Posted by Saul Garlick, Executive Director
ThinkImpact, an international non-profit that connects young Americans to villages in rural Africa to incubate social innovations, has been selected from 94 organizations to receive $37,000 from JP Morgan Chase in their Chase Community Giving program on Facebook.
ThinkImpact successfully collected enough votes in the first round to win $25,000 and to compete in the final round. As a finalist, the Advisory Board selected the organization to receive the prize based on its “Big Idea”: To revolutionize how young people engage in the world. Chase will make a total contribution of $62,000 to ThinkImpact.
The Advisory Board was comprised of internationally recognized leaders in sports, entertainment, media philanthropy and non-profit sectors including David Robinson, Eva Longoria, Nancy Lublin, Elliot Schrage, and Kim Davis.
“It is an honor to be an Advisory Board Pick,” said Saul Garlick, executive director of ThinkImpact. “The organization is at a pivotal moment and this contribution combined with the first round prize will help ThinkImpact work with thousands of community members in Africa and expand opportunities for students from across the United States.”
ThinkImpact is currently looking to scale its proven Global Development Program which has already affected thousands of lives. The program offers summer internships in rural Kenya and South Africa where the next generation of leaders to offer ideas, leadership, and capital to leverage local community resources. Outstanding interns develop social enterprises with community leaders and earn a year-long Global Development Fellowship.
“Our program is uniquely scalable,” Garlick noted. “The $62,000 gift goes four times as far because we have a sustainable model that provides unparalleled learning opportunities for US students and the development of social enterprises that tackle health and education in poor communities. This is an incredible day for ThinkImpact and the social entrepreneurship sector.”
Garlick, 26, founded the organization as a student in high school. Today the group has made an impact worldwide. ThinkImpact has connected American college students from 40 campuses with rural communities to alleviate poverty, built 56 latrines, provided scholarships to 4 South African students from middle school to college, built 3 schools, trained more than 2500 Africans on HIV prevention and touched the lives of 50,000 people in rural Africa.
There were 16 other groups that also received Advisory Board discretionary funds, including Atlas Service Corps, Seeds of Peace and Camfed USA.
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