+1 (317) 972-0204 info@thewestfoundation.org

WHO WE ARE

A 62 year-old family foundation working in international community development through effective partnerships with U.S. 501(c)(3) organizations.

WHAT WE FUND

  • Education (Focus: Girls & Women)
  • Livelihoods Development
  • Grassroots Healthcare
  • Environmental Management (Focus: Potable Water Supply)

FEATURED ORGANIZATIONS

Thousand Currents (formerly IDEX) has funded, connected, and walked alongside visionary leaders around the world for 30+ years.

Nurturing Minds is a non-profit organization dedicated to transforming lives and communities by educating Tanzanian girls.

 

RECENT GRANTS

  • Companion Community Development Alternatives

    Companion Community Development Alternatives (CoCoDA) $10,000 in flexible funds to better plan, implement and strategically finance solar power and clean water projects in Salvadoran and Nicaraguan villages. CoCoDa aims to diversify and broaden its fundraising base through a variety of new strategies, including hosting double-bottom-line events such as the Solar Powered Water Project Conference in October of 2017. This conference...
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  • Smiles Forever

    Smiles Forever: $10,000; This is the third of three installments of a multi-year grant to implement and demonstrate the effects of silver diamine fluoride on dental health in rural Central America.

  • Qudrat School

    The Qudrat School requested $12,500 for the ongoing support of its women literacy and vocational training program in Northern Afghanistan. This renewal of grant funds will be issued and distributed through the Rotary District 6560 Foundation. The Qudrat School currently serves 500 students, including many girls in an area with exceptionally high rates of female illiteracy. The school itself has...
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  • Shared Interest

    Shared Interest: $15,000 to continue with the implementation of Plan 2020, a 5-year strategic plan. For over 20 years, Shared Interest has opened doors along the financial inclusion value chain for previously excluded entrepreneurs by guaranteeing commercial scale loans for small businesses and cooperatives. Through its local affiliate Thembani, the organization also directly supports its grassroots project partners as they...
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  • TechnoServe

    TechnoServe is awarded a $15,000 grant to continue its work with smallholder female cocoa farmers in the San Martin region of Peru to ensure their full integration into the cocoa market, thereby further improving their livelihoods. Despite the high level of success that the project has attained thus far, it remains difficult to fund due to the extended nature of...
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  • Ubuntu Pathways

    Ubuntu Pathways, an organization working to alleviate health, education and financial poverty in Port Elizbeth, South Africa, is awarded a $10,000 grant. Over the past 20 years, Ubuntu has developed and delivered its model based on four main tenants that include a “cradle through career” pathway out of poverty, depth rather than breadth of scale, sustainable investment in capacity and...
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  • Opportunity International

    Opportunity International is awarded assistance regarding fund raising efforts for its COVID Response fund, which was established in 2020 with the intent of accumulating $12.5 million to serve 4.5 million people. In particular, the fund will be used for assistance to Ghana, Uganda, Nicaragua, and Colombia, in regard to smallholder farmer resilience, as well as that of proprietors, teachers and...
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  • Smiles Forever

    Smiles Forever is awarded $10,000 in unrestricted funding for continued work to develop a dental system for Bolivia, one of the world’s poorest countries. The organization’s strategy for this is based on the idea of prevention over restoration, leading to better oral and general health.

  • Hesperian Health Guides

    Hesperian Health Guides is awarded $15,000 in unrestricted funding to support and expand their work to create new multilingual health resources for people worldwide. Hesperian’s content, delivered as print materials, digital resources, and mobile apps, helps people take greater control over their own health and organize for equal access to health and healthcare.

  • Care2Communities

    Care2Communities is awarded $10,000 in unrestricted funding to support its ongoing work in northern Haiti. Although COVID-19 vaccinations are already a reality in the US and other developed countries, the organization is uncertain as to when they will be readily available in Haiti.

BLOG: PARTNER NEWS...AND OUR OWN TWO CENTS

  • Learn More About Giving Back To Africa

    1. Tell us about your mission. The mission of Giving Back To Africa is to educate and empower young people in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), enabling them to become agents of change in their community and country. We work to fulfill our mission by partnering with Congolese educators in Mpasa II—a third-generation refugee camp turned urban slum—to integrate...
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  • Learn More About Thousand Currents

    1. Tell us about your mission. Thousand Currents is a 35-year-old global foundation that moves money to the frontlines of social change. We leverage relationships as well as financial and intellectual resources worldwide with and in support of grassroots groups and social movements, while transforming philanthropic and investment practices. Our vision imagines a world where humanity thrives as a creative...
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  • Learn More About Village Enterprise

    1. Tell us about your mission. Village Enterprise’s mission is to end extreme poverty in rural Africa through entrepreneurship and innovation. We currently work in rural East Africa to serve the extreme poor who have very limited numeracy and literacy, and who also lack access to capital, formal banking, and markets. With few income-generating options, the extreme poor struggle to...
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  • Learn More About Plant With Purpose

    1. Tell us about your mission. Plant With Purpose is a faith-based organization which serves small-holder farming families and subsistence farmers around the world, focusing on places where extreme poverty and environmental degradation are both present. Small-holder farmers are among the poorest and most under-nourished people in the world. At the same time, many of those who inhabit the shantytowns...
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  • Learn More About READ Global

    1. Tell us about your mission. READ Global believes empowering rural communities is critical to solving the problem of global poverty. We envision a world where individuals, families, and entire communities have access to the knowledge, resources, and opportunities necessary to build more prosperous futures. We partner with communities in rural South Asia to create vibrant places to live and...
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  • Learn More About Spark Microgrants

    1. Tell us about your mission. Spark Microgrant’s mission is to enable communities to design and launch their own social impact projects. We believe in a world where everybody lives with dignity and determines their own positive future. 2. How is The West Foundation supporting your mission? The West Foundation grant provided Spark with the support needed to implement strategic...
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  • Learn More About Upaya Social Ventures

    1. Tell us about your mission. Upaya Social Ventures mission is to create dignified jobs for the extreme poor – people living on less that $1.90 per day – by building scalable businesses with investment and consulting support. We bring investment capital, expert capacity building and a powerful network to early-stage entrepreneurs who share our vision of employing the extreme...
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  • Learn More About Smiles Forever

    Tell us about your mission. Smiles Forever is a non-profit foundation dedicated to improving the quality of life of impoverished children through free preventive and restorative dentistry backed by a unique educational model for disadvantaged women and mothers to become professional dental hygienists. Through the last 20 years we have provided free preventive and restorative dental care to over 45,000...
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  • Learn more about Trickle Up

    1. Tell us about your mission. Trickle Up’s mission is to help people living in extreme poverty and vulnerability advance their economic and social well-being. We reach the extreme poor, those living on less than $1.90 a day, who are most economically and socially excluded across rural Asia, Africa, and the Americas. These include women, people with disabilities, refugees and...
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  • Learn more about Building Tomorrow

    1. Tell us about your mission. Founded in 2006, Building Tomorrow’s mission is to galvanize communities to support thriving schools in underserved areas in Uganda and ensure all children can access an inclusive, transformative education. A thriving school is one which is supported by the community, effectively managed by school leadership, accessible by all children, and committed to producing positive...
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