Geneva Global, Inc.

Creation of a Customized Fund Enables Foundation to Focus Their Strategy, Leverage Their Giving, and Maximize Their Impact

How do you take foundation money, even considerable amounts of it, and make a difference with something as widespread as HIV/AIDS on the vast African continent? It’s a tough question to answer, but it’s the sort of sweeping aspiration that we feel is our business. It’s a broad goal, yet focused on one problem. One very big problem.

Such a corporate-funded foundation came to Geneva Global with the idea of investing their philanthropic giving in HIV prevention and AIDS care programs in Africa.  The directors knew they wanted their giving to be used strategically, but didn’t have the dedicated resources to make that happen. Geneva Global staff worked with them to understand exactly what they wanted their granting to accomplish, helping them frame expectations, set goals, adjust their timing and reveal windows of opportunity.

Countries were identified within Africa where funding for HIV/AIDS prevention and care was most critically needed, ensuring that efforts would be placed strategically. Geneva Global’s AIDS expert then met with our field consultants, on-the-ground in various African nations, and recommended the most exceptional local organizations with experience implementing these kinds of programs.

Throughout the process, Geneva worked with the foundation’s directors to ensure that the approach was working, and in keeping with their goals for what was a considerable grant. The result was a customized granting strategy designed to connect their goals with good community development practices, and to result in lasting impact.

Once the granting strategy was finalized, Geneva conducted due diligence on the most qualified, locally based organizations, our particular method of establishing benchmarks for each program followed, providing metrics to measure the impact of the foundation’s investment. Monitoring of those whose lives were changed was next, with detailed reporting provided.

Geneva Global advisors made other potential donors aware of the strategic opportunity this effort offered, and the foundation’s giving was leveraged through the creation of a Fund – an unexpected satisfaction to accompany an already positive collaboration.

All of it stemmed from what originally seemed like an overwhelming task: HIV/AIDS prevention and care in Africa.  The program was so successful that the following year, a new Fund was created and based on the same model, focusing on additional strategic locations across Africa. The end result: the foundation’s original grant monies were increased by contributions from other donors, with final grants totaling over $4.5 million.  Over 130 grass-roots organizations were identified, and over 679,000 lives were impacted.