App for Nonprofit Work in Haiti
Tax deductible
What: We need funds to developme an app that will connect people and entities working in, and for, Haiti.
The app will become an economically self-supporting hub where individuals and organizations in Haiti, the US, Canada and elsewhere will access one another, ideas, information, resources, funding sources, and more. It will help spread healthy systemic change and sustainable development throughout Haiti, and, when fully-functional, provide funding to advance Creative Exchanges Initiative's lead-work in the ongoing creation and extension of best-practice models of community transformation in Haiti.
The app will directly connect Haitians and the International partners who work with them. Creative Exchanges Initiative (CEI) will host the app, in accordance with its goal of facilitating authentic engagement and providing equal access to information and resources at all levels. The app will connect those working at all strata of grassroots community-capacity building:
-Local Haitian leaders, internal change agents, organizations and civic groups.
-Haitian expertise and resources.
-International funders and resource providers.
-The smallest nonprofits, the largest international aid agencies, and everyone in between.
Why: Grassroots, community-led capacity building is the best way to achieve lasting transformation. But people at the grassroots level typically lack direct access to people outside their economic status, and people working in the largest international organizations don't often have strong relationships with those living and working at the grassroots level. Haitian engineers, educators, agronomists, musicians, artists, plumbers, and entrepreneurs often don't have access to jobs funded by international donors. And the same donors often don't have open access to local expertise.
Duplication is another reason the app is needed. Over 10,000 NGOs operate in Haiti, and far too few know what the others are doing. Through the app, they could learn from one another's mistakes and successes, share best practices, and more effectively leverage their resources.
How Did We Come to This Conclusion? Local experts taught CEI, during relief efforts from Hurricane Matthew in 2016, that quick intervention can be tied to longterm strategy, and that a multi-pronged, integrated approach can reach a tipping point of community transformation much more quickly than we'd imagined. The secret was the leveraging of internal change agents, the support of locally-led community capacity building efforts, equal access to information, and equality of voice. In our case, it was possible because some of us have worked together for over 25 years, have good systems of accountability, know one anothers' language, and have developed deep relationships of trust and respect.
So How Do We Share the Success? We began to explore how to make this story of success scalable and replicable. An app is the answer. With the right app, all players would be only one degree of separation apart. An app could eliminate layers of bureaucracy that can breed corruption, inefficiency, and inequality . It could overcome challenges of communicating across various languages. An app could cut across silos that have prevented best practices from being shared, and have fermented an environment where the worst mistakes are often repeated again and again.
Who Will Build It: It starts with New Leaf Digital. They have has invited Cathy Parrill and Creative Exchanges Initiative to provide the focus challenge at their monthly design competition, 4 Hours to Product. This monthly design competition is comprised of teams of innovators from different professional backgrounds who collaborate, from idea to prototype, to create impactful new technological products through rapid brainstorming and development - in only four hours.
On July 19, 2017, New Leaf Digital's 4HTP event will be a Causathon for Haiti, where competitive teams will create concepts and designs for the app that will address these needs for CEI and other nonprofits working in Haiti.
The partnership between CEI and NLD affords access to 1500 skilled and creative STEAM professionals within our community! At the end of the event, we will have an app prototype ready to be developed. We need $10,000 for the initial phase of development. Your contribution will help this be a game-changer in Haiti.
About New Leaf Digital: NLD accelerates innovation by exposing companies and individuals to activities that involve idea generation, new technologies, creativity, entrepreneurship, and leadership development. They help facilitate creative conferences, speaker panels, tech demos, and software competitions. More info is available at https://www.newleafdigital.org.
About Creative Exchanges Initiative: At Creative Exchanges Initiative (CEI), authentic engagement and cross-cultural collaboration are foundational to all that we do. We are committed to democratizing power and to overcoming the constraints of inequality whether we're working to alleviate poverty, facilitating cultural exchanges and trainings, or bringing the arts to under-served populations. We address community, institutional, and interpersonal change in each of our initiatives. More info is available at http://www.ceihaiti.org.
Help us today to reach our $10,000 goal for initial development of this game-changing app!
