We want our grants to make real change in this world. This is why we focus on the people in the trenches doing the work. And this is why we find leaders who have already garnered the trust of their community and are already doing important things.

From building new rice markets using a cell phone, to creating handheld, picture-based apps to flag high-risk pregnancies in remote areas, to meeting with government officials to change the way they think about migrant education…the things our partners do are amazing.

And their ideas are their own. They are not being asked to implement programs developed thousands of miles away by a group of people they’ve never met.

Instead, they are working on projects that come from what they see their communities need, what they know is possible, and their knowledge of working through complicated local systems to get things done.

If you want results, there’s no substitute for the wisdom of people on the ground. And there’s no shortcut to developing leadership skills and growing stable networks.