April 28th Research Needs & Update

Research Team - I am in the process of dividing some of my duties to other people as I prepare to move to Boston. I'll be at the Harvard Kennedy School starting this fall. I will still be the President of Forgotten Voices, but will really focus on fundraising, managing projects in Africa and growing our Boston presence, where I am originally from. A lot of my other responsibilities are being divided by a team of people that will manage Forgotten Voices.

Kathy Goss from this Research Team will be serving as the main point of contact between Forgotten Voices and this group.

We are going to streamline the process a bit and are working out the details. Right now, postings on this blog come from conversations I have with our African partners, then I put them on the blog after I talk about the needs with a few people. The future process will look like this: Reports will come in from Africa, including the Research Questions they need help with - and those Research Questions will be posted here by Kathy. That removes me and a whole host of other people from the process and gives you more context for the need.

I'll occasionally ship stuff to Kathy that I need help with for African projects on a more global scale, not just a specific partner. This research WILL NOT be for my graduate school. :) I think my professors may frown upon this. :)

With all that typed - Kathy and I will be updating the group on moving forward once we have a plan in the next couple weeks.

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As for research for this week - Would someone be willing to look into Researching laws regarding non-profits giving grants to individuals? Microfinance projects can be given to individuals, but I have heard that grants to individuals is generally frowned upon. However, I want to know what the law says? It is probably an IRS rule related to 501c3 designation. I'd LOVE for someone to look into this and see what they can dig up.

Specifically, I'm looking for any specific wording on what is allowed by the IRS for granting money to individuals.

Here's the context: with inflation in Zimbabwe now at 162,000%, we are looking at giving more money to individual businessmen in Zimbabwe that have access to USD through US bank accounts, rather than give to Zim organizations that must use Zim Banks and pay a fraction of market value. For example - send money to a bank account in Utah that is connected to a Forgotten Voices business leader in Zimbabwe. He gives out the money at a fair rate to the orphan care project leaders, similar to a bank, and tracks expenses (money in/out) for Forgotten Voices. To carry the example forward, we are also looking at making the man an "employee" of Forgotten Voices and open up a joint account that he has access to and just uses our money.

But the first and fundamental question is this: would the IRS allow this scenario to an individual IF we can prove that the man is handling funds on behalf of Forgotten Voices and our African project partners.

Hope that helps. To put your minds at ease, I have also asked a few lawyers to look into this, as well. :) But I'd also like a non-lawyer to look at what we can find on our own.

Happy hunting!

Research for April 21

Friends - Who would like to take on researching organizations that deal with physical rehabilitation models for patients with HIV/AIDS? I'm looking for organizations that focus on helping people regain strength in motion that they lost from HIV/AIDS infections. I'm not sure if anyone out there is doing it and I need someone to find out.

Please find:
Name or organization, Website, description of care model/program, contact info to learn more

Please let me know if you are interested. :) Thanks!

-Ryan

Research Report on 2M Children with HIV/AIDS

http://www.kaisernetwork.org/daily_reports/rep_index.cfm?DR_ID=51371

Friends - would one of you or a couple of you work on following up with this report? I'd like all the background to it, abstracts/copies of the cited works.

Let me know if you'd be willing to take on this challenge and we can lay out a plan.

Thanks!

-Ryan

Election Map

I was sent the following information by a good friend of mine. It is an interesting assessment of on the ground conditions in Zimbabwe. The election conditions are mapped out, with clickable layers to show different instances of conflict or trial.

Continue to pray with me and our local partners.

-Ryan
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http://www.sokwanele.com/map/all_breaches#mapping