Who We Are
The Kesho Fund is an American NGO that uses a simple website and a streamlined management structure to bring grassroots development projects in Tanzania to a global stage. Our goal is to connect the right donors to the right community leaders for long-lasting relationships and sustainable impact.
We do most of our work through carefully-targeted small grants to education projects, and we emphasize the power of individual donors by collecting most of our support in the form of recurring monthly subscriptions. Donors have the option of choosing which specific programs to support, as well as their own degree of ongoing contact with the projects’ leaders and beneficiaries. See here for some examples of the projects we're working on now.
We do most of our work through carefully-targeted small grants to education projects, and we emphasize the power of individual donors by collecting most of our support in the form of recurring monthly subscriptions. Donors have the option of choosing which specific programs to support, as well as their own degree of ongoing contact with the projects’ leaders and beneficiaries. See here for some examples of the projects we're working on now.
Easy Donate Button: |
|
The Ibungilo Secondary School Girls' Empowerment Club meets weekly for support and information about challenges and opportunities for girls, female health issues, and prevention of early/unintended pregnancy.
Our Mission
The mission of the Kesho Fund is to facilitate community-led development projects within Tanzania, particularly in education. [click here]
The mission of the Kesho Fund is to facilitate community-led development projects within Tanzania, particularly in education. We do this by finding and vetting projects with strong community support and connecting them to the resources they need to build long-term and sustained capacity.
We focus on making small, recurring grants to local experts throughout Tanzania who are already pursuing grassroots passion projects of their own. This means that we usually work to support and amplify the impact of projects that originated locally and are already seeing some level of success rather than starting new projects of our own. In the end, it is Tanzanian teachers who know what Tanzanian students need and how to give it to them; what we can do as a foreign NGO is to connect these teachers to resources such as funding, materials, and professional networking + mentorship that they would otherwise be operating without.
As we grow, we intend to support projects related to infrastructure, supplies, and training in institutions of primary, secondary, and higher-education as well as in several specific educational content areas: Social Issues Education to support students in developing their independence and awareness as individuals; Environmental Education to prepare them for leadership in natural conservation; English Language Education to connect students to academia, the internet, and the global job market; and Technological Education to equip them with the skills and knowledge they will need to thrive in a changing world.
We focus on making small, recurring grants to local experts throughout Tanzania who are already pursuing grassroots passion projects of their own. This means that we usually work to support and amplify the impact of projects that originated locally and are already seeing some level of success rather than starting new projects of our own. In the end, it is Tanzanian teachers who know what Tanzanian students need and how to give it to them; what we can do as a foreign NGO is to connect these teachers to resources such as funding, materials, and professional networking + mentorship that they would otherwise be operating without.
As we grow, we intend to support projects related to infrastructure, supplies, and training in institutions of primary, secondary, and higher-education as well as in several specific educational content areas: Social Issues Education to support students in developing their independence and awareness as individuals; Environmental Education to prepare them for leadership in natural conservation; English Language Education to connect students to academia, the internet, and the global job market; and Technological Education to equip them with the skills and knowledge they will need to thrive in a changing world.
Our Process
We begin by identifying experienced and passionate change-makers in Tanzania, and then we support them however we can... [click here]
|
Our process begins with the identification of talented and motivated Project Leaders in the areas where we work. These are typically people who already run initiatives to better their community but could be more effective with some level of support. One example is a dedicated teacher who runs an after-school girls empowerment program to improve the gender parity in her city--another example is a caring school administrator who wants to make sure students from disadvantaged backgrounds have scholarship opportunities so that they can go to school and improve their circumstances.
|
|
Next, we put descriptions of these Projects on our website and search for donors to support them. Although our current work all connects to education, we try to support projects that address different specific needs and require different amounts of support so that donors can find initiatives they connect with personally and want to help succeed. See here for some discussion of how we work with our project leaders to choose and shape our projects.
|
|
Individual Donors can select and support the Kesho Fund projects they care about most on one-time or a monthly subscription basis. Since not all projects can be operated reasonably with an arbitrary amount of funds, many of them will wait until the project fund reaches its Impact Threshold, at which point the funds are disbursed to the Project Leaders. We find that focusing on small monthly subscriptions (rather than one-time lump sums) helps us to prioritize long-term projects that grow and adapt over time in response to changing community needs.
|
|
As the projects come along, the Project Leaders also work closely with the Kesho Fund Board to send regular photos, success stories, video interviews, and other indicators of the Kesho Fund’s ongoing impact to our website, our social media, and our donors. Donors are also encouraged to contact us at [email protected] if they want to contact our project leaders directly or find other ways to help out.
|
Our Projects
The Kesho Fund clusters our development projects into Programs and encourages donors to support these programs on a monthly basis. Our current programs include:
- Gender Equity
- School Infrastructure
- School Supplies
- Core Support
|
|
Here are our most recent updates on Instagram. Click a photo to visit our full feed! @keshofund
|
|
Subscribe to Our Mailing List
CONTACT US: [email protected]