As GHR Foundation continues to expand our impact, we are presented with opportunities to grow our team and add new talent. We rely on the skills and experience of our staff every day, and owe our success to their expertise. This week, we had an addition to our program staff—Arielle Milton joined as a program associate for GHR’s global development program, where she will provide support to the Children in Families and Sister Support initiatives.

Arielle previously worked at The Kresge Foundation in Michigan, where she served the human services program area and the American Cities Practice, providing project management, operational and grants management coordination. Arielle is a 2017 New Leaders Council fellow, a Michigan co-chair of the Emerging Practitioners in Philanthropy and co-chair of Young Nonprofit Professionals Network’s National Fundraising Think Tank.

Arielle has dedicated her career to the philanthropic sector, seeking learning opportunities that promote the improvement of life outcomes for children, youth and families in vulnerable communities. We are confident her support of our program team will allow us to grow and make change around the world. To learn more about GHR’s team, contact us.

When international nonprofits approach global development issues, they often use a top-down structure to work with local partners. This makes sharing local knowledge and best practices difficult, and diminishes the ability of local partners to influence governments or implement policy change.

In 2009, U.K.-based nonprofit Every Child realized the limitations of their approach to helping vulnerable children and families. Taking a radical leap of faith, they decided on a creative, innovative restructuring. Every Child disbanded itself and began a seven-year planning period, emerging in 2016 as Family for Every Child, an independent global alliance of former international partners and grassroots civil society organizations.

Family for Every Child’s act of creative reconstruction attracted GHR’s attention, and ultimately, support. In 2012, our Children in Families initiative became one of Family for Every Child’s first funders, issuing a small grant to assist them in capacity building for membership engagement. More recently, we supported Family for Every Child’s development of Guidelines on Children’s Reintegration, a valuable resource for child protection around the world. Today, Family for Every Child is a global alliance composed of 30 organizations with shared goals, connecting and collaborating to break the glass ceiling that prevents many local organizations from achieving policy changes that effectively protect children.
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Bold nonprofits that choose innovative, lean approaches to global problems often lack the support necessary for growth. To fill this gap, GHR is committed to supporting organizations like Family for Every Child. We believe impact can be maximized when approaches to challenges are continuously re-imagined, and we hope to collaborate with more organizations that embrace risk and reinvention to better serve the communities in which they work.

​GHR funds collaborations between nonprofits and civil society organizations because we value bold and innovative solutions to challenges faced by vulnerable children. What does collaboration look like within your organization or alliance? Share your success, opportunities and questions in the comments below or learn more about GHR’s Children in Families initiative here.

GHR recently had the honor of hosting a group from Kenya, visiting through the State Department’s International Visitor Leadership Program with Global Minnesota. We shared our Inter-Religious Action initiative’s funding efforts in Kenya, and learned about the inspiring work being done by these exceptional community leaders to improve lives, build peace and counter violent extremism through youth engagement.
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GHR invests in long-term peace building efforts along the Kenyan coast through our collaboration with Catholic Relief Services, the Coast Interfaith Council of Clerics and the Malindi Catholic Diocese through a project called the Dialogue Action Project, an initiative aimed at eliminating child marriage and improving household income through community saving groups.
 
Our guests shared inspiring stories from their efforts to promote peace across religions in their communities. For example, after the 2015 terrorist attacks on Garrissa University in Kenya, Ayub Mohamud, a high school teacher in Nairobi, set up Teachers Against Violent Extremism. The organization is now an interfaith network of teachers across Kenya working to share ideas that incorporate peace, tolerance and bridge-building with students in and outside classroom. In 2016, Mahamud was nominated for the Varkey Foundation’s Global Teacher Prize for his impressive work. Mahamud is an excellent example of the importance of dialogue and inter-faith collaboration in building a more peaceful world. 

We look forward to learning more from community leaders like our visitors from Kenya, and we are energized by the efforts of these individuals to promote peace and global development. To learn more about how GHR is bridging divides through our Inter-Religious Action initiative, contact us.

The BridgeBuilder Challenge is moving into an excited new phase, and we’re thrilled to announce a shortlist of the top 100 ideas. With more than 660 ideas connecting peace, prosperity and planet, the decision could not have been more difficult—both the GHR and OpenIDEO teams were thrilled with the volume, creativity and quality of ideas. Beyond the ideas, a community has taken shape around the Challenge, and we’ve seen connections and relationships form that we hope will strengthen each other’s work.
 
The shortlisted ideas will be moving on to the Beneficiary Feedback phase, during which they will have the opportunity to practice human-centered design on their ideas in the field, gathering feedback in local communities and sharing key insights.
 
Take a moment to check out some of the shortlisted ideas and join the conversation—we encourage you to connect with others working in regions or sectors in which you are interested. Your thoughts are essential in helping the shortlisted ideas expand their potential for impact, so share your feedback, expertise and questions!
 
Due to the unprecedented volume of ideas, we were unable to shortlist some amazing, impactful organizations doing groundbreaking work. If you submitted an idea that isn’t moving on to the Beneficiary Feedback phase, we encourage you to continue innovating with the help of these resources from OpenIDEO. By continuing to harness OpenIDEO’s approach and engaging with like-minded collaborators, you have an opportunity to increase the impact of your idea, and even prepare it for next year’s BridgeBuilder Challenge.
 
