The Accountability Lab is changing the paradigm for engagement in the developing world. It is: citizen focused- supporting people that know the solutions to their own challenges; a learning organization- embracing failure as a learning process; radically transparent- with all expenses made public in real time; cost-effective, through ensuring that every dollar is spent as wisely as possible; and completely independent- through not seeking or taking any money from governments or corporations.

Daily Talk: A citizen journalist’s low-tech initiative to make information on civic rights and responsibilities accessible to thousands of Liberians every day.

As a non-profit, we raise charitable donations that allow us to make patient long-term debt or equity investments in early-stage companies providing reliable and affordable access to agricultural inputs, quality education, clean energy, healthcare services, formal housing, and safe drinking water to low-income customers.

When a family is asset-poor and on the financial margins, often a single hurdle can be the thing that leads to falling short of their goals. A Brookings Institute study of financial fragility in the U.S. found that “Almost half of all U.S. households surveyed report that they either certainly or probably could not come up with the funds to deal with an ordinary financial shock of this size [$2,000].” At Benevolent, we’ve found that small hurdles - even those costing just $300 to $700 to overcome - can represent huge barriers in the lives of low-income families pursuing a path toward financial stability and strength.

Funds to meet these hurdles - uniforms or bus fare for a new job, furniture for a first apartment, a laptop to succeed in school, funds for certifications and training, and other basic one-time challenges - can be the lynchpin of progress. Benevolent invites everyday givers into these challenges by presenting first-person stories of striving low-income adults who face a singular need along the way towards their self-determined goals.

By introducing the first-ever micro-giving platform with 100% validation and transparency, Benevolent provides an outlet for the kindness people are eager to show one another.

Partnering with local nonprofit partners for validation, fulfillment and reporting, Benevolent helps low-income families meet their own goals and move forward towards stability and overall well-being.

Blue Ventures develops and scales innovative models for marine conservation within some of the poorest tropical coastal communities.

We work in tropical, frequently very remote, places where marine resources are vital to local people and economies and where there is a fundamental need to support human development. The results of our work help us to innovate new ways to protect marine biodiversity that benefit coastal people everywhere.

Purchase of freehold properties and payment of business overheads

A 7.8 magnitude earthquake, the strongest after 80 years, has just shaken up Nepal. So many people lost their homes, total villages are destroyed; shelter, water, electricity, and medical supplies are pressing issues at the moment.

Here is how you can help: you can make a donation towards the Germany based charity handswithhands that operates since 15 years on sustainable projects in Nepal. It has a huge network of people and projects throughout the country who luckily all survived and are already active in immediate relief.

Handswithhands is professionally run by volunteers. The co-founder of handswithhands, Kira Kay, happened to be just outside Kathmandu, when the earthquake hit, and has mobilized her team, so funds are carefully spent.

The first project for immediate shelters has started through the local company abari.com, more long-term shelters are sourced for. Other members of handswithhands are about to visit villages that are hardly left, to offer immediate help, for that further supplies are needed. And more projects to come.

We launched our Livelihood Programme in August 2011; to date our poultry project has helped to train over 6,000 families in backyard poultry farming and sell them subsidised poultry toolkits

Poultry Development Services Project (giving families the skills to enter backyard poultry farming and radically improve their earning power):

• Training given in backyard poultry farming  for 6 months, chickens can be sold at market from 12 weeks and hens start laying eggs at 6 months
• Toolkits (10 one day old chicks, vaccinations, feed, medication and most importantly, training for 6 months)  are sold to home-farmers at a subsidised rate; they pay £5 but it costs us £12 - they cannot afford the cost of a full toolkit

Agri-management Services Project (getting big results from small plots of land: enhancing the poor’s agricultural yields through training and modern techniques):

• Launched in April 2014 in the same rural locations as the PDS – to help farmers in a deeper, more integrated way
• Providing technical assistance services across agriculture and agri-allied sectors to enhance productivity as well as provide risk mitigation mechanisms and more remunerative market linkages
• Home-farmers pay 100Rs (£1) for the services

Grants to Shivia will be used to support both our Livelihood Programme projects in rural West Bengal.

TBLI Foundation (Stichting TBLI) is a foundation under Dutch law, supporting educational projects and conferences with the aim of raising awareness of sustainable finance and sustainable businesses within the financial community, among investors and the general public.

View the PDF Slide Deck

Grants to the Tusk Trust will be used to support wildlife conservation, communities, and environmental education in Africa.