Give2Asia Giving Forum

The Story of Huot Ravuth: A Mother’s Smile, A Son’s Dream

A young man lives at the Center for Children’s Happiness in Phnom Penh, Cambodia and leads his fellow students in many activities throughout the day. He is only 17 years old and unlike most teenagers, he has overcome incredible obstacles and willed himself to gain an education, impact his community, and live a happy, productive life. When Give2Asia Program Officer Gillian Yeoh visited CCH in June 2009, Ravuth showed her around the center and told her his life story in fluent English. 

This impressive young man, Huot Ravuth, was born on March 8, 1992 in the Kandal province of Cambodia. As a small child, Ravuth lived in the rural countryside with his family, caring for the home, cows and chickens with his siblings. Though the youngest and smallest, he also worked in the rice field, side by side with family members and other workers, carrying heavy bunches of rice.

Mango Tree Garden: Asian non-profit stimulating long lasting change through art

By Lauren Craft
Give2Asia Philanthropic Initiatives Intern

Philanthropy is a remarkable outlet which enables those who have plenty to impact other people and the environment for the better. In an effort to learn more about philanthropy and nonprofits, the vehicles that bring about real change, I recently began a journey to discover this field through my daily life. My intent was not to be involved on the periphery by adding a hobby or side activity to my normal routine, but rather to engage as a full-time volunteer or intern in search of an impactful career path.

My first adventure was at Kiva, an innovative, microfinance nonprofit based in the Mission neighborhood of San Francisco. Then, only a month ago, I started my internship on the business development team here at Give2Asia. Each day, I am exposed to noteworthy, mission-driven nonprofits all over Asia. The excitement of learning about and assisting in the process of strengthening these organizations is more rewarding and worthwhile than I ever imagined. It truly affords those of us in the developed world an opportunity to impact and create real, lasting change in some of the neediest pockets on the globe.

One Asian organization, the Mango Tree Garden, just crossed my path by way of an article by Paul Hogan, founder of the Butterfly Peace Garden in Sri Lanka. The Mango Tree Garden is a nonprofit organization located in the Ang Snuol District of Cambodia which provides educational, cultural and spiritual community programs for children each Sunday. The central goal of the organization is to offer creative activities and a nurturing environment to allow children to overcome the trauma of war and adversity while inspiring hope for the future. Activities incorporating story-telling, drawing, painting, drama, singing and dancing, along with prayer and meditation, enrich and encourage balance in the lives of poor or orphaned children who have suffered from severe economic hardship, violence, discrimination, HIV or AIDS and poverty. With 40 to 50 children participating in the programs weekly, the Mango Tree Garden is a key component to rejuvenating Cambodian communities.

A Gala for Youth in Cambodia

Youth Star Cambodia, our fiscal sponsorship partner is hosting a Fundraising Gala on Saturday, April 11 in Cambodia at the InterContinental Phnom Penh.

The gala includes a seven-course Chinese dinner, entertainment from The Jeremy Monteiro Jazz Band, a raffle and dancing.

For more information, contact Catherine Cecil at
855-23-223-173/4 or e-mail at catherine@youthstarcambodia.com

Youth Star Cambodia is a program committed to building a just and peaceful society through citizen service, civic leadership and social entrepreneurship. They seek to harness youthful idealism in the service of developing Cambodia by placing young Cambodian university graduates in underserved rural communities for one year of volunteer service. Youth Star volunteers help children catch up with their studies so they do not drop out of school, share their knowledge with local farmers, and play other important roles. Youth Star provides a life-transforming journey for young people to develop themselves: their skills, their confidence and their ideals.

Lessons for Fundraising in the New Year

By Birger Stamperdahl and Kalsang Y. Tashi, Give2Asia

The start of a new year for many is a time for making plans, setting goals and declaring resolutions. For those of us in the nonprofit world, it also is a time to assess the success of the past year and our efforts to move the needle on the social issues we care about. Perhaps this year more than most, our success and ability to meet future goals depends on effective fundraising.

With that in mind, we’ve taken a step back to consider some of the successful fundraising efforts that have been employed by the hundreds of organizations in Give2Asia’s network. These efforts range from simply putting up a donation button on a website to carrying out large gala events. Different strategies make sense depending on the organization, their resources, and their base of support.

Several groups this past fall were quite successful raising money. In fact, Q4 2008 was the busiest Q4 of any year we’ve had since our founding in 2001 – despite the economy. This success was based partly on the ability of our network to fundraise within their own communities, and we want to share a couple of examples of what groups did in 2008 to raise money. These are not examples of multi-million dollar fundraising efforts. However, they do stand out as good efforts and examples for how to make U.S. fundraising successful.

Both have these basic similarities:

• They appeal to a very specific, predefined audience
• Before the campaign, they leverage people within their target audience to lead the fundraising and build interest 
• The fundraising itself helps to create ongoing ties within the donors’ community so that giving also has an immediate reward, in these examples there was either an event or a matching gift

New Scholarships Create Bright Horizons for Cambodian Orphans

Last week, Give2Asia was visited by Elia VanTuyl, who shared with us his inspiring short documentary about Center for Children's Happiness (CCH) Orphanage in Phnom Penh, Cambodia. The documentary tells the story of a handful of orphans who have received scholarships based on their academic merit to attend the prestigious Pannasastra School. Click here for more information about CCH and this program. Click here to make a donation to the CCH Pannasastra Education Program.