercy Corps Action Center (a cohort center to The Action Center to End World Hunger opened, October 2009 in Manhattan), Mercy Corps Northwest and The Lemelson Foundation. Also, Mercy Corps has a European Headquarters at 40 Sciences, Edinburgh, Scotland EH9 1NJ. In 1996, Mercy Corps combined with Scottish European Aid and shaped an organization registered as Mercy Corps Scotland in 2000.

Activities

The U.S. economic development office of Mercy Corps aids low-income individuals in Oregon and Washington who have trouble receiving finances because of credit history, lack of guarantee, or unfortunate state of affairs. The loan program offers funding to entrepreneurs with concrete business proposals and helps them to expertise business plans and launch a coordinated savings account. Mercy Corps Northwest works as a petite business incubator and guides new business owners through the start-up stage. MCNW also provides  loan to existing businesses that generate jobs for low-income people. Associating with banks and launching banking institutions, Mercy Corps aids microfinance all around the world.

Finances

The agency's competence has facilitated Mercy Corps to accomplish Charity Navigator's "Four-Star" charity rating (out of four possible stars). At the end of Fiscal year June 30, 2006, Mercy Corps' revenue was US$205 million among which US$81 million (40%) was grants from government, US$63 million (31%) was from in-kind donations ("material aid") in the structure of food, medical, linens, and other supplies and services. Mercy Corps' operating costs were US$191 million, which was spent mainly on the program but comprises salaries and other reimbursement for 3,200 paid staff. Mercy Corps' total assets were greater than US$98 million in 2006.

Compassion International

Compassion International is a Christian child funding organization committed to the long-term progress of children living in poverty all around the planet. Compassion International with its headquarter in Colorado Springs, Colorado, operates in 26 countries including India,  Bolivia, Colombia, Haiti, Mexico and Kenya. The organization distributes aid to over 1,700,000 children. Commencing 2014, Santiago Mellado is the President and CEO while Karen Kemps Wesolowski is the chairman of the board.

History 

In 1952, The Reverend Everett Swanson established The Everett Swanson Evangelistic Association to help children orphaned by war in South Korea. He journeyed there to lecture the gospel to the troops of the army but during his stay he saw children orphaned by the war. In 1953, he started to raise funds and the next year he built up sponsorship programs to aid orphans for a few dollars a month. The name of the organization changed to Compassion in 1963, motivated by Jesus' words.

Programs

Compassion facilitates those in impecunious areas using a holistic three-stage approach. This approach goes well further than simply distributing food and medical support and also engages education and training to set up the individuals for contributing back to their society.

Child Survival Program

The initial phase of Compassion's model is Child Survival plan. This program offers health care, nutrition, prenatal care, infant survival training, education and spiritual guidance, and sustain from the local church for mothers of at-risk babies.

Child Sponsorship Program

The second phase is financing of children. Children in the program are given food and clean water, education, medical care,  life-skills training and spiritual guidance from a direct funding. Financed children are chosen by the sponsors and two-way communication is persuaded between the financed child and the sponsor. As per March 2014 the cost to fund a child through Compassion is $38 for each month. There are presently more than 1 million children globally in this program. Financers are proficient to visit their funded children through trips designed by Compassion International. Compassion's objective is to offer a trip to each country every other year. Compassion organizes every facet of the trip including travel, meals, tips and gratuities, fees related to the travel, and sightseeing fares.

Leadership Development Program

The Leadership Development program is the final phase of Compassion's approach. This program is accessible to graduates of the Child Sponsorship program and offers leadership associated training from diverse sources. This program makes sure that poverty is not a barrier for tomorrow's leaders to achieve their full potential. This program is presently being combined with the Child Sponsorship Program to arrange a wider range of children for life once they graduate.

Ratings

At present, Compassion International holds a rating of 4stars out of four from Charity Navigator, a mark of "A" from the American Institute of Philanthropy and met the "20 Standards for Charity Accountability" from the Better Business Bureau's Wise Giving Alliance. An experimental study published in the Journal of Political Economy demonstrated that the financing of children through Compassion International affected in considerably higher rates of children finishing school and significantly enhanced adult employment results. The study, carried out by Professor Bruce Wydick of University of San Francisco and relating over 10,000 individuals in six countries, illustrated that the Compassion child backing program improved the likelihood of primary school completion by 4.0–7.7%, secondary school completion by 11.6–16.5%, and university completion by 2.1–2.4%. It also amplified the prospect of salaried employment in later life by 5.1–6.3% and the chance of white-collar employment by 6.5–6.7%.