The app will become an economically self-supporting hub where individuals and organizations in Haiti, the US, Canada and elsewhere will access one another, ideas, information, resources, funding sources, and more. It will help spread healthy systemic change and sustainable development throughout Haiti, and, when fully-functional, provide funding to advance Creative Exchanges Initiative's lead-work in the ongoing creation and extension of best-practice models of community transformation in Haiti.
The app will directly connect Haitians and the International partners who work with them. Creative Exchanges Initiative (CEI) will host the app, in accordance with its goal of facilitating authentic engagement and providing equal access to information and resources at all levels. The app will connect those working at all strata of grassroots community-capacity building:
-Local Haitian leaders, internal change agents, organizations and civic groups.
-Haitian expertise and resources.
-International funders and resource providers.
-The smallest nonprofits, the largest international aid agencies, and everyone in between.
Why: Grassroots, community-led capacity building is the best way to achieve lasting transformation. But people at the grassroots level typically lack direct access to people outside their economic status, and people working in the largest international organizations don't often have strong relationships with those living and working at the grassroots level. Haitian engineers, educators, agronomists, musicians, artists, plumbers, and entrepreneurs often don't have access to jobs funded by international donors. And the same donors often don't have open access to local expertise.
Duplication is another reason the app is needed. Over 10,000 NGOs operate in Haiti, and far too few know what the others are doing. Through the app, they could learn from one another's mistakes and successes, share best practices, and more effectively leverage their resources.
How Did We Come to This Conclusion? Local experts taught CEI, during relief efforts from Hurricane Matthew in 2016, that quick intervention can be tied to longterm strategy, and that a multi-pronged, integrated approach can reach a tipping point of community transformation much more quickly than we'd imagined. The secret was the leveraging of internal change agents, the support of locally-led community capacity building efforts, equal access to information, and equality of voice. In our case, it was possible because some of us have worked together for over 25 years, have good systems of accountability, know one anothers' language, and have developed deep relationships of trust and respect.
So How Do We Share the Success? We began to explore how to make this story of success scalable and replicable. An app is the answer. With the right app, all players would be only one degree of separation apart. An app could eliminate layers of bureaucracy that can breed corruption, inefficiency, and inequality . It could overcome challenges of communicating across various languages. An app could cut across silos that have prevented best practices from being shared, and have fermented an environment where the worst mistakes are often repeated again and again.
Who Will Build It: It starts with New Leaf Digital. They have has invited Cathy Parrill and Creative Exchanges Initiative to provide the focus challenge at their monthly design competition, 4 Hours to Product. This monthly design competition is comprised of teams of innovators from different professional backgrounds who collaborate, from idea to prototype, to create impactful new technological products through rapid brainstorming and development - in only four hours.
On July 19, 2017, New Leaf Digital's 4HTP event will be a Causathon for Haiti, where competitive teams will create concepts and designs for the app that will address these needs for CEI and other nonprofits working in Haiti.
The partnership between CEI and NLD affords access to 1500 skilled and creative STEAM professionals within our community! At the end of the event, we will have an app prototype ready to be developed. We need $10,000 for the initial phase of development. Your contribution will help this be a game-changer in Haiti.
About New Leaf Digital: NLD accelerates innovation by exposing companies and individuals to activities that involve idea generation, new technologies, creativity, entrepreneurship, and leadership development. They help facilitate creative conferences, speaker panels, tech demos, and software competitions. More info is available at https://www.newleafdigital.org.
About Creative Exchanges Initiative: At Creative Exchanges Initiative (CEI), authentic engagement and cross-cultural collaboration are foundational to all that we do. We are committed to democratizing power and to overcoming the constraints of inequality whether we're working to alleviate poverty, facilitating cultural exchanges and trainings, or bringing the arts to under-served populations. We address community, institutional, and interpersonal change in each of our initiatives. More info is available at http://www.ceihaiti.org.
Help us today to reach our $10,000 goal for initial development of this game-changing app!
Organizer
Cathy Parrill
Organizer
Birmingham, AL
Creative Exchanges Initiative Inc
Registered nonprofit
Donations are typically 100% tax deductible in the US.
