Grants

Goal

The goal of Friends of Nigeria's grant program is to fund real, concrete projects in Nigeria that help Nigerians take charge of their lives and overcome the effects of poverty and lack of development.  Our current emphasis is on Maternal Health and Fistula Repair, provision of health care to otherwise unserved villages, support of NGOs that respond to local emergencies, provision of support to internally displaced persons who are fleeing from Boko Haram violence, and infrastructure for computer training programs. 

Priorities

FON prioritizes projects that directly involve local people in the decision-making process, will result in specific, material results, and address clear needs.  Examples include:

1. The provision of medical supplies for a group involving volunteers to provide medical clinics to otherwise unserved villages.

2. Providing solar panels and batteries to a computer training facility to enable it to avoid the cost of running a generator during the frequent outages of the local electrical system.   Similarly providing replacement batteries for a rural solar system whose batteries had expired for a village health clinic.

3. Support for a local organization seeking out victims of fistula, providing comprehensive maternal health support, and educating rural populations in the causes and prevention of fistula.

4. Support of a middle belt NGO responding to farmer-herder violence by rebuilding burned-out homes and trying to shame the local government into providing similar services.

5. Provision of seed capital for micro-lending, primarily to female entrepreneurs.

History

Here is a summary of the grants we have made over the years:

Disbursements are funded by contributions and surplus dues not required for operational expenses.  Here is a summary of the contributions members have donated over the years:

Contributions

Now things will get a little more complicated.  Here is a presentation of the grants by the recipient organization, by year.  The first 10 years:

The last 10 years and recipient totals: 273991

Friends of Nigeria has strived to support projects that emphasize quantifiable results.  Numbers of medicines or medical treatments given.  Building improvements that result in an improved ability to deliver results.  Microlending capital that results in ongoing loans to female entrepreneurs.  Refugee relief that results in internally displaced persons being fed or educated.  Crisis relief that results in people kept from starvation or people able to rebuild their homes.  Community education that results in improved local knowledge of maternal health issues and the identification of candidates for fistula surgery.  Provision of solar cells or batteries that enable organizations to avoid spending precious capital on generators and fuel to fill in the time that the grid does not provide electricity.

Friends of Nigeria has also strived to support projects that directly involve local people in a decision-making way.  Working with local governments to identify where and how to repair roads and infrastructure.  Working with local community groups to spread knowledge of maternal health issues and fistula prevention.  Working with local groups to provide computer education and computer hardware so that students can prepare to take the required exams with computers.

At various times over the years, there has been a subcommittee of the board of directors that evaluates project requests.  Then for a while, we tried having the entire board choose which projects to fund.  The entire board process did not work as well as the subcommittee approach, so we have recently re-established a project committee.  It has not published an application outline, but stay tuned, it may soon.  At any rate, document your project and communicate it to any board member, who will make sure that it is communicated onto the committee.