namaste foundation annual report 2015
TRANSCRIPT
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Year In ReviewANNUAL REPORT 2015
YEAR IN REVIEW Dear Friends,
2015 was a time of active exploration and deepened connections for the Namaste Foundation. We supported 25+ exceptional nonprofits this year with just over $330,000 in gifts. Projects ranged from teaching mindfulness in classrooms to filming permaculture documentaries to building open source collaboration tools. The organizations we chose to support impressed us with their courage in challenging the status quo and their passionate visions of a more beautiful world.
Our team grew with the addition of Michelle Grambeau, who is helping Namaste catalyze new community connections and sharing the stories from some of the inspiring nonprofit projects and events we encounter.
In the spirit of openness and transparency, this Annual Report includes more information about the groups we’ve supported, as well as statistics from our blog. If you’d like to apply for a Namaste gift, or feature your story on our website, please contact us. We look forward to having a conversation!
Warm Regards,
The Namaste Team
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Gift Giving
GIFT GIVINGHere are the organizations the Namaste Foundation supported this year. Read more about our gift types and categories here. To apply for future gift consideration, please contact us.
BEAUTIFUL WORLD GIFTS
IMPACT GIFTS
Inspiring Stories
Inspiring Stories is growing a movement of young New Zealanders who can, and will change the world. Since launching in 2011, Inspiring Stories has built an impressive track record of programmes and partnerships – perhaps best known for Festival for the Future, and more recently launching New Zealand’s first accelerator programme to grow the next generation of social entrepreneurs & enterprise, Live the Dream. Nearly 5,000 young people have taken part in Inspiring Stories programmes.
Make a donation to Inspiring Stories through The Future Fund.
Enspiral
Enspiral is a collaborative network of passionate change-makers and social enterprises. Founded in Wellington, New Zealand, the Enspiral network of projects includes Loomio, Cobudget, Chalkle, and Dev Academy.
Make a donation to Enspiral. Read more on our blog.
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Gift GivingANNUAL REPORT 2015
IMPACT GIFTS
Friends of the Earth
Friends of the Earth is a non-governmental environmental organization that strives for a more healthy and just world. Founded by environmentalist David Brower, Friends of the Earth is guided by sustainability, connectivity, and systemic change. The organization campaigns on issues including climate change, pollution, nuclear technology, genetic engineering, deforestation, pesticides, food and agriculture and economic policy.
Make a donation to Friends of the Earth.
Inhabit
Inhabit is a feature length documentary introducing permaculture: a design method that offers an ecological lens for solving issues related to agriculture, economics, governance, and on. The film presents a vast array of projects, concepts, and people, and it translates the diversity of permaculture into something that can be understood by an equally diverse audience.
The Grace Foundation
The Grace Foundation was established in Switzerland in 2007 by Sabine Lichtenfels and Rainer Ehrenpreis. The goal of the foundation is to promote the establishment of peace research villages worldwide and the training in all areas of knowledge that is necessary for this to occur: Regional self-sufficiency in the areas of water, food and energy, social and ecological sustainability, and community building.
Make a donation to The Grace Foundation.
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Gift Giving
SUPPORT GIFTS
The Borneo Project
The Borneo Project brings international attention and support to efforts to defend forests, sustainable livelihoods, and human rights. The organization believes that protecting human rights and environmental integrity in Borneo is a critical component of the global movement for a just and peaceful world.
Make a donation to The Borneo Project. Read more on our blog.
To the Ends of the Earth
To the Ends of the Earth is a feature documentary that explores the rise of extreme energy in our society, as seen through the eyes of people on the front lines. Filmmaker David Lavallee explores this global economic trend through the eyes of people in communities most directly impacted by it.
Make a donation to To the Ends of the Earth documentary.
Action Station
ActionStation enables New Zealanders to take powerful, coordinated action on urgent issues. ActionStation is a vital piece of democratic infrastructure for Aotearoa in the 21st century, here to reinvigorate our proud tradition of participatory democracy and people power, using the potential of new technology.
