Have you seen this map? It shows just how BIG Africa is. It’s easy to lump a lot all together under the label of “Africa.”

And yet, Africa is an entire continent – one that could fit the United States, India, China, Eastern Europe, and a number of western European countries, all within it’s borders! Africa is 20% of the world’s landmass and has 54 separate countries.

Traveling in Malawi, just a tiny sliver on most maps of Africa, I was in awe of the vast countryside to see, so many different languages to hear, and all the people to meet within Malawi.

Besides providing good party trivia, what is the point of thinking about the enormity of Africa? It can be overwhelming to think the really big problems such as pollution and political instability in so many African countries.

A ripple of goodness

Spirit in Action is working in Africa to start small ripples of change, which can reach much further than what we can do alone, reaching to those big challenges. I may not be able to influence the government in the Central African Republic but I can start to poke small ripples of goodness in the pool.

When things seem so great, I look around to see what I can do, what small thing I can give, to make an impact in just one other person’s life. And it turns out, that making this small impact can start to make larger inroads.

Grace is excited to continue high school! Read her family’s story here: http://godsspiritinaction.org/love-will-find-a-way/

Here’s what we’re doing:

1 Individual = receives a letter with encouragement and self-help materials (gardening, composting, starting savings groups) from Spirit in Action; (Read example)

1 Family = receives a $150 grant from Spirit in Action to start a business and improve their house and send their children to school; (Read example)

1 Community = receives a Community Grant from Spirit in Action to start a chicken-rearing process and a local village savings and low-interest loans group. (Read example)

Sharing the Gift

Then, 1+1+1 = Once people receive, they are encouraged to give forward to someone else who they see is in need; Sharing the Gift, we call it. (Read example)

That gift is shared over and over again. Then, this is my prayer, the gift ripples all the way to the country and regional level. Maybe that person who convinced the Malawian President Joyce Banda to sell the $13.3 million presidential jet and rebuild international relationships to help Malawi’s poorest was touched by part of the Spirit in Action ripple.

Or maybe, someone who realized that they were feeling small in the midst of the great world took a step to help someone by putting a Spirit-filled ripple into action and helped you.

Thank you for making our ripple big enough to reach more individuals, families, and communities than we can know or count.

Margaret Ikiara (center) talks with one of the support groups at CIFORD Kenya.

The question “what does Spirit in Action do?” has many different answers. The thing is, Spirit in Action has two distinct approaches to empowering others.

Small Business Fund

Hastings and Ruth started a brick-making business in Malawi.

On one hand is the Small Business Fund (SBF). Started in 2005, the Small Business Fund is a SIA-specific program where all grantees, whether they are in Uganda, Kenya, Malawi, or Nigeria, go through the same training program of business and communication skill development. The local coordinators work closely with me and consult with each other as they implement this program in their communities.

In the SBF, we are directly giving $150 to families to help them take on a new livelihood and improve their lives. (For more about how the SBF works, see these FAQs.)

Community Grants

On the other hand, Spirit in Action is also a traditional grant-maker, like a community foundation or a family foundation, giving grants to grassroots organizations throughout the world that will implement their own programs.

These grassroots organizations (also called “community-based organizations”) are already working to eliminate poverty, grow more food, or stop the spread of HIV/AIDS, etc. in their community. Think of these groups as similar to your local PTA, community gardening association, local health clinic, or save the shore kind of group. They are concerned citizens who want to make things better for their neighbors and for the community as a whole.

Tanya and student volunteers at SIA poultry project house in Kitale, Kenya.

The small grants, ranging from $500-4,000, support a wide variety of local solutions for the challenges that each community faces. Past SIA grants have start community gardens and collaborative farming efforts, poultry projects, bio-intensive garden trainings, girl’s empowerment workshops, and a savings and loans cooperative.

Why don’t we just fund one type of project, like building wells? Because we’ve seen that 1) solutions brought forth from the community are more effective and quickly gain community buy-in; and 2) empowerment is about trusting communities to know what will best address their problems.