Ford Foundation

The Ford Foundation is a New York based international private foundation with the aim of advancing human wellbeing. Founded in 1936 by Edsel Ford and Henry Ford, it was initially funded by a US$25,000 contribution from Edsel Ford. By 1947, after the demise of the two founders, the foundation possessed 90 % of the non-voting shares of the Ford Motor Company. (The Ford family maintained the voting shares.) Between 1955 and 1974, the foundation vended its Ford Motor Company holdings and has no value in the automobile company. The foundation was the biggest for years and one of the most prominent foundations in the world, with worldwide reach and particular interests in democracy, economic empowerment, education, human rights, the creative arts and Third World development.The foundation funds through its headquarters and ten global field offices. For FY 2014, it detailed assets of US$12.4 billion and permitted US$507.9 million in grants. The contribution support projects that center on reducing poverty and inequality; promoting democratic standards; and advancing human acquaintance, creativity and achievement.

Current issues, initiatives and goals

The foundation works on eight significant human welfare issues:

Democratic and accountable government: The foundation works to raise involvement of minority communities at all levels of civic and political life, to amplify the effectiveness of civic organizations by intensification of their infrastructure and dictatorial environments, to eradicate barriers to democratic involvement so that minority populations in the United States are represented fully, to progress the transparency, accountability and completeness of government institutions and processes and to make international financial governance systems more apparent, accountable and effective.

Educational opportunity and scholarship: The foundation works to rediscover public schools through more and improved learning time in localities of intense poverty, so that students are equipped equitably for college, career and civic involvement, to promote policy and institutional modifications that develop disadvantaged people's access to and achievement in high-quality higher education.

Human rights: The foundation works to protect equal rights and better opportunity for racial and ethnic minorities and indigenous peoples, to aid national, state and local organizations sheltered and guard migrant rights and combine them into a broader societal justice agenda, to make certain access for minority groups to a vigorous criminal justice community dedicated to fairness and equal security under the law, to brace fresh voices to make the human rights movement more approachable to the requirement of the poor and minorities with a particular emphasis on the Global South, to assist people required basic economic and social rights, and access remedies when those rights are dishonored, to develop the lives and livelihoods of low-income women by purposefully addressing inequality and discrimination, to defend and progress the rights of people affected by HIV/AIDS.

Sexuality and reproductive health and rights: The foundation works to guarantee evidence-based sexuality and reproductive health and rights research, informs public policy and understanding, to develop national reproductive and sexual health policies and laws supported by provincial and international values, to precede policies and programs that guarantee the improved sexual and reproductive health of minorities young women.

Sustainable development: The foundation works to progress the livelihood of rural poor by increasing access to and decision making on, natural resources, to encourage climate change policies that meet the requirements of rural poor communities globally.

The Nature Conservancy

The Nature Conservancy is an American charitable environmental association with it's headquarter in Arlington, Virginia. Its objective is to "conserve the lands and waters on which all life depends." The Indiana Dunes of Northwest Indiana played a central role in the development of The Nature Conservancy.  The first president, Cyrus Mark of the Illinois Nature Conservancy fundraised for the first purchases of the Illinois Nature Conservancy, Volo Bog in northern Illinois.  Established in Arlington, Virginia, in 1951, The Nature Conservancy at present works in over 35 countries, comprising all 50 states of the United States. The Conservancy has more than one million members, and has secluded more than 119,000,000 acres (48,000,000 ha) of land and 5,000 miles (8,000 km) of rivers globally. The Nature Conservancy also functions over 100 marine conservation ventures worldwide. As of 2014, the organization's possessions total $6.18 billion. The Nature Conservancy is the biggest environmental nonprofit by property and by income in the Americas.

The Nature Conservancy ranked as one of the most believed national groups in Harris Interactive polls each year since 2005. Forbes magazine graded The Nature Conservancy's fundraising competency at 88 % in 2005 survey of the biggest U.S. charities. The Conservancy was honored by a two-star rating from Charity Navigator, in 2012 and three-star in 2010. It also was named "10 of the Best Charities Everyone's Heard Of" by that organization in 2005 on their list. The American Institute of Philanthropy gave the Conservancy an A− rating and keeps it on its list of "Top-Rated Charities". The Nature Conservancy is headed by President and CEO Mark Tercek, an ex-managing director at Goldman Sachs and an extra professor at the New York University Stern School of Business. The organization represents from all sections of the community.

Approach

The Nature Conservancy adopts a scientific approach to conservation, selecting the regions it wants to preserve on the basis of analysis on what is required to guarantee the protection of the local plants, animals, and ecosystems. The Nature Conservancy is one of the world's leading environmental organizations as considered by number of members and area preserved. It is a nonprofit organization held up mainly by private donations. The Nature Conservancy functions with all segments of society comprising individuals, communities, businesses, partner organizations and government agencies to achieve its objectives. The Nature Conservancy is well- known for working successfully and coordinately with traditional land holders such as farmers and ranchers, with whom it allies when such a affiliation provides an prospect to advance mutual objectives. The Nature Conservancy is in the front of clandestine conservation groups executing prearranged fire to reinstate and preserve healthy ecosystems and working to tackle the coercion to biodiversity created by non-native and invasive plants and animals. The Nature Conservancy has initiated new land preservation methods such as the conservation simplicity and debt for nature substitutions. Conservation simplicity is a way for land owners to guarantee that their land remains in its natural condition while resourcing on some of the land's prospective development value. Debt for nature substitutions are tools used to persuade natural area conservation in third world countries while supporting the country economically as well: in swapping for setting aside land, some of the country's foreign debt is exonerated.

