FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS
Can I Donate?
That’s really thoughtful of you, but no. We are already fully-funded privately. We would much rather you identified other charities and approaches that follow the principles laid out in this web site. In particular, we favour sponsorship programmes that are cost-efficient, with around 90% or more of your donation actually reaching the family of the child, or the person sponsored. These are usually set at around US$30 per month. If that is too much to commit to, try one-off donations to charities specialising in any of the 7 Humanitarian Basics.
Do You Award Grants Online?
No. Give A Billion is not set up to receive, process, qualify and respond to online, or direct requests for funds. We do still receive such requests quite often. However, such requests are best directed at the most relevant ‘fixers‘, based on the specifics of your need. There are literally millions of charity organisations worldwide, in a position to make relevant grants of funds to worthwhile causes. However, that is not what we are primarily here to do, as other organisations already fulfil that role. Our own role is to provide tools to help those fixers co-ordinate their efforts far more effectively, so that more poverty can be overcome sooner.
Where Can I Go To Get Funding?
As there are millions of NGO’s and charitable organisations worldwide, we cannot provide an appropriate list. Instead, Google does a large part of that function already. We suggest you enter the most relevant keywords of your requirement into Google and do the research into which organisation seems best set up to respond to your needs. We anticipate a future where such information will be better organised, structured and capable of being filtered based on key selection criteria – like an Ebay marketplace between donor organisations and worthy causes. For now however, the likes of Google, combined with your own research efforts, still remains your best bet.
For more detailed information on this point, follow the link to our document called ‘How To Get Donors To Give’, from the main ‘Resources’ sidebar menu on the right.
How Can I Help?
First, by understanding the 7 Layer Model and the rest of our ‘Best 7 Ideas’. Then, by sharing them with others who will listen. You can use your social media networks if you prefer, but often you may find that one-to-one discussions can work even better. Over time, we will produce materials that are easy for you to publicise. If you are in a relevant position of influence already, try conducting your own Simple Assessment on a pilot group of respondents and make the findings available as a published Study, to an audience who will appreciate it and potentially act on it.
Can I Borrow Your Ideas?
Yes. And especially to apply them. Just be kind enough to reference where you borrowed the idea from, so others will know where to find out more.
I am using a lot of the material from your excellent website as part of a briefing paper that I am preparing to encourage the Catholic Church, initially in the UK, to get involved in working with others to break the Global cycle of poverty.
The initial stimulus is around healthcare and combating NTD’s ( diseases of poverty http://unitingtocombatntds.org/about
I hope to broaden the conversation to addressing poverty using your model and systems thinking approach.
I would really like to speak to someone from your team regarding this activity. Would that be possible?
Hi Tony,
That is encouraging to hear! We will send an email to your given address, requesting your best direct contact information and then take it from there.
Keep up the good work!
The Give A Billion Team