Make a donation to ActionStation.
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Gift GivingANNUAL REPORT 2015
SUPPORT GIFTS
The Art of Yoga Project
The Art of Yoga Project is designed to help at-risk girls by focusing on early intervention and preparing girls for a positive future. The Art of Yoga Project is a leader in revolutionizing the rehabilitation of girls by offering trauma-informed, strength-based, gender-responsive services. The organization’s mission is to lead teenage girls in the California juvenile justice system toward accountability to self, others and community by providing practical tools to affect behavioral change.
Make a donation to the Art of Yoga Project. Read more on our blog.
The Flow
The Flow is a highly visual feature-length ride by Louis Fox into the mysterious phenomenon we call being “in the zone,” or “the flow.” Through stunning cinematography, The Flow immerses its audience in an authentic transcendent experience. Returning with this insight to modern life, the film shows our culture in contrast: blocked where it could be fluid, destroying what wants to grow, forcing what comes naturally. Yet while humanity hovers on the brink of social and ecological catastrophe, we are also within a hair’s breadth of realizing our inherent capacity to realign in harmony with nature. The Flow suggests that we may simply need to look at things in a different way.
Make a donation to The Flow movie.
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Gift Giving
SUPPORT GIFTS
Orientation Aotearoa
Orientation Aotearoa is a holistic education program in New Zealand. The group’s mission is to promote wellbeing by providing collaborative and experiential learning environments to explore and develop participants’ identity, purpose, skills and talents. [Gift Year: 2015]
Make a donation to Orientation Aotearoa. Read more on our blog.
Pachamama Alliance
Pachamama Alliance is a global community that offers people the chance to connect, engage, travel and cherish life for the purpose of creating a sustainable future that works for all.
Make a donation to Pachamama Alliance. Read more on our blog.
Silicon Valley Gives
Silicon Valley Gives is a 24-hour online fundraising effort, hosted by the Valley Community Foundation with the help of sponsors, offering local nonprofits the chance to crowd-fund from the community. Nearly $16 million in total has been raised in the first two years of SVGives.
Make a donation to Silicon Valley Gives. Read more on our blog.
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Gift GivingANNUAL REPORT 2015
SEED GIFTS
Share Necessities
Share Necessities is a nonprofit organization committed to building resiliency in the community. Our “I Make It Count” program trains inner city youth in the tools to live a positive life and become a positive force within their communities. With our support homeless, low-income, and at-risk youth are given an opportunity to find new life paths and realize their full potential.
Make a donation to Share Necessities.
charity: water
charity: water is a nonprofit bringing clean and safe drinking water to people in developing nations. charity: water funds inspiring organizations who are providing long-lasting water and sanitation services around the world. charity: water has helped pioneer “birthday campaigns” and the “100% model.”
Make a donation to charity: water. Read more on our blog.
Restorative Justice Community Action
Restorative Justice Community Action improves community livability through restorative justice practices. RJCA creates a forum in which people impacted by livability crimes meet with offenders who commit the crimes to discuss the impact and determine restitution. These community forums help prevent further crime and community deterioration while repairing the harm caused by criminal behavior.
Make a donation to Restorative Justice Community Action. Read more on our blog.
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Gift Giving
SEED GIFTS
The Ferguson Youth Initiative
The Ferguson Youth Initiative serves the youth of the Ferguson community by encouraging them and engaging them as active members of the community, developing programs as needed, and further communicating and partnering with existing community youth programs.
Make a donation to Ferguson Youth Initiative. Read more on our blog.
The Ferguson Public Library
The Ferguson Public Library’s mission is to provide the community print and digital resources for education, information and recreation, and a welcoming public place for both community interaction and individual pursuits. The Library encourages lifelong learning, dedicated to making the City of Ferguson a rewarding, attractive, and pleasant place in which to live, visit, and work.
Make a donation to Ferguson Municipal Public Library. Read more on our blog.
