2 Worth

The Pennywise Foundation Newsletter

Volume 1

Summer 2016

Your Pennies At Work:

Malaria Prevention &
Microlending:
small businesses making
mosquito nets from waste
plastic.

Gender Equality:
Pennywise and Mountain
Mamas present I Am

During our exciting launch last year the

Doane Net Project trained Power of
Love Staff and members of the Matero,Zambia community to make useful and
life saving products out of waste plastic.
This year the partners agreed that the
critical next step was to build Power of
Loves Zambia based staff s capacity both

At Pennywise we are all about making

the connections that will make change
happen! Last Fall Pennywise worked with
a Vermont community organization, the
Mountain Mamas, to promote I am a

business and to become increasingly pro-

raised at the event. whose mission was

well aligned with their goal of supporting
girls and women around the world. Make
Every Woman Count (MEWC) was a

Towards these ends, Esther Shumba,

her trip included training in micro-loans
management under the guidance of
POL Executive Director, Dr. Alka
Subramanian. Ms. Shumba visited large
programs to learn about operations and
administration. She also visited businesses
The second half of her US visit was
spent at Doane College in Nebraska
where Ms. Shumba had the opportunity
to work directly with Dr. Brad Elder,
who created the Doane Net Project. Ms.
Shumba honed the Nets Project skills that
she and other POL staff members had
learned during Phase 1 of our project and
prepared to train others in the technology. Additionally, Ms. Shumba was a
guest speaker in several classes at Doane
College where she led discussions of the
impact of micro loans programs in resource poor communities like Matero. Ms.
Shumba and Dr. Elder agree that students
at Doane were surprised at what could be

Continued on Page 2

Every Woman Count.

respect for women. PW worked directly

with Mountain Mamas to identify an or-

Continued on Page 4

New Grantee:
Vermonters for Criminal
Justice Reform working
to change the system.
Introducing our newest grantee:
Vermonters for Criminal Justice Reform
(VCJR) is an education and advocacy
organization whose mission is to work
for a more restorative and effective
criminal justice response. Their vision is
a coordinated criminal justice system that
values the humanity in all people, aims to
restore relationships and communities,
and uses incarceration as a last resort for
public safety.

Pound Foolish:
To be penny wise and
pound-foolish means to be
extremely careful about how
you spend small amounts
of money and not careful
enough about how larger amounts of money are
spent. In 2014, in the United States alone, an estimated
$350 billion was donated to
charities in contributions
ranging from one dollar to
many millions. Thats a lot
of money. How is it spent?
The charities we respect
dedicate almost all of their
funds to the direct services
they provide. The charities
we dont respect mislead donors into believing they are
supporting a cause when in
fact the organization itself is
An article in the Tampa
Bay Times (June 6, 2013)
pointed out some frightening examples of what we
view as egregiously pound
foolish:

One of the ways they work towards

these goals is to provide platforms from

The 50 worst charities in

America devote less than 4
percent of donations raised
to direct cash aid. Some

Continued on Page 3

Continued on Page 4

Mosquito Nets
(from page 1)
accomplished by a $100-$150 loan to a family!
Now, back in Zambia, Power of Love -under Ms. Shumbas leadership and with ongoing support from all of
the project partners- will begin to implement Phase
3 of the Zambia NetWorks Project. POL will plan
and conduct new and follow up workshops with
community members on how to transform
used plastic bags into life saving and income
generating items. POL will also connect
interested and eligible Zambia NetWorks
project participants with their Micro-Finance for Women program so that they
can build sustainable businesses with their
new found skills.
dation techinical assistance programming.
We helped translate an innovative idea to
acheive real world change through your
generous small donations donations.

Access to Clean Water:

Breaking Ground in Boca
de Poteca, Nicaragua.
Pennywise was delighted to be able to
support one of Agua Para la Vidas newest
clean water and sanitation projects in
northern Nicaragua. Construction is underway has on a gravity-driven water system
which will conduct water from a natural
that have never before had water in their
homes. Better sanitation for the community will also be attained through the
construction of 26 ventilated double-pit latrines.
This project, like all APLV projects,
engages key partners in the kind of
collaborative problem solving that
Pennywise is excited to support. Before
breaking ground APLV reaches agreements with and secures commitments from
the local government in the area in which
the project will be based, in this case the
and sanitation system and has pledged to

Every Woman Counts

(from page 1)

Criminal Justice Reform

(from page 1)

advocating for the empowerment of African women and girls.

