Page 11 - Big Ideas | Issue 1

Computer Classroom
Big Ideas
In June, Welcome Ideas successfully participated in the Global Giving Accelerator program. Thanks to your generosity we raised almost $7,000 to help build our computer classroom/IT lab. Our students are so anxious to learn how to use computers and how computers can benefit their lives and small tourism businesses. With the money that was raised we will be able to add security doors to the IT classroom (to protect our investment), air conditioning (to keep the computers at the right temperature), and seal the room from dust (which is a very common problem for computers in Africa). We will also be able to use the remaining money to buy voltage regulators and 9 laptop computers. Our goal is to have 24 computers in the IT lab, so we have $8300 left to raise. If you would like to help build our computer classroom you can give on our website (donate.welcomeideas.org) or through Global Giving at (www.globalgiving.org/projects/ zanzibar-computer-classroom/).
In addition to providing matching incentives, funding prizes, and an online fundraising platform, Global Giving partners with many large corporations to vet nonprofits for potential corporate donations. Now
that we successfully completed the vetting process and the accelerator program, we are a permanent partner of Global Giving.
Anti-Corruption & Transparency
Corruption is an issue through-out East Africa. Last year, our Board of Directors in the U.S. and Board of Trustees in Zanzibar unanimously adopted our comprehensive anti- corruption and transparency guidelines which were based on the principals outlined by Transparency International. As a result of our strict adherence to this policy, we are known by all of the government agencies that we work with as the NGO who does things “by the book.” Although this means that approvals and routine paperwork takes longer to process, we are proud of our efforts to be good role models for our students and to be good stewards of the donations we’ve been entrusted with, which ensures that your donations are used to benefit our students.
To ensure transparency, we will be auditing and publishing our financial reports online. In addition, we have been working with a number of
organizations to vet Welcome Ideas. Although the vetting process for 501(c)(3) nonprofit organizations with the IRS is extensive, we are working on vetting Welcome Ideas with a number of organizations that have name recognition within the charitable giving community. We have already been vetted by Facebook and Global Giving. We have also received our bronze seal with GuideStar and we will be able to receive our silver seal after we complete our taxes for the year. In addition, we are working on vetting the organization with the Better Business Bureau and GlobalWA. We are also a recognized NGO (non- governmental organization) on Zanzibar and have already submitted our paperwork for charitable status in Tanzania. The final vetting process we plan to go through is Charity Navigator; however this organization requires five years of financial reports in order to fully vet Welcome Ideas.