Nuru International is a young start-up non profit fighting extreme poverty in the developing world one community at a time through training and empowerment with the goal to equip the poor to become the answers to their own problems. Suite 101 recently profiled Nuru in From Fighting Terrorism to Fighting Extreme Poverty. CEO Jake Harriman was available for an exclusive interview with Suite101.
Q What are the top three to five challenges you are facing right now and how do you plan to overcome them?
JH From a business perspective, as a young start up, we are constantly trying to get the word out about Nuru in order to attract both financial and human capital to help us scale our programs more quickly on the ground. Secondly, raising funding in a down economy is another challenge. We recently created a new diversified funding strategy to help hedge against down cycles in the economy. We are committed to creating high quality media to show funders the impact of their donations in a concrete, tangible way.
On a human level, we witness new friends and partners on the ground in our communities lose loved ones as they fight daily for the survival and future of their families. This fight against extreme poverty is an all out war, and the urgency to prevent continued needless loss of life motivates and inspires me and my team to press on relentlessly in this fight to innovate and overcome.
Q Donor fatigue seems to be a big issue in the non profit world, what are your thoughts about that?
JH Donor fatigue happens when donors indiscriminately give money because they are overwhelmed. I encourage donors to do their homework and find models that are sustainable with scalable gains in the fight against extreme poverty. Those are initiatives that are committed to empowering individuals to change their own lives in ways that transform families and communities permanently - not providing relief for a week, a month, or a year...but for generations.
It is the donor’s responsibility to do some research and fund an organization that is making a lasting difference, hold them accountable and stick with them for the long haul. You don't have to do everything...just do something and stick with it.
Q What are the differences between domestic non profits and charities looking to serve a community internationally (e.g. Africa)?
JH Both are needed, but domestic nonprofits face very different challenges international ventures. The key difference is to learn to see the world through the eyes of someone who is suffering extreme poverty in Sub-Saharan Africa. A comment I often hear when I speak is, "Why should I try and help the poor in far away countries? There's plenty of poverty right here for us to address on our own soil." That is, indeed, a true statement. Poverty certainly exists in the US. Extreme poverty, however, does not.
Extreme poverty that plagues the lives of one out of every six people on this planet does not exist in the US. It is very hard for us to think about the challenges faced by the extreme poor. It is so far away. The distance makes it very difficult for us to truly put ourselves in the shoes of an individual on the other side of the world born into a life with complications that we can't even begin to empathize with.
Q Dambisa Moyo published a book “Dead Aid.”She insists that foreign aid (a trillion dollars over the past 60 years) is a waste and bad for Africa. She argues that it keeps Africa in a supplicant's role when its governments need to become self-sufficient. She recommends shutting off all foreign aid to African within 10 years. You do significant work in Africa, what are your thoughts on this?
JH Aid is broken. Top down solutions cannot work in isolation. I believe that Dambisa Moyo attempted to shock the development industry out of the "aid coma" that the world's governments find themselves in today. Her book was a wake-up call. More importantly, it was a call to action.
I applaud her for the audacity of her statement. I do think that aid dollars need to be on a steadily decreasing tether, but I also advocate for a radical change in how those existing dollars are allocated. We need to start investing "smart aid". Aid dollars should be invested in Easterly-type searcher models that tap into the potential of homegrown or bottom up solutions within nations.
Bottom up solutions should be strengthened with sustainable, self-perpetuating economic engines that allow them to scale via legitimate market-driven forces. Simultaneously, aid dollars could be invested in infrastructure not handouts. Lasting solutions lie at the marriage of top down and bottom up solutions funded on a decreasing stream of smart aid. I believe that only then will we see whole nations empowered out of extreme poverty permanently.
Q If you could give one bit of advice to all emerging non profits in this new economic reality, what would it be?
JH First, focus the impact of your model and analyze the facts of your current situation. Are you having the impact that you want to have? If you aren't, admit that your model is broken and fix it. Secondly, invest in good leaders, persevere to overcome unforeseen obstacles and they rally the troops to do the same. Inspiration is powerful thing when you find yourself up against insurmountable odds.
Nuru is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit, public benefit charity committed to pioneering holistic, sustainable solutions to end extreme poverty in partnership with the poor. Nuru's goal is to become completely financially sustainable within fifteen years by developing revenue sources within their Seed Projects and volunteer tourism.
Britta Stromeyer Esmail - Britta is a bilingual business management professional and executive coach with extensive domestic and international experience in the ...
Join the Conversation