About the GVN Foundation

Background

Colin Salisbury founded the Global Volunteer Network (now the GVN Charitable Trust) in the year 2000. After several years of successfully supporting grassroots organizations around the world through GVN's placement of volunteers, Colin Salisbury and Courtney Montague identified a gap in the assistance they were providing to these organizations. It was determined that there was a need to support these organizations not only through the placement of volunteers, but also through funding.

In 2005, Colin Salisbury and Courtney Montague founded the GVN Foundation with the goal of providing a platform for GVN volunteers and supporters to fundraise for GVN projects. The GVN Foundation is a 501(c)(3) tax-exempt non-profit organization in the United States. In 2009, the GVN Foundation was granted Special Consultative Status with the United Nations Economic and Social Council.

Mission and Objectives

We believe that empowering women and children is the key to changing the world. We do this by providing financial resources to grassroots organizations working with vulnerable women and children in Africa, Asia and Latin America. Our core objectives are:

• To provide a source of funding for GVN projects that work with vulnerable women and children;
• To provide fun, inspiring and educational opportunities for GVN volunteers to stay connected to their volunteer projects through fundraising;
• To introduce new people to the work of GVN through our fundraising campaigns.

Key Achievements

Over the past six years the GVN Foundation has raised over $1.6 million to support the work of our partner organizations around the world. We have raised these funds through our annual Eat So They Can campaign; through fundraising treks to Everest base camp, Kilimanjaro and Machu Picchu; through emergency relief appeals; through GVN volunteers who have set up a variety of creative fundraisers; through our Christmas campaigns; and through our committed sponsors. The funds we have raised have been used to provide grants to our partner organizations to assist with nutrition programs, education, construction projects and healthcare. We have provided grants to help meet the basic needs of our projects and we have also increasingly provided grants to fund income-generating and sustainability projects.