Featured project sites

The Nature Conservancy is extending worldwide conservation efforts including work in Asia, Central America, South America and North America, Africa, the Caribbean and the Pacific Rim. Progressively, the Conservancy centers on projects at considerable scale, recognizing the risk of habitat destruction brings to plants and animals. The Nature Conservancy was active in the formation of the Great Sand Dunes National Park in Colorado in 2004. The Conservancy's hard work in China's Yunnan state, one of the most crucial centers of plant diversity in the northern temperate hemisphere, provide as a model for nearby based ecotourism with a universal impact. The Nature Conservancy and its conservation associate, Pronatura Peninsula Yucatán, are working to stop deforestation on personal lands in and around the 1.8 million acre (7,300 km²) of Calakmul Biosphere Reserve, beside the Guatemala–Mexico border. In November 2004, 370,000 acres (1,500 km²) of endangered tropical forest in Calakmul were eternally protected under a historic land agreement between the Mexican national and state government, Pronatura Peninsula Yucatán, four local communities and the Conservancy.

International Rescue Committee

The International Rescue Committee (IRC) is a international nongovernmental organization providing humanitarian aid, relief and development. Established in 1933 at the appeal of Sir. Albert Einstein, the IRC provides emergency aid and long-term support to refugees and those moved by war, persecution or natural disaster. The IRC is presently working in more than 40 countries and 22 U.S. cities where it inhabits refugees and assists them to become self-sufficient. Right now, the President of the International Rescue Committee is ex- U.K. Member of Parliament, David Miliband.

The IRC has aided millions of people all-around the world since its establishment in 1933, in first responders, humanitarian relief workers, international development specialists, health care providers, and educators.

Founding

International Rescue can mark out its beginning to the International Relief Association (IRA), originated in 1931 in Germany by two left-wing sections, the Communist Party Opposition (KPO) and the Socialist Workers Party (SAP). Its function was to aid victims of affirm cruelty and harassment. After the Nazis took control in 1933, the organisation shifted its headquarters to Paris. The KPO included of the 'precise opposition' - communists who had been removed by Stalin in 1929 due to their shore up for Nikolai Bukharin. Among those removed was Jay Lovestone, the previous head of the American Communist Party. It was Lovestone who founded an American segment of the International Relief Association in 1933. Among those who united with him was Albert Einstein. Its principle was to help Germans anguishing under Adolf Hitler's government - mainly followers of the 'right opposition'. Afterward, refugees from Mussolini's Italy and Franco's Spain were supported.

In 1940, European exiles and American liberals nearer with Eleanor Roosevelt, established the Emergency Rescue Committee (ERC) to help European refugees locked in Vichy France. Its envoy in Marseilles Varian Fry was involved in helping many individuals flee Vichy and the Nazis to shelter in the U.S. and somewhere else. Over 2,000 political, cultural, union and academic leaders were freed in thirteen months. Fry also worked directly with British intelligence, helping to ascertain escape courses for British servicemen. In 1942, following the US entered the Second World War, IRA and ERC united forces under the name International Relief and Rescue Committee, which was later on abbreviated to the International Rescue Committee. - funded mainly by the National War Fund. As per the historian Eric Thomas Chester, by the 1950s the IRC had grown into a worldwide operation executing as an essential link in the CIA's secret network, became deeply implicated in the unpredictable conflicts between the two superpowers, and contributed in an arrangement of sensitive covert operations.

Operations

The IRC conveys a number of services, comprising emergency response, health care, programs fighting gender-based brutality, after-conflict development missions, children and youth protection and education programs, water and sanitation systems, amplification the capacity of neighboring organizations, and supporting civil society and good-governance projects. For refugee's related sanctuary in the United States, IRC resettlement offices all over the country offer a range of help aimed at helping new entrances settling, adjusting and acquiring the expertise to become self-sufficient.

The IRC also involves in backing efforts in support of the exploited and displaced, and its yearly Freedom Award identifies “extraordinary assistance to the grounds of refugees and human freedom." The IRC has organized a campaign opines the United States to outdo the International Violence Against Women Act, which is at the present prior to Congress. The organization has also campaigned for the United States to approve the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child where 196 countries have signed this UN convention but only  the US is the only UN country which so far has not.

Current work

The IRC at present works in over 40 countries and in 22 U.S. cities. In 2010, prominent operations comprised disaster response in the rouse of the earthquake in Haiti, continuing programs to deal with the humanitarian crisis in Congo and to help society rebuilding efforts in Afghanistan and Pakistan, and support and relocation efforts on behalf of Iraqis evacuated by the war in Haiti, Congo, Iraq.