Why Pionero Philanthropy’s partner nonprofits are exceptional!
Why Pionero Philanthropy’s Partner Nonprofits Are Exceptional!
We have 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 reached by donors due to their small size and limited resources.
In fact, 20% of our partner nonprofits have an annual operating budget below $50,000, and 77% have no fundraising staff abroad.
Our partner nonprofits:
- 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 nonprofits operating 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 created 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 partner 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 for audited financial statements online, list of board members, privacy policy, evidence of legal nonprofit status and annual reports in each organization’s website.
4. Efficiency
We analyse the efficiency of financial management of each organization by assessing their administrative expenses as a percentage of their 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 a nonprofits funding model: what are their different sources of funding, the number of fundraising staff within the country they operate in and abroad. Secondly, we assess long-term plans and local engagement: the percentage of local staff in leadership positions, HR policies towards local staff and whether employees receive full benefits according to labor laws, and the possibility of an exit strategy where programs are fully run by local stakeholders.
This thorough evaluation process means we confidently recommend our partner nonprofits and donors have full assurance that their donations will be used for the right purpose.
