Education Ecuador Project #26873

Great Futures Start Here

by Fundacion Hearts of Gold

Project Report | Feb 16, 2018
Guess what? You're still making an impact!

By Kelly Mitchell | Program Manager

Our newest CAP Member, OSSO Orphanage

Greetings from Hearts of Gold! We would like to give a special shout out and give our thanks to YOU, the true hearts behind Hearts of Gold, for allowing us to sustain our work into another year! We are so excited to report the exciting development and growth of the Community Assistance Program (CAP)!

Here is where your worthy contributions have been put to work:

We have officially closed the Pilot Year of the CAP program, and have been working hard to make it even better in its second year. Our quarterly evaluations and mentoring sessions with our local partners have helped us to tailor the program so that it can serve our local partners and their leaders on an even deeper level!

We are narrowing down our education areas from 8 to 6, in response to our members’ feedback about focusing on critical themes:

Strategy
Fundraising & Donor Management
Marketing & Communications
Finance & Governance
Programs
Performance Management

We are also working to restructure the scholarship aspect of the CAP so that more nonprofits can receive these services at no cost. In our pilot year of the CAP, you helped us fund 3 partners, and we aim to double that number in 2018!

On that note, we are delighted to announce our newest member of the CAP, the orphanage “OSSO.” Thanks to our corporate sponsor Global Wellness Ecuador, OSSO will be receiving a scholarship to the CAP program with an intensified curriculum to help them grow and reach their goals! OSSO is an orphanage outside the city of Cuenca that serves 22 children with disabilities, providing them with full care including all medical needs, therapies, education, and daily support. OSSO’s leaders Lorena and Rodrigo have been running the organization since 2007, and are very excited for this opportunity to take their nonprofit to the next level!

Our work doesn’t end there! Hearts of Gold wants to continue to build deeper relations with the local community - thus we are moving forward with our 5-year contract with the Universidad de Cuenca and working to build partnerships for an internship program, collaboration with professors and their expertise, and use of their spaces for workshops and events!

Our calendar for 2018 is filling up fast! We are in the process of preparing 25 workshops sessions, 7 dialogues, and 4 never seen before networking events for nonprofit leaders that will impact thousands in Ecuador.

We hosted our first networking event of the year in January, bringing together 19 leaders from 13 local Ecuadorian nonprofits. These events not only help leaders to build connections and learn from one another, but also feel supported when our fields of work can be isolating and emotionally challenging. Our colleague from FUPEC (Families United for Cancer Patients) shared the following testimonial at our last event:

“Our organization was at a point of transformation when we met Hearts of Gold. The love, appreciation, knowledge, and motivation that we received from this nonprofit network helped us move forward at FUPEC, especially when I was afraid. This type of work often leaves us feeling very tired, so it is so nice to be here in this network and know that we are not alone, and that we can indeed continue and give a little more.”

Our last bit of news (for now) is that the Leadership Class of 2018 have officially been selected! This year we will have 18 leaders from 13 nonprofits join us for a 5-day Leadership Training! Hearts of Gold was selected for the 2nd year in a row to host and coordinate this training by the European Libre Foundation due to our role as a leader in the local nonprofit community. We are proud to be able to bring together such inspiring leaders serving women, children, elderly, dogs, individuals with cancer and their families, immigrants, impoverished communities, and more in this year’s Leadership Class of 2018!

Keep an eye out this year for a new women's empowerment project that we have been developing! Mírame (direct translation: watch me) is a program that will focus specifically on empowering and supporting female community leaders - women who have a vision to change their world, but have been left marginalized in a society with little support. This project has grown from the CAP and supporting female nonprofit leaders, and will now be able to serve Ecuadorian women at large. Mírame will support women through an empowerment and self-development program, along with extra support via education and leadership to encourage their success!

We would like to sincerely thank you for investing in Hearts of Gold and the Community Assistance Program. You keep our heart beating. It is thanks to you that we have good news to report, and it is thanks to you that we can continue to serve our community - nonprofits and their leaders - in order to help them reach their goals and impact the lives of thousands.

From our hearts to yours,

The Hearts of Gold Team - Kelly, Maria Jose, and Colleen

Our first nonprofit networking event of 2018

We promote open dialogue and new connections

Leaders of our newest CAP member, OSSO orphanage

Christmas Giving Program at El Arenal

Links:

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Nov 17, 2017
History is Still Being Made, Thanks to You

By Kelly Mitchell | Program Manager

Nonprofit and Business Leaders Unite

Looking back on 2017, we are blown away by the support we have received. Even more so, we are shocked and humbled by the impact that our programs have made in Ecuador, all thanks to YOUR commitment.

Since the "Make Nonprofit History in Ecuador" campaign was launched in March 2017, Hearts of Gold has been able to...

Provide 540 hours of private mentoring hours and program support for our three CAP members: Fundación El Arenal, NOVA, and CETAP-Lucy
Train 20 nonprofits with unique educational opportunities, impacting over 1,000 beneficiaries that they serve
Offered 21 workshops with 84 hours of interactive, specialized education for nonprofit leaders
Get invovled with causes ranging from Children and Families to Education, Nutrition, Cancer, Dogs, Autism, Cystic Fibrosis, Special Needs, Health, and Women's Rights
Build the first network for nonprofits in Ecuador, bringing together 42 community leaders that for the first time ever, have somewhere to turn for personal and professional support

Aside from the numbers, Hearts of Gold has been able to leverage opportunities for collaboration, for the first time ever working with the Chamber of Commerce of Cuenca and, with much excitement, we have signed a 5-year contract with the University of Cuenca which will support the CAP program, investigation and research, and give our partners access to abundant resources through specialized projects. We have been able to apply for and gift a $10,000 grant to one of our CAP participants, Proyecto Saman, which will resolve the living situation of four families that were victims of the 2016 earthquake through 2 new homes and 2 home repairs.

