The Virtual Foundation - your donation makes it happen

CivilSoc Message

Date: Fri, 21 Mar 1997 21:55:41 -0500
From: Center for Civil Society International 
Reply-To: civilsoc@SOLAR.RTD.UTK.EDU
To: Multiple recipients of list 
Subject: More about the Virtual Foundation


	  More about the Virtual Foundation

	     www.virtualfoundation.org/


A couple of days ago Donovan Meyers of ECOLOGIA posted a 
message on CivilSoc about The Virtual Foundation that piqued 
our interest.  After visiting the Virtual Foundation's Web 
site, we thought Mr. Meyers' message was too modest and that 
CivilSoc subscribers would be interested in more information 
about the project.

The Virtual Foundation is an example of the way electronic 
communication and the Internet can be used by people living 
in one part of the world to provide concrete assistance to 
people on another continent.  It also presents a model that 
CCSI thinks can be replicated by other organizations working 
in a wide variety of fields.

What makes the Virtual Foundation so interesting is that not 
only does it offer another fund-raising mechanism for cash-
starved NGOs in the NIS.  It also provides an opportunity 
for individuals and small organizations to participate in 
international philanthropy--a field previously reserved for 
governments and large charitable foundations.

How it Works:

The Virtual Foundation is made up of a consortium of 
environmental organizations in the U.S. and Eastern Europe 
with extensive experience administering grants to NGOs.  
Consortium members--ECOLOGIA, ISAR, PERC, Sacred Earth 
Network, and others--are responsible for specific regions of 
the NIS and Eastern Europe.  NIS NGOs submit project 
proposals to a local office of one of the Foundation's 
members where the proposal is vetted.  The proposal is then 
passed on to the Virtual Foundation's Board of Directors in 
the U.S. for further review.  If approved by the Board, the 
proposal is uploaded to the Internet where it can be viewed 
by millions of people.

People visiting the Virtual Foundation's Web site can review 
a variety of proposals and either fund a project in its 
entirety or make a contribution which will be pooled with 
donations from other people.  Since Foundation consortium 
members are 501(c)(3) organizations, contributions are tax 
deductible.  Once sufficient funds have been raised for a 
particular project, a grant is made by the consortium member 
responsible for that geographic region.  The consortium 
member assumes all the normal grant-making responsibilities 
to ensure that contributions are spent wisely.

Projects considered by the Virtual Foundation are limited to 
$3,000, with priority given to those under $1,000.  If this 
seems small or insignificant, Randall Kritkausky, President 
of ECOLOGIA and founding member of The Virtual Foundation, 
reminds us that in the late 1980s

   Thousands of western tourists poured into nations    
   emerging from Soviet history and made friends. Small 
   individual acts of kindness and generosity between 
   individuals and families became lasting partnerships 
   between communities, Sister Cities, and formal 
   organizations. Many of the US organizations currently 
   operating in the region were started with the personal 
   resources of individuals or families of middle class 
   background.

The Virtual Foundation model can be used in many other 
fields: health care, law, housing, social welfare, etc.  For 
each of these fields there are organizations already in 
place that can vet proposals and administer grants.  There 
are many American doctors, nurses, lawyers, social workers, 
etc. who would like to assist their NIS colleagues but don't 
have the time to travel to the NIS for three weeks.  By 
using the Internet they can pool their finacial resources 
and develop meaningful and lasting contacts between 
themselves and their colleagues abroad...all without large 
amounts of money, time, or travel.

As U.S. government aid to the NIS declines, CCSI believes 
that projects such as The Virtual Foundation offer the 
promise of a low cost, sustainable way for individuals and 
small organizations in the West to make concrete 
contributions to the development of civil society in the 
NIS.

For more information about The Virtual Foundation, contact 
Lydia Thompson of ECOLOGIA at: lydia@ecologia.org

	
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