Why Pionero Philanthropy’s nonprofit members are exceptional!
We searched across Guatemala to find the most outstanding nonprofits that are making a real impact in their communities.
Pionero works grassroots nonprofits that would not otherwise not be visible due to their size
In fact, 20% of our nonprofit members have an annual operating budget below $50,000, and 77% have no fundraising staff abroad.
Our Nonprofit Members:
- Have grassroots local leadership
- Are integrated, in touch and trusted in the communities they serve
- Have a real understanding of the cultural context in which they are operating, and where relevant, local indigenous languages
- Implement services that are relevant to their community
- Operate in remote communities where international organizations are not present
We work with nonprofit members across 9 areas of need: Health, Education, Women, Community Development, Human Rights, Animal Welfare, Youth & Children, Crime, Environment & Conservation.
How Pionero evaluates nonprofits
We have a database of nonprofits built on an academically and experientially backed methodology that is contextually relevant and impartially applied. We thoroughly evaluate all nonprofits against our five pillars evaluation criteria:
1. Impact Evidence
To assess each nonprofit’s impact we ask if they conduct social impact evaluation for their programs and ask for reports, statistics and data to backup their claims. We ask about the ways in which projects are developed, analyzing community involvement, methodology of community needs assessments, and relevance of service provided. In addition, we contact local governments and ask about the most high impact organizations in their municipality.
2. Evidence of Need
We list all issue areas targeted by our member nonprofits per municipality and collect government data on the evidence of need for each service provided. For example, if we are analyzing an organization that provides scholarship in one municipality, we collect data on education indicators in the region including: literacy rate, percentage of population that completed primary/middle/high school, school retention rates, school attendance per gender, etc.
3. Transparency
We assess the transparency of nonprofits by analysing the amount of information made public. We look online for several key documents. These include; financial statements, list of board members, privacy policy, evidence of legal nonprofit status and annual reports.
4. Efficiency,
We analyse the efficiency of financial management of each organization using a few essential ratios. These include administrative expenses as a percentage of total expenditure, number of employees, number of beneficiaries and yearly operating budget.
5. Sustainability
The analysis of sustainability is twofold: we look into financial sustainability and empowerment of local staff. Firstly, we collect data on the nonprofits’ funding model. We look at for example, what are their different sources of funding? The number of fundraising staff within Guatemala and abroad?
Secondly, we assess long-term plans and local engagement. Elements we look at include the percentage of local staff in leadership positions; and whether they receive full benefits according to labor laws. We also look at whether the organization has an exit strategy where programs are fully run by local stakeholders.
This thorough evaluation process means we can confidently recommend our member nonprofits. Those who choose to support these nonprofits have greater assurance that their contributions will be used for the right purpose.