Thanks to your support, we unveiled our first annual nonprofit conference entitled "Somos el Cambio" ("We are the Changemakers"), which brought together 22 nonprofit and business professionals for a full-day of learning and networking. We offered 4 workshops focused in the theme of communication, fostering a primary weakness area for the majority of our nonprofit partners, and for the first time ever integrating the nonprofit and business community in a professional setting.

Our journey together to Make Nonprofit History in Ecuador has only just begun. We are excited to unveil new and improved programs and services in our CAP program in 2018, providing more access to even more nonrprofits in Ecuador. We are filled with gratitude that you are able to accompany us on this journey of growth as we become a pioneer for Ecuadorian nonprofits and truly break ground to build stronger, more sustainable leaders and nonprofits in Ecuador.

This is history in the making.

You are ambassadors for change.

Together, we are a force to be reckoned with.

We hope that you can join us this #GivingTuesday, Tuesday November 26 as we act #HeartToHeart and prepare even more impactful, life-changing projects in the CAP Program in 2018, as we compete for stellar bonus prizes on the Global Giving platform, along with a generous $2,000 in matching from the President of our Board, Natasha Verkley. Keep your eyes out for #GivingTuesday at 12AM.

Thank you for believing in us and for maintaining your commitment to this important work.

From our hearts to yours,

Kelly Mitchell

Participants hard at work during the seminar

Partners gather at a networking event

An evaluation site visit at NOVA

An evaluation site visit at El Arenal

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Aug 21, 2017
2017 in Full Swing at Hearts of Gold

By Kelly Mitchell | Program Coordinator

Fundacion El Arenal Director Maribel with kids

Wow! What a year it has been! We would like to send an extra thanks to you as a supporter of Hearts of Gold and “Make Nonprofit History in Ecuador.” You are making an impressive impact on Ecuadorian nonprofits, and we would like to share all that you have made possible in 2017 (so far)!

The Community Assistance Program (CAP) is moving along very well in its pilot year. We were honored to be the feature story in Bejing’s Change Magazine, where we were able to tell our story and all the progress that is happening in our neck of the woods. All of the workshops and dialogues we provide are helping to boost the capacities of nonprofits so that their work may go even farther! In the last three months you have been able to give education and training to 12 nonprofits and 35 nonprofit professionals that are serving at-risk communities in Ecuador! By touching 35 leaders, you have made a direct impact on over 840 Ecuadorian lives.

In June we offered a “Teambuilding for Motivation” workshop, where 4 nonprofits came together with their teams for a day of collaboration, sharing, and fun. In addition to interactive teambuilding activities, we also discussed what being part of a team means, what motivates us to do the work we do, and the importance of team roles and balance in each organization. This workshop was offered at the request of nonprofit leaders, who would like to see their staff more motivated and mobilized.

In July the CAP offered two different workshops: Financial Concepts for Nonprofits and Time Management. These workshops target two of our eight capacity areas in the CAP: Finances and Performance Management. Local consultant Gabriela Gonzalez presented a financial workshop directed at the leaders of each organization so that they may understand the basic financial concepts that help each nonprofit to operate, while also discussing the language differences between directors, accountants, and economists. The Time Management workshop presented by University Professor and Systems Engineer Eduardo Merchan taught our leaders about the Scrum methodology which will help them plan, organize, and execute tasks and missions with their staff.

Hearts of Gold has also swiftly followed the mentorship aspect of the CAP with our three pilot members: NOVA, El Arenal, and CETAP-Lucy. With NOVA we facilitated over 8 hours of private workshops for their staff on nonprofit leadership and self-care, as well as teambuilding. We also underwent strategic planning sessions to prepare for the center’s upcoming academic year. Nova Director Miriam Maldonado states, "We are so grateful to have the opportunity to learn everyday as a team." With CETAP-Lucy we are focusing on fundraising plans and campaign development, and recently launched the 2017-2018 year of the Child Sponsorship Program. CETAP-Lucy leaders are being introduced to the process of how to plan a fundraising agenda and campaigns so that they are trained for future years to come. With El Arenal we are developing fundraising plan options and strategic partnerships, for example with University of Notre Dame students, as well as working on program development so that the center may be able to continue serving the youth of the community, while integrating their families more in program participation.

We are excited to see the CAP program continue to grow as we make nonprofit history in Ecuador together! We look forward to reporting some exciting news in the fall as we launch our first annual seminar on communications, “Somos el Cambio,” or “We are the Change.” Stay tuned, and as always, we are open for questions and comments! Thank you for being part of our team and for being dedicated to making nonprofit history in Ecuador.

From our hearts to yours,

Kelly Mitchell

Local nonprofits come together to network

NOVA team having fun after strategic planning

NOVA team hard at work during private workshop

CETAP-Lucy getting creative

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