The Zinn Education Project
The Zinn Education Project promotes and supports the use of Howard selling book A People’s History of the United States and other materials for teaching a people’s history in middle and high school classrooms across the country. The Zinn Education Project is coordinated by two non-profit organizations, Rethinking Schools and Teaching for Change.
Make a donation to Zinn Education Project. Read more on our blog.
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Gift GivingANNUAL REPORT 2015
SEED GIFTS
Advancement Project
Advancement Project is a next generation, multi-racial civil rights organization. Rooted in the great human rights struggles for equality and justice, the Advancement Project exists to fulfill America’s promise of a caring, inclusive and just democracy, using innovative tools and strategies to strengthen social movements and achieve high impact policy change.
Make a donation to the Advancement Project. Read more on our blog.
LCCR
Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights of the San Francisco Bay Area, founded in 1968, works to advance, protect and promote the legal rights of communities of color, and low-income persons, immigrants, and refugees. Assisted by hundreds of pro bono attorneys, LCCR provides free legal assistance and representation to individuals on civil legal matters through direct services, impact litigation and policy advocacy.
Make a donation to Lawyer’s Committee for Civil Rights. Read more on our blog.
We make additional gifts on crowd funding platforms Kickstarter, Indiegogo, Patreon, Pledgeme.
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Statistics
SUMMARY STATS
2015 vs 2014
MOST POPULAR BLOG POSTS
• My Plate, My Planet: Shifting to a Sustainable Diet
• NEXT Foundation Looking for Transformational Education and Environment Projects
• Enspiral: Building an Open Source Society
(Statistics from Squarespace)
$333,55029$11,502136,17716,1882.62
4%4%1%-19%79%84%2%
Total Gift AmountsTotal GiftsAverage Gift SizeBlog PostsBlog AudiencePage ViewsPage Views Per Visitor
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FinancialsANNUAL REPORT 2015
$333,500GRAND TOTAL
GIFTS MADE THROUGH SVCF IN 2015
GIFTS OUTSIDE SVCF
FINANCIALSThe Namaste Foundation’s primary resources are managed at the Silicon Valley Community Foundation (SVCF).
MonthJanuaryJanuaryJanuaryJanuaryJanuaryJanuaryJanuaryJanuaryAprilMayMayMayJuneJuneJulyAugustAugustSeptemberOctoberNovemberNovemberNovemberDecember
OrganizationRestorative Justice Community Action, Inc.Ferguson Youth InitiativeAdvancement ProjectTeaching for ChangeFerguson Municipal Public LibraryLawyers Committee For Civil Rights of the S.F. Bay AreaEnspiral FoundationPermaculture Research Institute USA (Inhabit)Orientation AotearoaSilicon Valley GivesThe Art of Yoga ProjectCharity: WaterFriends of the EarthHartley Film Foundation, Inc. (The Flow)Inquiring Systems, Inc. (The Grace Foundation)Share NecessitiesEarth Island Institute, Inc. (The Borneo Project)Action Station Aotearoa IncorporatedMedia Alliance (To the Ends of the Earth)Pachamama AllianceInquiring Systems, Inc. (The Grace Foundation)Inquiring Systems, Inc. (The Grace Foundation)Inspiring Stories TrustTotal
PatreonKickstarterIndiegogoTotal
AMOUNT$2,500$2,500$2,500$2,500$2,500$2,500$100,000$25,000$20,000$15,000$10,000$2,500$25,000$10,000$5,000$1,000$8,000$10,000$10,000$5,000$5,000$25,000$25,000$316,500
$600$15,250$1,200$17,050
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2015 Gift Types and Levels
See the full list of organizations that Namaste Foundation has supported on our Gifts page. To apply for future gift consideration, please contact us.
SUPPORT GIFT$5,000 TO $25,000
IMPACT GIFT$25,000 TO $100,000
BEAUTIFUL WORLD GIFT$100,000 AND ABOVE
SEED GIFTUNDER $5,000
2015 GIFT TYPES & LEVELS
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2015 Gift Types and LevelsANNUAL REPORT 2015