Our partners funded in 2025, fourth quarter
African Wildlife Foundation
$10,000 in unrestricted support
About
African Wildlife Foundation is an Africa-based global conservation organization protecting wildlife and their habitats as essential parts of a modern and prosperous Africa. It articulates a unique vision of African-led conservation, focusing on solutions that create opportunity for people — not at the expense of wildlife and their habitats, but because of them. The organization works in wildlife conservation, land and habitat protection, community empowerment, and global leadership.
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This year, African Wildlife Foundation continues to deliver on its five-year (2023-2028) campaign – “Resilient Africa / Resilient Planet” – which is designed to equip African governments, institutions, businesses, and communities with the tools, insights and support needed to define, own, and realize a conservation agenda tied to progress. AWF will focus on deepening its impact in priority landscapes while advancing Africa-led conservation at scale. The organization continues to strengthen community participation in protected area governance, expanding biodiversity-friendly livelihoods, and embedding conflict sensitivity across their programs to ensure conservation contributes to peace and stability in complex landscapes.
H2O for Life
$10,000 in unrestricted support
About
H2O for Life offers a service-learning opportunity designed to engage, educate and inspire youth to take action to solve the global water crisis by raising awareness and funds to support implementation of water, sanitation and hygiene education projects for global partner schools. H2O for Life’s robust online platform provides water education programming, curriculum, lesson plans, action activities, and individualized support for students and teachers. Since 2007, nearly 1 million students from H2O for Life schools have supported water, sanitation, and hygiene education projects for partner schools in the developing world. Student participation develops civic engagement and philanthropy for the future.
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Funding from The West Foundation will be used to recruit students and teachers throughout the U.S. to participate in their service-learning programming with individualized materials to broaden the impact. Additionally, H2O for Life will provide project implementation support to educators and involve students in the design and dissemination of innovative and compelling water conservation outreach as well as projects that engage community participation. Funding will also facilitate U.S. students in their service-learning projects, which raise awareness and funds to support WASH projects for schools around the world. The requested amount will allow H2O for Life to work with approximately 4,000 young people at eight schools in the United States.
Opportunity International
$10,000 in unrestricted support
About
Opportunity International creates opportunities for entrepreneurs to build their businesses, children to attend school, farmers to feed their communities, and families to end the cycle of generational poverty. For nearly 50 years, it has developed innovative programs to address some of the greatest challenges facing those living in poverty around the world, including access to capital and education. Through a wide range of other catalytic programs, Opportunity International helps families provide for themselves, thereby breaking the cycle of poverty. On average, every dollar donated generates $10 for the people served.
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Opportunity International will advance their focus areas of education, agriculture, and microenterprise. Opportunity International’s Education Finance program partners with local financial partners to extend financing to both school leaders and families to address the critical need for low-cost, non-state schools. By helping smallholder farmers in Africa become more productive and increase their income, Agriculture Finance initiatives meet farmers where they live, providing access to training, financial resources, and support. As an industry leader in microenterprise, Opportunity International will continue to deliver customized training, provide access to financial literacy and services, and offer peer groups to increase accountability and collaboration.
Plant With Purpose
$10,000 in unrestricted support
About
Plant With Purpose restores hope to the Global South by reversing two of the world’s greatest interconnected challenges: global poverty and environmental damage. Its goal is to see life-giving regenerative cycles restored globally, allowing people renewed ability to live in healthy sufficiency in nine countries around the world. Through the organization’s watershed model, which requires only 50% participation by community members, an entire region experiences a reduction in poverty and a restoration in the environment. Community-based and locally led, Purpose Groups are the foundation of the watershed model, bringing neighbors together to learn, collaborate, and encourage one another. These Purpose Groups have four components: Farmer Field School, Savings Groups, Reforestation and Spiritual Encouragement. Plant With Purpose is a non-denominational Christian organization that serves all people within program communities regardless of their race, orientation, religious affiliation, or any other factor.
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Plant With Purpose plans to achieve specific objectives in economic empowerment, environmental restoration, and spiritual renewal, which will lay the foundation for the years ahead. Its aim is to plant 9,763,933 trees and host farmer training with 105,270 engagements. Additionally, 75 new school partnerships will be formed, and the organization will establish 323 new Purpose Groups while strengthening 4,055 existing groups, 854 of which they plan to graduate. Other goals include establishing 137 new church partnerships while strengthening 1,464 existing church partnerships and hosting spiritual leadership training with 13,146 individual engagements.
Shared Interest
$10,000 in unrestricted support
About
Shared Interest mobilizes the resources for Southern Africa’s economically disenfranchised communities to sustain themselves and build equitable nations. The organization envisions just and vibrant Southern African nations that eliminate disparities, uphold their peoples’ basic human rights and serve as models of economic justice.
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In 2025, Shared Interest achieved goals established as part of its 2020-2025 strategic by reaching 100,00 beneficiaries – 60% of whom are women and youth. Additionally, the organization partnered with more than 10 financial institutions to close the financing gap for marginalized communities in Southern Africa. Shared Interest’s strategic plan for 2026-2030 calls for reaching 250,000 beneficiaries and partnering with at least 12 financial institutions to scale its growth and impact. To better understand how recent USAID cuts will affect this work, the organization plans to undertake interventions in risk refinement, financial inclusion capacity building and promoting storytelling relating to inclusion and resilience.
Ubuntu Pathways
$20,000 in unrestricted support, to paid in two annual installments of $10,000
About
Ubuntu Pathways provides an integrated support system of health, education, and social support in the township of Gqeberha, South Africa, previously known as Port Elizabeth. The end goal is a healthy and stable future for this region, and the organization has developed a model for residents that provides individualized support from cradle to career. A state-of-the-art campus brings a pediatric clinic, rooftop garden, classrooms, computer labs, a community theater, and a vocational training center to the heart of Gqeberha’s townships.
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With a renewed commitment from the West Foundation, Ubuntu Pathways will serve their first high school cohorts, furthering its efforts to achieve the full scope of the cradle to career model. Learning outcomes will be elevated through the creation of STEAM, robotics, and extracurricular programs that nurture creativity and leadership. This includes not only the expansion of the organization’s education pathway, but also the continued integration of healthcare and employment services that support long-term success. Priorities include enhancing these wraparound services to over 30,000 community members annually as well as developing pathways to employment by scaling their Job Skills Training program.
