The Grafton Street Fund
Most Recent Grant Recipients
Copyright 2011, The Grafton Street Fund. All rights reserved.
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The Universal Nut Sheller and its handiwork
2010 - LIFT
Founded in 1998 by two students at Yale University, LIFT is focused on combating poverty in the United States. LIFT helps families navigate the complex and vast web of challenges that confront families in poverty, through a single neighborhood center where families can receive assistance from trained volunteers across a spectrum of social services, including finding jobs, securing housing, obtaining public benefits, and making connections with other social service agencies.
Volunteers work one-on-one with low-income individuals (clients) to find jobs, secure safe and stable housing, make ends meet through public benefits and tax credits, and obtain quality referrals for services like childcare and healthcare. LIFT’s services are free of cost and without eligibility requirements. Simultaneously, the LIFT experience pushes volunteers to grapple with our country's most challenging issues related to poverty, race, inequality, and policy. LIFT alumni go on to pursue careers across all sectors and become lifelong leaders in the effort to improve the practices and policies that aim to eliminate poverty. Since LIFT's founding, over 5,000 volunteers have served more than 30,000 individuals and families.
Why we support them
LIFT tackles the nuts-and-bolts challenges of poverty, from managing landlord/tenant relations to identifying reliable child care. These are some of the most intractable problems in poverty alleviation. GSF's grant will help LIFT expand its Bronx service center.
A LIFT volunteer and client in action.
Founded in 1987, VEF is one of the longest running micro-grant organizations in the world. VEF has a simple mission - to equip people living in extreme poverty with the resources to create sustainable businesses. VEF targets the 400 million people living in extreme poverty in sub-Saharan Africa, with a focus on the rural poor in Kenya and Uganda. VEF provides people who do not have an income with all of the tools they need to start an income-generating business.
This typically involves three elements:
- Business training - VEF trains women in all the fundamentals they need to run their own business, from business planning to cash flow management.
- Start-up grants - VEF makes grants, either in cash or non-cash assets, to facilitate the start up of a small business.
- Business savings program - VEF offers entrepreneurs savings and lending products to help their businesses grow and protect against temporary setbacks.
Why we support them
VEF is unique in its focus on those living in extreme poverty, often without any source of income. As a result, VEF works below the income levels of typical microfinance organizations. VEF also supports its grantees with significant training, and focuses intensely on the impact its grants are having in the local community. We believe that VEF is one of the most effective organizations in delivering "bang-for-the-buck", as evidenced by a recent GiveWell.org study of the organization.
A VEF entrepreneur in her workshop.
2009 - Full Belly Project
Founded in 2003, Full Belly Project designs and distributes simple, income-generating agricultural machines to farmers in developing countries. The organization started with the Universal Nut Sheller, which can be assembled from locally available materials for under $50 and can process nuts ten times faster than individuals working only with their hands.
Most small farmers in developing countries sell their produce as soon as it comes off the tree or plant. Shelling the nuts enables the farmers to charge a higher price for them, earning extra income. Take for example this story from Kenya, as told by the folks at Full Belly:
"One farmer explained to us that he normally sells his 50 kilo sacks of dried coffee for $25. He shelled one entire bag in fifteen minutes time. Once he was done, he literally danced a jig with glee because he could now sell his shelled coffee for up to $250, ten times as much as the unshelled coffee."
Why we support them
Full Belly Project identified a need that was going unmet, designed a simple, cheap solution, and found a way to deliver it locally, without large-scale support. Our grant will go to assisting them in tracking their results and investing in their next generation of projects.