World Venture Partners (WVP) is a group of individuals who want to learn about global issues and improve understanding between individual Americans and economically disadvantaged people in other parts of the world. Each calendar year, WVP will select an issue and a geographic region, then identify and fund several projects where our dollars can make a difference and where our members can potentially have some personal involvement.

For the year 2003, WVP has chosen to study global water issues. We will make three to five grants in the $2500 to $10,000 range for projects that will provide access to safe water or improve water quality for people in Latin America or the Caribbean. These grants will be made directly to non-profit organizations in the target countries, through Grassroots International.

Project Criteria

To be eligible to receive a grant, each project will:

• Improve access to water or improve water quality for an identifiable group of people, at an ongoing cost they can afford.
• Be administered by an in-country organization or international NGO with a proven track record on similar projects. The organization will have an English-speaking contact person and email access.
• Be completed within one year after receiving the grant, and have measurable results
• Be community-driven and include participation by the community it benefits (money or labor).
• Be sustainable—including provisions for maintenance and ongoing funding.
• May include education on related issues such as sanitation and hygiene.
• Not have any religious objective (i.e., we will consider religiously-affiliated organizations to administer water projects, but the project cannot include religious education or evangelism).

The Grant Process

• WVP will gather a list of 10-20 candidate organizations by consulting U.S.-based organizations working on global water issues.
• These organizations will be invited to submit a Letter of Interest that describes their project and its funding needs in one-two pages.
• WVP will invite five-ten projects to submit formal proposals.
• WVP will review the proposals and (through Grassroots International) make sure that the organization satisfies non-profit requirements.
• WVP representatives may make one or more site visits.
• WVP will select project and award grants through Grassroots International.

Evaluation and Reporting
• Organizations will be asked to send a quarterly status email.
• WVP representatives may make site visits over the grant period.
• Organizations will be asked to send a Final Project Report (contents TBD).