Jolkona has two more reasons to be thankful this holiday season

Creative Services Agency, Causality, announced Jolkona as one of the five winners of its Full Brand Grant. Causality hosted a 2011 Fall Grant Cycle to give select nonprofit organizations either full or matching brand grants. Out of the 109 applicants, Jolkona was selected as one of the five full brand grantees. Jolkona is excited to be partnering with Causality in 2012 to build dynamic and sustainable tools to help elevate Jolkona’s branding, marketing and interactive communications. We are honored to have been chosen as a full grant recipient of Causality’s services and look forward to a creative and dynamic 2012.

Later in the week, Seattle International Foundation (SIF) announced a $5,000 grant to Jolkona to fund Jolkona’s Kona fund. Jolkona CEO Nadia Khawaja had the opportunity of joining over 250 women leaders at Seattle International Foundation’s second annual Women in the World breakfast hosted at the Four Seasons Hotel in Seattle. It was at this event that SIF announced their grants to organizations committed to empowering women and girls around the globe. The total grants given of $159,000 included a SIF grant to Jolkona of $5,000 to continue to fund our microgiving partners in the areas of: education, public health, empowerment, environment and arts and culture.  We are honored by SIF’s support of Jolkona for the second year in a row.

What’s ahead in 2012?

We look forward to growing our development team to include leadership staff, volunteers and interns in Seattle and Chicago.

We look forward to advancing relationships with others committed to forwarding education, public health and women empowerment, alleviating environmental concerns and advancing the arts and culture.

We look forward to widening our partnerships with foundations, corporations, media, community leaders, small businesses and individual philanthropists in sponsoring gift matching campaigns, hosting special events, spotlighting Jolkona or making Jolkona the recipient of philanthropic support.

We look forward to another great year of changing the world one drop at a time!

If you are interested in partnering with Jolkona, or are interested in volunteering on the development team, please email kaylin@jolkona.org

Late July of this last summer, Jolkona raised money through our Groupon campaign to fund women grassroots leaders to come to Seattle and participate in a 10 week training program. The deal was this: for every $500 raised, Jolkona would fund one week of training for one woman. In addition, all funds raised would be munificently matched by Seattle International Foundation, and then implemented by iLEAP. Let me say right now that it was – and continues to be – a brilliant success, and on so many levels. And here’s why:

The total raised from the 3 day Groupon campaign, plus the additional donations since then, including the generous match from SIF, is a vertiginous $20,000! (I’m not usually one for wielding exclamation points in my grammar, but that one is thoroughly warranted.) And with that amount raised, Jolkona was able to fund fellowships for two women for the entire 10 week training program. Please, allow me to introduce them to you:

Claudia Vanessa Siliezar (left) and Margaret Edwin Molomoo (right)

Claudia Vanessa Siliezar is from Honduras – she is a Sociology and Law professor at CEUTEC-UNITEC in La Ceiba, and is coordinator at GOjoven Honduras, where she is involved in promoting women’s rights, especially those pertaining to reproductive and sexual health, as well as in combating violence against women.

And….

Margaret Edwin Molomoo is from India. She works for Tarumitra, where she educates students, farmers, and women about the methods and benefits of organic farming in villages surrounding Bahir. Her work has assisted many farming groups in changing their use of chemical pesticides and fertilizers in their farming practices.

Thanks to the funds raised, Claudia and Margaret, already stalwart pursuers of a fairer society, are now even better equipped to grow their successful, high-impact programs.

In connection with this, we are inviting you to the extraordinary annual Women in the World’s Breakfast, held at the Four Seasons in Seattle, where you can meet our fellows, Claudia and Margaret, in the flesh. Buy tickets here. And to whet your appetite, here’s the inspiring video of last year’s event:

The raising of the funds and the opportunity and skills it provided Claudia and Margaret were not the only success stories of this campaign. Another aspect deserving of sincere pats on the back was the campaign’s collaboration: the three-pronged spearhead of SIF, iLEAP, and Jolkona. You see, unfortunately, too many nonprofits try to go at campaigns alone, and what this campaign exemplifies is the exponential difference nonprofits can make when they work together. Remember: a problem shared is a problem halved.

Our goal is to fund 5 women; so far we’ve funded 2. The campaign is still running and SIF is still matching every one of your donations, dollar for dollar. Make a difference. See the results. Give to the campaign here: Invest in Women Grassroots Leaders from Around the World.

On December 30th, 2010, while many of us on the Jolkona team were visiting some of our partners in Africa, the Seattle International Foundation announced their Round 2 Grant recipients under its Global Program here.

We are excited, humbled, and honored to announce that Jolkona was selected as 1 of 15 organizations to receive one of these grants. What is more exciting is that this first grant Jolkona has received and we hope this is a sign of more funding to come! We plan to focus the $15,000 grant towards vetting and adding new projects to Jolkona’s platform this year, particularly in South America, enhancing partner engagement, and improving the user experience of giving through Jolkona.

The Seattle International Foundation is a supporting organization of the Seattle Foundation and exists to promote global giving in Seattle and to invest in initiatives for global development. Jolkona is thrilled to be a part of this network, thanks to their generous help and support.

If you’re interested in supporting our work related to partner expansion and engagement, you can do so by making a donation to our Kona Fund here. True to the Jolkona model of providing feedback, we look forward to tracking our progress on increasing the number of projects and the impacts of increased partner engagement this year!