Sometimes a well might be the answer, other times the answer might be water tanks to catch rainwater.

Of course, we don’t just fund every proposal that comes in; I take time to review proposals, develop relationships, give feedback, ask questions, and pray for guidance. (Read more about choosing partners here.)

Common Principle

Sharing the Gift of a pig in Uganda.

Even though we have two methods of serving communities in Africa, one principle brings the two techniques together, and that is Sharing the Gift. This pay-it-forward initiative is key to both the Small Business Fund and community grants. It’s implemented in different ways: for example, tithing business profits in the Small Business Fund, or creating an emergency relief fund by a Community Grant group. In both, the idea of blessing others as we have been blessed and giving generously to others is central to SIA’s vision of change.

If you have more questions about what we do or how we do it, leave a comment or email me (Tanya) at admin@godsspiritinaction.org!

It used to be common sense that micro-loans were the only way to ensure the sustainability of a micro-finance program and that the act of paying back the loan would instill the sense of “ownership” in the grant recipients. How could a micro-grant – labeled a “hand out” – do anything but create a sense of entitlement on the part of the grantee? We’ve thought that loans were better than grants because they promoted long-term, individual responsibility; but in some markets, loans wreak havoc with indebtedness, hostile payment collectors and inflexible repayment schedules. Grants, unlike loans, can create independence and cultivate sustainable development in a community.

A new pottery business in Uganda.

In 2006, just as the Grameen Bank and Kiva were becoming household names, there was a rush to start new micro-finance organisations and benevolently provide money to the poor. Unfortunately, those funds come at a great cost and with inconclusive effects. Interest rates of 40-100% of the loan principle and travel costs to get to and from the bank mean that people are stuck from the moment they get the money.

Why grants?

A loan is just a financial arrangement in the business of making money for a bank, but a grant creates space for positive relationships and an empowered individual. Spirit in Action provides $150 micro-grants to groups of 3-5 people throughout communities on the African continent. Instead of a debt-collector, we have local coordinators who train grant recipients in business planning, marketing, and basic accounting. The grant cohort also forms a support group.

Receiving a $150 grant – rather than a loan – means that the first $150 in profit from their successful enterprise can help group members go to school, improve their house, or pay for medical care, and is not used to pay back donors. And through our program, some of the additional profits are gifted to others in the community, generating goodwill and further development on the local level. (Read one family’s success story here.)

We are Grant Recipients

Sharing the Gift with a cash grant in the community (Malawi).

Our model for micro-grant sustainability reflects our home-office organisational practices. We recognise that since Spirit in Action relies purely on donations from individuals for our funding, we also are grant recipients. Our supporters don’t ask us to pay them back – they ask us to pay the gift forward to help people as defined in our mission and programmatic plans. By asking our Small Business Fund grant recipients to pay it forward to a neighbor or community member rather than paying the organisation back, we are asking them to do only what we ourselves do. Paying it forward starts with our donors and passes on to many more throughout the world.

Becoming a Giver

Our paying it forward program, Sharing the Gift, suggests to grant recipients that they have received the gift of a grant from Spirit in Action and asks them, “How can you share this gift with others?” The actual form of sharing varies among groups, with input from the local coordinators. Some tithe a percentage of profits toward future groups, others contribute seeds or baby animals to a new group, and sometimes business groups come together to support a project that benefits the whole community.

Sharing the Gift of a pig in Uganda.

After receiving a grant, people are empowered to be givers in their communities. Fundraisers know that people receive genuine happiness from giving to others; the Small Business Fund and Sharing the Gift enable people who have grown up with very little to have more to share with others and to be respected for their gifts to neighbors.

Unlike loans, which create an immediate indebtedness in the community, grants and a “paying it forward” mentality make development sustainable in the communities where we have funded small businesses. Even without additional grants, local growth comes from small business owners themselves. The development of their community originates with their desire to pay forward what they have received. Grants are not a hand out; they enable people to invest in their communities in a grassroots manner.

