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About Jim Arden
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Venture Philanthropy: Giving with your heart and hands

More and more, individuals are looking to give more than just a check. People want to be personally involved in the work they are supporting; they want to be hands-on. The JAF has experience working with individuals, families, and affinity groups that have adopted or sponsored a community, village, local micro lending institution or full-scale enterprise (i.e. farm).

Executive Director, Eric V. Eitel, refined the process for Venture Philanthropists to become intimately involved in a meaningful project during his six year tenure as Regional Director for World Vision. In that time he escorted oil traders, mutual fund managers, analysts, doctors, entrepreneurs, bankers, and a host of others to 12 African nations, Bosnia, Mexico, and Ecuador on Vision Trips. Participants built schools, youth centers, established working farms and supported health programs.

It is from these experiences that our interest in working one-on-one with individual venture philanthropists was born. We will work closely with families or individuals who want to investigate and invest in a community in a way that allows them to offer more than just their financial support. JAF will facilitate trips to developing world countries and connect donors with trusted ground agents already engaged in sustainable community development work. In this way the donor can join forces with local professionals who have studied the needs and vital statistics of a community and who have outlined a credible strategy, but who need funding. One can choose a project based on their area of interest whether it be health, water and sanitation, education, food security, AIDS awareness and education, orphans, trauma counseling, or microenterprise development. We will help facilitate regular communication, semi-annual reports, visits on both sides, and funding accountability. Our goal is to make philanthropy be as meaningful and fulfilling as possible in the following ways:

  • Connection with a community or micro-entrepreneur with whom the donor can have ongoing relationship
  • Opportunity to see visible change come from the funded project
  • Opportunities to help deserving entrepreneurs realize their dreams
  • Construction of schools, churches, dams, wells, youth centers or other structures that would benefit the community
  • Return trip opportunities where children can get a genuine appreciation for the developing world and how most people on earth live
  • Discreet service that provides the opportunity to give anonymously

The Jim Arden Foundation works with African communities one-on-one or sometimes through on-the-ground agents i.e. non-governmental organizations (NGO�s) to help facilitate sustainable community development. The goal in each case is to enhance quality of life, provide support that ultimately leads to independence, and help facilitate meaningful interaction and long-term relationship between the community and the donor. Underscoring our trust and respect of the professionals serving in the community, we endeavor to support their work with special funding to enhance their long-term goals and objectives.

To arrange for this experience, click on Private Trips. Trips will be led by either Jim Arden or Eric Eitel.
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