Become a champion of grassroots empowerment in Malawi and Sri Lanka

Our “champions” are regular contributors to our mission and we’re deeply grateful for their support. Being a consciously small non-profit organisation that is volunteer-run in Australia, these funds are crucial as it enables us to support our school and cooperative projects as needed. While we do get a significant amount of our funding through grants, sponsorship, and crowdfunding campaigns, they may not necessarily offer us the speed and versatility we need to best support our partner communities.

Having a base of regular contributors means that we have a greater capacity to plan forward and support projects in their own right, or while we wait for larger pools of funding.  This is why we’ve set the goal of reaching 50 regular givers in 2020!

We currently have 22 regular givers giving us an average of AUD 36/month. This leaves us a target of 29 for the year and we’d love it if you can help us get there 🙂 In this spirit, we’d like to share ‘some of the perspectives of some of our existing champions. They share their “WHY?” for supporting us with their generous donations for all these years:

As the climate crisis deepens, people around the world will depend more and more on shared community resources and community based decisions and actions to grow food, educate children and provide for the needs of the whole community, especially in places the world chooses to ignore or exploit. That’s why I support Empower Projects with a monthly donation. Watching a village or community build a life together hand in hand and heart to heart is the way of the future for all of us. Thank you Empower Projects for inspiring us all!”

Mike McCleese (Champion since 2017)

“We have supported Empowers Project’s work both as volunteers and as ongoing donors since 2010. Empower’s work resonates with us because of their approach to enabling local communities to define and improve their future trajectory. This is done from within the community with onsite training and ongoing mentorship. Empower provides some seed funding, sources local skills for education and offers ongoing guidance but ultimately the beneficiaries define the projects they are looking to engage in, own their successes and the results are seen in community-wide, long term benefits. From an administration point of view, we have been impressed by the ethically oriented, open-book approach to both identifying and reporting progress and financial efficacy.”

          Kelly and Matt Ponsford  (Champions since 2010)

“I support Empower Projects because they are a grassroots organisation that puts people at the heart of what they do and how they work. Empower focuses on making a real and life changing impact for individuals and their communities to be self-sustaining in the long-term. This is something that resonates with me at a very personal level. Thankyou for what you do Empower.”

         Sandeep Liyanage (Champion since 2016)

“I make regular donations to Empower Projects because I know significant sustainable results happen for the rural schools Empower Projects partner with, in Malawi and Sri Lanka”

         Anthony Kellett (Champion since 2016)

All donations above $2 are tax-deductible in Australia. Furthermore,  as we are volunteer-run in Australia, we have consistently ensured that at least 94% of all funds raised go directly to support our partner communities. There you have it! Becoming a champion is really easy and we will keep you informed of the good work you are supporting through our e-newsletter.