The participation & inclusion of African women & girls is vital to the continents
growth and development. African governments can simply no longer afford to deny the
full potential of one half of the population. Women & girls need to be empowered and
the full power of their development skills unleashed to participate in the development
economic, political and social of the continent -Rainatou Sow Founder & Executive
Director of MEWC.

which current and formerly incarcerated

women and men and members of their
about the brokenness of the criminal
justice system and suggest priorities about

pacted by the criminal legal system together

to talk about these issues and to support
one another. They also hosted a day at the
Vermont State House for these families
that included training and support in how
to talk to legislators about their concerns.
VCJR recognizes that many people with
a loved one in prison feel isolated and
stigmatized, and sometimes simply need
the support of others in the same boat.
To help change that, VCJR began a
family-and-friends Facebook group that
is growing rapidly and is being promoted
in correctional facilities across Vermont.
They also follow up with those who
independently reach out to them, and with
referrals from high school guidance counselors. These efforts at linking up with and
supporting families allows VCJR to offer a
platform from which families and formerly
incarcerated men and women can tell their
stories and access policy makers and the
press.

project and to help ensure the projects

long-term sustainability. Similarly, APLV
formalizes community support for any
project it undertakes. APLV has been organizing and will offer ongoing support and
training to community members forming
water and sanitation committees (CAPS)
who will ultimately be managing, technically
maintaining and administering the system.
In Botega de Poteca, the CAPS will guarantee the legality of utilizing the spring, work
sites and easement and will organize residents to work with APLV to provide the
labor to build it. The CAPS will also participate in training sessions on administration,
operation and maintenance of the system.
APLV, in its turn, will assign the personnel
needed for execution and follow-up of
the water and sanitation system; provide
ongoing training; offer talks on health nad
environent education in the community and
in the school; and make available adminis-

aspects of the project.

This collaborative approach results in
bottom-line savings and ensures long
term commitments by multiple stakeholders to sustaining the project. We are
excited to be a part of it. Pennywise staff
has been invited to participate in the
inauguration celebration when the water
system is completed in September. We
cant wait to be there and actually witness

Together VCJR and the individuals it serves

were able help put pressure on the Department of Corrections that has resulted in
tangible positive change. There has been
a nearly 50% reduction in the number
of Vermont men housed out of state in
private prisons. There has also been a 40%
reduction in the number of men and women eligible for release but held solely for
lack of approved housing.

Pound Foolish
(from page 1)

charities give even less. Over a decade, one

diabetes charity raised nearly $14 million and
gave about $10,000 to patients. Six spent
nothing at all on direct cash aid.
operators at many of the 50 worst charities
have lied to donors about where their money goes, taken multiple salaries, secretly paid
themselves consulting fees or arranged fundraising contracts with friends. One cancer
charity paid a company owned by the presidents son nearly $18 million over eight years
to solicit funds.
for fundraising companies, which bankroll
their startup costs, lock them into exclusive
contracts at exorbitant rates and even drive
the charities into debt.
To disguise the meager amount of money that reaches those in need, charities use

donated dollar-store cast-offs snack cakes

and air fresheners that they give to dying
cancer patients and homeless veterans.
At Pennywise we make sure your money
goes directly to organizations that truly
impact the causes you care about. We review
ratings about potential grantees from charity
monitoring organizations. We make sure the
mitted to transparency. We conduct site visits
and review organizational documents so we
know how an organization is really spending the money it receives. But we want to do
more. Not only do we want you make sure
our donors are penny wise but we also
want to help them avoid being pound foolish. Look for regular updates on our Pound
resources documenting bad practices in the
that helps us and you make sure your small
change goes towards making a better world.

please visit www.pennywisefoundation.org