**I originally wrote this post for the WhyDev blog. WhyDev is an online community for individuals passionate about development, aid, and other global issues.

Healthy corn plants in Malawi.

Welcome new visitors and long-time readers.

The SIA Fall/Winter Newsletters are on their way to you this week! There was too much good stuff for the amount of space in the newsletter, so this post is a newsletter bonus supplement.

(If you want to get a sneak peak at the newsletter, you can download the full color PDF here.)

Inside the 2012 SIA Fall Newsletter:

1. Our pay-it-forwad “Sharing the Gift” program is featured prominently throughout the newsletter (pages 1, 2, 3, & 8). The sentiment behind the program is perfectly expressed in this quote from Amelia Earhart:

“A single act of kindness throws out roots in all directions, and the roots spring up and make new trees. The greatest work that kindness does to others is that it makes them kind themselves.”

2. Page 3 has an article about the MAVISALO Soccer Tournament (plus HIV-prevention presentation) in Malawi and mentions some Malawian soccer chants. Read about their great, creative soccer chants: http://www.mwnation.com/sports-the-nation/sports-extra/8807-malawi-football-befriends-music

3. So many good photos! Here is another photo from the MAVISALO poultry project (Page 1). You can see more photos from our visit to Manyamula Village in Malawi on our Flickr photo site.

Canaan Gondwe tends the MAVISALO chickens in their cooperative’s poultry house.

4. Page 8 highlights a program helping women in Meru, Kenya collect clean water. You can read about this community organization’s philosophy of  service as told to me by CIFORD’s director, Margaret Ikiara.

5. “Best of” On Page 3 I list the top 5 blog posts from the last six months. Here are the links to these popular posts:

• Talking the Talk: Claiming the Label of Christian (May 1)
• Blessings of Old Age – Rod Romney, 1931-2012 (July 3)
• Why I Serve (June 26)
• If You’re Happy and You Know It (April 10)
• The Benefits of Micro-Savings(May 22)

P.S. If you want to join our Dreamer’s Circle by donating regularly to SIA, you can set up online monthly donations here. Thank you!

1. Sharing the Gift: Five groups of women in Malawi received SIA grants in 2009 to start their own bakeries and grocery shops. Then in May 2011 the women chose to honor the gift they had received from SIA by SHARING THE GIFT with Ms. Mickness Msumba also from their village. They contributed flour, sugar and skills to help Mickness open a scone shop. After one year in business Mickness reports that her business is continuing and that the extra income has helped her family become food secure – with food to last through the whole year! What a blessing.

Women selling baked goods in the Manyamula Market.

2. Organic Agriculture in Kenya: Interesting article about the influence of corporations in defining international agricultural aid policy and then some optimism about organic agriculture in Kenya and the work of Grow Biointensive Agricultural Center of Kenya (G-BIACK). Read the article here: http://www.alternet.org/food/155559?page=entire

Faith Naswa smiles in the field of corn at Common Group/Pathfinder Academy.

3. Grant Update from Kenya: With the part of the profit from their chicken farm, supported by a SIA Community Grant, Common Ground paid high school fees for Faith Naswa, one of the top ten students at their Pathfinder Academy. Faith is the second student on sponsorship with funding from the poultry project. Faith writes, “When I grow up, I would like to become a lecturer or a lawyer. If I become a lawyer, I will make sure high rate of corruption has reduced. I would like to be honesty, faithful and make our lives better.” Congratulations, Faith!

4. What is a CBO?: Great one-minute video describing a community-based organization (CBO). SIA supports several CBOs through our Community Grants. Watch the video here: http://blog.firelightfoundation.org/2012/06/01/what-is-a-cbo/

5. Inspiration from Del: A quote from Del from his writing Choice is Ours. For more from Del, visit a partial archive of his writings.

I am learning, “the great power of prayer is not in asking, but in learning how to receive.”  Receiving requires acceptance and willing obedience.  It requires us to fasten our gaze on the Christ and let (allow) God to re-make us in His image and perfect pattern.