Thank you so much to everyone who contributed their passion and creativity to this Challenge—we look forward to sharing updates as we move into the Beneficiary Feedback phase. If you have any questions about the Challenge process or are interested in strengthening your idea with human-centered design, contact us!

Catholic sisters have always crossed boundaries between countries and cultures, but as congregations become increasingly diverse, we recognize the need for more knowledge and collaboration. GHR recently commissioned ‘International Sisters in the United States,’ a first-of-its-kind study that is gaining traction and opening a new dialogue on the challenges faced by international sisters, as well as the benefits of growing diversity.

Conducted by the Center of Applied Research in the Apostolate at Georgetown (CARA) and Trinity Washington University with support from GHR and first shared at a convening in March, the study brings international sisters to the forefront as we celebrate their remarkable contributions to religious life. Since its launch, lead researcher Sr. Mary Johnson has reported on the findings at the University of Notre Dame and plans to present to the Association of Missionaries and Religious of Ireland in Dublin.

The issue of Catholic sisters moving between countries is not unique to the United States—the insights in this report apply to women's religious life globally. To continue this conversation, GHR and the International Union of Superiors General are hosting a convening on May 4 in Rome. Those gathered will have the opportunity to learn about the research and use it as a starting point as they consider its implications in their home countries. 

To learn more about how GHR is working with Catholic sisters to build bridges between communities and foster peace, contact us.

From Grantmakers for Effective Organizations:

"How co-designing with grantees and partners from Day 1 can lead to stronger collaborations, flexible solutions and more meaningful impact.
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The call for greater collaboration has been persistent in philanthropy in recent years. The message is clear: The scale and complexity of the problems that the sector seeks to address require collaborative approaches and an independent, go-at-it-alone mentality..."
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With 662 ideas from participants in 185 countries, the Ideas phase of the 2017 BridgeBuilder Challenge has come to a close. We called on our global community to submit solutions addressing urgent global challenges in radically new ways, and were presented with an unexpected number of ideas from social innovators around the world. A huge thanks to everyone who participated, whether you submitted an idea, gave feedback or helped spread the word—you made the Ideas phase a tremendous success!

We at GHR are energized and inspired by the quality of submissions, and humbled by the expertise and dedication of everyone who participated in the Challenge community. We received ideas building bridges between peace, prosperity and planet in innovative ways, finding intersections in unexpected places. The reach of the Challenge provides us with diverse perspectives and opportunities outside our usual funding areas, which we hope pushes our work to the next level. 

​As we enter the Review phase, the GHR and OpenIDEO teams are eagerly digging into Challenge submissions. On May 1, after close and thoughtful review, we will announce the shortlisted ideas. We are excited to explore the ideas, learn from the creativity of Challenge participants and ensure their contributions help push the Foundation's work to the next level. The ideas selected during the Final Evaluation phase will be announced in July. 

GHR has committed $3 million to three challenges with OpenIDEO, and we will be conducting a second Challenge around this time next year. Until then, stay plugged in to the Challenge community—you can continue commenting on the ideas and discussing them with one another!

From Forbes: 

"There is much to be done around the world – there are people in need and societal systems that need improvement. And as global need continues, so does the shift toward groundbreaking innovation. Human-centered design, the power of technology and transformational partnerships have been taking the globe by storm, creating, solving and bringing new solutions to age-old problems.
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Minnesota-based GHR Foundation believes this innovation can help solve some of the greatest social challenges facing our world today..." 
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From the Foundation Center: 

"...Currently, we’re in the early stages of the BridgeBuilder Challenge, a collaboration with GHR Foundation in which we’re looking for solutions for global challenges at the intersection of peace, prosperity and planet. There is a deep need for dialogue and collaboration across these issue areas, and our challenge platform provides a space for that. The BridgeBuilder Challenge is therefore not organized as a traditional challenge with winners and losers, but as a quick and inviting way to build an impactful community.
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Already over 190 solutions have been submitted, ranging from Pioneer Valley Renewables, that  makes underwater turbines to improve electricity access in rural communities, to BanQu, a software technology that connects refugees and the world’s poorest to the global economy through digital identity..."
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GHR recently partnered with Global Minnesota to host a reception attended by 150 guests honoring two extraordinary women—Sister Carolin Tahhan Fachakh (Sister Carol) of Syria and Jannat Al Ghezi of Iraq. Sister Carol and Jannat are both recipients of the 2017 Secretary of State’s International Women of Courage award. Each year, this prestigious award recognizes women who have shown exceptional courage and leadership in advocating for human rights and women's empowerment, often at great personal risk.
 
Born in Aleppo, Syria, Sister Carol has remained in Damascus throughout the war. She was nominated by the Vatican for her ongoing service to refugee communities and children. The nursery school she runs provides a safe and friendly environment for more than 200 children, and a tailoring workshop she manages economically empowers women who have been internally displaced by the war. Jannat is the deputy director of the Organization of Women’s Freedom in Iraq, and her organization has helped more than 500 victims of rape and domestic abuse by offering shelter, education, legal services and practical skill training.
 
GHR had the honor of meeting these incredible women of courage, and introducing Sister Carol, whose work has special importance to the foundation. GHR’s Sister Support Initiative is rooted in the fact that Catholic sisters are on the front line of every tough issue in the world, and Sister Carol is living proof if this. The world is enriched by the faith, dedication and service of Sister Carol, Jannat and sisters around the world facing great risks on a daily basis. To learn more about how GHR is working with Catholic sisters to restore communities and build peace, contact us.
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