Great Futures Start Here

We are excited to report continued progress of the Community Assistance Program (CAP)! Thanks to your support, over twenty local nonprofits are receiving the education and training they need to succeed and continue their critical and heartfelt services.

We continue to work with 5 members in the CAP who are not only receiving workshops and dialogue sessions, but also private mentoring hours and specialized evaluations to track their progress. These 5 member organizations include the OSSO orphanage, the women’s group Kallpa Warmi, CETAP-Lucy, NOVA Educational Center, and Fundacion El Arenal.

We are optimistic and excited about the progress of each organization! As CETAP-Lucy moves toward their 10-year anniversary, we are helping them strengthen their donor communications. With NOVA we are focusing on marketing strategies such as creating a website and using online registration/evaluation forms. With OSSO we are working on alternative fundraising strategies and how to optimize connections in the community for in-kind donations and services for their children. Likewise with El Arenal we are working with local donors to sponsor more children and provide in-kind donations. With Kallpa Warmi we are using their needs assessment to provide extra training opportunities for the women to manage their projects in entrepreneurship.

In order for more of you - our supporters - to get to know these partners, we have coordinated several open houses over the last few months at NOVA, OSSO, and Kallpa Warmi! If you did not get a chance to make it, please send us a message! We would love for you to see the fabulous work they are doing!

We have also been busy with many training opportunities over the last few months! July was “Fundraising” month where we offered 4 workshops on how to be more effective in fundraising and how to create relationships with donors. These 12 hours of workshops are an investment in the future of each organization and the services they offer to at-risk and disabled children, orphans, women, and communities.  

As of August we are now in “vacations” period in Ecuador and preparing fantastic projects for the school year! Upcoming projects include our third nonprofit networking event of the year AND our 2^nd Annual Somos el Cambio Seminar in September!  We are also conducting the quarterly progress-tracking evaluations with each CAP member which helps to see how each partner is advancing and helps us to continue improving the CAP program.

Thanks to each and everyone of you, this CAP program has been a success. It is the only program of its kind providing capacity building for Ecuadorian nonprofits - all thanks to YOUR support. 

E D U C A T E local nonprofits / E M P O W E R their leaders, C O N N E C T social initiatives. 

It’s been over a year since we’ve launched this campaign, and you’ve helped us reach over $25,000 to fund our capacity building work in Ecuador! That is a HUGE success! We are delighted to continue reporting great news and updates with our work that YOU make possible!

We would like to continue to share with you exactly what we have been doing in this Community Assistance Program (CAP) and how YOUR support is making a long-term impact on nonprofit services in Ecuador!

With much pride, CETAP-Lucy, Fundación El Arenal, NOVA Education Center, and the OSSO Orphanage are sponsored members in the CAP. And thanks to the success of our women’s empowerment campaign, Mírame, a new women’s group from the rural town Sayusi will join as a member this quarter (stay tuned for more info!).

What does it exactly mean that a nonprofit is a “member” in the CAP? We’re glad you asked! Each member receives all workshops and dialogues at no cost, giving them an opportunity for 130+ hours of classroom time per year to work on technical skills in nonprofit management as well as personal development. On top of that, these nonprofits are receiving quarterly evaluations to review their progress and set goals, and are engaged in private mentoring hours with Hearts of Gold staff and field experts so they can target areas of improvement and becomes stronger, more sustainable organizations!

While this work may not sound “sexy”, it is the most strategic way to know that these nonprofits and their leaders continue to serve their communities - children, families, women, orphans, youth with special needs - and continue providing critical services that these populations depend upon!

Our calendar has been full this past quarter with inspiring, educational programs designed for Ecuadorian nonprofits! To give you a sneak peak:

• Our biggest event was the 5-day Leadership and Communication conference, where 14 leaders from 8 nonprofits came together for an intensive learning and personal growth experience! We also had last year’s Leadership Class of 2017 come together for a 2-day follow-up to talk about the development of their leadership style and any continuing challenges they are facing. Hearts of Gold is honored to have been selected two years in a row to host the European Libre Foundation and coordinate the only training of its kind in Ecuador!  See photos here!
• We also offered a dialogue session on self-love and self-esteem for nonprofit leaders and community members at large. This group, mostly consisting of women, came together to talk about how they can find balance in their lives to not only prioritize their work and their families, but their own selves, too.
• Our Volunteer Management 101 & 102 workshop brought together 11 nonprofit leaders to learn about how to attract, manage, and retain volunteers in their organizations! Many Ecuadorian nonprofits have small staffs and depend greatly on their volunteers to keep their programs afloat.
• The other important workshop that we hosted this month was Strategic Planning 201, where our pilot CAP members came together for an advanced session in how to prepare and perform strategic planning. We are so proud to see leaders of CETAP-Lucy, Fundación El Arenal, and NOVA thinking creatively and strategically in how to reach their goals!

Thanks to your support, we’ve been very busy! We’re also working with the Universidad de Cuenca and hosting 2 interns in Communication and Public Relations, which will help us to communicate better in the local community and spread the word about our work! We co-hosted an event for International Women’s Day where local women read their poetry with WED Ecuador and Asociación Rafalex. And, we are working with the local Municipality government on how we can work together and train even more nonprofits in Azuay!

Itching to learn more? Don’t forget to check out our 2017 Annual Report which highlights all of our work in 2017, and this graphic which highlights our work from January to March of 2018!!

We would like to express our gratitude to you, our Hearts of Gold family, for believing in us and being committed to this work in Ecuador.

Links:

• Hearts of Gold 2017 Annual Report