RESOURCE DEVELOPMENT
Partnership & Possibility
by Harry Olfert
Thank You; You Are Making a Difference!
Some folks feel their imagination is stretched when they hear an IDE spokesperson speak about a partnership with people living in poverty. It is difficult to imagine that a farm family living in poverty with an annual income of less than $250 could consider making a partnership investment.
But this is the IDE approach to alleviating poverty one family at a time. The process of moving a family out of poverty is a partnership that trains and equips a family in an entrepreneurial approach that will put food on the table tomorrow and in the years ahead.
Based on the rule of thumb that a $250 investment by an IDE donor - matched by $100 from the farmer - will lift a family out of poverty, IDE Canada was instrumental in lifting more than 2,000 families out of poverty in 2007. Add to this the matching investments of Canadian government agencies and some 3,000-plus families have experienced this new opportunity.
Thank you for your part in the $550,000 we invested during 2007.
The encouragement and support of our Canadian investors gave us the confidence to set a goal to reach even more families in 2008, and thus, we set our fund development target at $720,000 and grants from government agencies at $670,000. The combined amount would lift another 5,560 families out of poverty during the current year. Assuming an average family size of five that means 27,800 people will have a changed future. Amazing!
Together we can make this reality! As you plan your philanthropy for this year, consider the IDE opportunity. Whether your investment is $250, $2500, $25,000 or any other amount, it will be your partnership with each family that lifts them out of poverty.