Buffalo Friends have been donating funds to many charitable organizations for decades. Over the past two years, we have had thoughtful discussions about criteria we might use to determine how to share our gifts and with whom. Four suggested criteria were:
Quaker led
Organizers known to us
Good ratings in terms of overhead/ good works ratio
Organizations that corresponded with us via newsletters or acknowledge our gifts when received.
There are two organizations we donate to, Peruvian Outreach Project and Friends of Kenya Rising, that meet all those criteria and I’d like to share their most recent news in case you don’t receive their newsletters .Both organizations came out of leadings by individuals in Orchard Park Meeting.
Peruvian Outreach Project (POP) is the leading of Christian Johnson, adopted from Peru by Kathy Hoolihan and Dan Johnson. At 16, he began travelling back to the orphanage from which he was adopted and began working and organizing fundraisers to improve the orphanage, eventually creating POP as a 501c3 organization. POP has developed local partners such as the Rotary Club and others who contribute to the orphanage. Other fundraisers include a portion of the holiday sales at the store 10,000 Villages, and a Peruvian dinner fundraiser that netted over $2500.00 for programs at the Aleda Orphanage.
The most recent projects have involved putting technology into the hands of school age children and nursing kits into the hands of young women who are “graduates” of the orphanage and are pursuing nursing studies. These are young women who grew up in the orphanage and needed housing, room, and board in order to complete their nursing studies. POP built housing and currently six young women are in the process of completing their nursing studies.
POP sends out regular newsletters. Information on their website is available at https://www.wnypop.org. Several Orchard Park Meeting members serve on the board. Email info@wnypop.org to receive their digital newsletters which always include pictures of the progress being made.
While the first project is the leading of one person, the second project is an outgrowth and combination of several organizations, one of which originated in Orchard Park Meeting. Friends of Kenya Rising has this description on their website:
We are a new organization, yet our work goes back more than 18 years. We are made up of volunteers and donors who were previously the driving force behind two entities, Maine-based Friends of Kakamega (FoK) and New York-based Crossroads Springs Africa (CSA). Today, as one board, we raise funds to provide school fees for over 170 high school students and 50 college, university, and vocational students. We support United Kenya Rising as it offers sustainable programs to nearly 200 families, 1,000 people, ensuring children are educated and families can improve their living situations, farm production, health, and incomes.
What is exciting is that this program revolves around families providing services needed in the home in order for the children to succeed in school. Learn more about this organization at https://friendsofkenyarising.org
As good stewards of our resources, it’s important to know to where our resources go, to have access to the leaders of those organizations and to help our local meetings and their leadings. The above two organizations are shining examples of meeting all three criteria. Consider supporting them on your own in addition to the support our meeting offers.