You can help empower and educate local artisans to learn how to make and sell Nicaraguan pottery. Your sponsorship will provide all technical training and finishing skills to a poor artisan in Nicaragua.

DST aims to reduce panhandling, clean and beautify the downtown area, and give homeless people the opportunity to work. You can support DST's job searching workshops for team members to transition their employment status to a more permanent job.

Jubilee's program offers personalized, holistic services and connects women to the community resources they need to become self-sufficient. Jubilee's care managers meet women where they are at, offering support, encouragement and coaching. You can help support this program by sponsoring work clothing for a homeless women or individualized counseling to a resident to create a success plan: short-term goals that help build a road map for long-term change.

Through its LiftUP Project , Upaya Social Ventures is working with a Delhi-based company that helps area slum dwellers build skills and find dignified work as cleaners, cooks, doormen, and caretakers for local families and businesses. Living in makeshift homes and struggling to meet their basic needs, these prospective employees undergo a 15-day skill-building workshop for a specific role after which they are placed with an employer based on a match of their individual preferences and available openings. Once placed, the company is able to guarantee the employee receives stable wages that will be paid on time, has help setting up a savings account, and will be enrolled in a health insurance program as part of their employment.

$250 is all it costs to create a job, and that job can create as much as $10,000 in additional income in the coming years. Better yet, the first $10,000 contributed to any Upaya project listed on jolkona.org before Dec. 31, 2012 will be matched dollar-for-dollar thanks to a generous contribution from the Skees Family Foundation.

Through its LiftUP Project , Upaya Social Ventures is working with a Bhagalpur, Bihar-based startup that trains marginalized Tasar silk weavers on new skills, techniques, equipment, and designs. Most of the weavers the company employs qualify as ultra poor - generally living under $1.25 a day at the time of their hire - with the majority belonging to lower castes or minority communities. On average, employees will be able to double their average daily income almost immediately, an advancement that Upaya has seen have a dramatic impact on a family’s ability to meet its most basic needs. By contributing to this project, you are supporting Upaya’s ability to provide both the startup capital to launch the business and the management support to ensure that it is creating new jobs where they are needed most.

$250 is all it costs to create a job, and that job can create as much as $10,000 in additional income in the coming years. Better yet, the first $10,000 contributed to any Upaya project listed on jolkona.org before Dec. 31, 2012 will be matched dollar-for-dollar thanks to a generous contribution from the Skees Family Foundation.

You can support women farmers in eastern Sudan by helping provide the seeds, tools, and training they need to feed their families and generate income for their communities. Supporting the newly-formed Women Farmers' Union ensures that women can continue to work collectively to sustain their families for the long haul.

Prior to lending out microloans to low-income families, Washington CASH provides supportive community business training and capital to help individuals with limited financial resources to gain self-sufficiency through small business ownership. Your support of Washington CASH can help improve the economic conditions of Seattle's lower income population.

Downtown Streets Team empowers the homeless population of Palo Alto through a work-first model that provides job opportunities and one-on-one assistance to the homeless. You can support a new transitional housing facility for team members who are looking to get off the streets permanently.