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Photo: OneVillage Partners
We seek to increase the standard of living for youth and families living in poverty in developing countries.
The Foundation believes that the standard of living is about what individuals can do and become, as well as the economic terms of the Gross National Product. Individuals need both capabilities and opportunities to pursue a life of dignity and value.
Photo: Seeds for Progress
The Foundation supports sustainable and integrated solutions that increase capability and provide opportunity. Individuals can understand what they can become and understand their needs. So, individuals within the community need to be involved in designing and delivering solutions. To address the complexity of poverty, the coordination of solutions are essential in recognition of a range of critical needs, including, but not limited to:
Opportunities may vary based on rural or urban settings, and all well-defined opportunities are welcome for consideration. Because the largest population of individuals living in poverty connects to agriculture, support that includes building agricultural skills and sustainable agriculture markets is of particular interest.
Education comes in many forms, from primary and secondary education to building the skills of adults. We are interested in options that increase capabilities, provide opportunities, and lead to improved livelihoods.
Family planning and reproductive health and water, sanitation, and hygiene (WASH).
Nutrition, housing, and other basic needs are critical in ensuring that opportunities can be utilized.
Individuals who have repeatedly faced barriers may need additional support to find their strength and determine their direction.
These characteristics are important in how the work is done:
Sustainable systems do not hand out tangible commodities that will be gone after support concludes. Instead, sustainable systems ensure that human and natural resources are nurtured, grown, and produced from within the community and continue to exist even when outside aid is no longer provided.
Grant partners must have practices that ensure all women and men have equitable access to, authority over, and benefit from the programs. Partners will demonstrate their work increases the capability of women and girls to understand their rights, determine the direction of their life, and influence decision-making in households, communities, and societies.
Photo: Fabretto
Photo: Fabretto
It is important that economic growth opportunities are shared equitably across class, ethnicity, race, birthplace, and family backgrounds. Grant partners will demonstrate their work increases opportunity for all and does not leave behind any group in the community’s economic progress.
It is important that grant partners learn from the community and support the community in creating their own methods to increase the standard of living. Grant partners will demonstrate that beneficiaries have had a voice in designing and managing the activities and influencing outcomes. While it may be worthwhile to engage United States skilled volunteers to increase partner capacity, U.S. volunteer engagement should not be the primary objective or significant revenue source of the grant partner.
We are interested in partnering with non-governmental organizations that can directly provide (or partner with other nonprofit organizations that directly provide) either a comprehensive system of support to families or integrate a specific intervention into a comprehensive system of support based on the needs expressed by the community. We are most interested in partnering with innovative partners and we are willing to take project risk with a proven organization.
Although the following strategies may complement the overall Foundation goal, they fall outside of our desired focus:
Photo: The Nature Conservancy
The Mortenson Family Foundation may make multi-year grants as an additional way to support partner organizations with two- or three-year grant commitments that are capped at 33% of the following year’s projected grantmaking budget. The Foundation will use its discretion in considering an organization for a multi-year grant.
The Foundation extends invitations to prospective partners to submit an application.
Geography:
Central America
(Nicaragua, Guatemala, Honduras, El Salvador)
Africa
(Eastern Democratic Republic of Congo, Uganda, Tanzania, Malawi, Zambia, Mozambique, Liberia, Sierra Leone, Guinea, Senegal)
Photo: OneVillage Partners
In 2020, the Foundation committed to engaging community members on each of its three grant committees as part of its equity commitment.
Currently, the grant committee is comprised of Foundation board members. As we live into our equity commitment, we seek to engage a broader base of voices for our grantmaking process.
Photo: Seeds for Progress