Donations

The Partnership Program offers a variety of ways to direct your contribution. The following list of funds has been established to help you determine how you want your contribution to be put to work.

Global Fund

With the generous support of donors across America, each year the Peace Corps Partnership Program funds hundreds of community-initiated projects around the world. Often our donors do not wish to specify where their contributions go; they just want to help Peace Corps and the communities we serve anyway they can. In these instances, donations are placed in the Global Fund and are used to support a variety of projects that fall short of funding from other sources.

Patrick J. Cunningham Fund

Patrick J. Cunningham served as a Peace Corps small business development volunteer in Sri Lanka from 1991 to 1993 where his work focused on the development of income-generating projects. Following his service, Patrick returned to the United States and used his Peace Corps experience to embark on a career in international business development. In January 2003, at the age of 36, Patrick was tragically killed in an automobile accident.

This fund was established by his family to celebrate his life and to help carry on his work and dedication to the Peace Corps.

Loret Miller Ruppe Fund for the Advancement of Women

Loret Miller Ruppe served as Director of the Peace Corps from 1981-89. Following her death, this fund was established with a generous grant from her family to assist Peace Corps volunteers who wish to carry on the work that was so important to her, most specifically the empowerment of women and girls around the world.

Contributions to this fund are committed to community-initiated and volunteer-led projects such as establishing women's cooperatives, increasing women's access to resources and services, exploring gender roles, building shelters, and increasing training programs.

HIV/AIDS Prevention and Education Fund

Since the beginning of the AIDS pandemic, Peace Corps has been actively engaged in efforts to address the devastating social and economic impact of this disease with the major focus of our work geared toward prevention and mitigation. It is an initiative our volunteers are uniquely well-suited to undertake because they live and work in local communities and are able to share information in a culturally sensitive way.

Our work in this field, funded in large measure by public-private partnerships, by has recognized for its excellence by the State Department's Interagency Working Group and highlighted as a "Best Practices" case study on Public-Private Partnerships.

Contributions to this fund will support volunteer-led projects such as the training of host country nationals, and the development of public awareness materials and culturally appropriate educational strategies.

Information & Communication Technology Fund

Peace Corps Volunteers are working with men and women in communities throughout the developing world to help them gain access to information technology skills and resources. Consistent with all Peace Corps volunteer work, their efforts are aimed at the promotion of social and economic development and the reduction of poverty. To this aim, volunteers are using IT to enhance existing small, local entrepreneurial efforts, our volunteers allow once isolated communities to link to the world and find and capitalize on opportunities once completely out of reach.

This fund is designed to allow individuals, corporations, and Internet companies to support technology-based projects such as teaching computer skills, establishing school computer labs, and integrating Information Technology into local school curriculums.

Business Development Fund

This fund supports Volunteer projects that focus on business education or a particular segment of the host country's economy such as agribusiness or micro-finance. Volunteers assigned to work in the Small Enterprise Development sector pursue projects such as working with savings and loans institutions, women's groups, artisans, culture banks, and small business owners.

Education Fund

This fund helps Volunteers build libraries and resource centers, promote adult literacy, and encourage parents and communities to become more involved in the education of their children. In addition, in response to a more technology-oriented world, Volunteers have embarked on Information Technology projects—when able—to help the communities they serve compete in a more globalized world.

Environment Fund

This fund assists communities where environmental issues are in conflict with basic needs for farming and income generation. These projects help preserve the dignity of a community while not destroying its agriculture or natural resources. Volunteers work with the communities and use the environment to achieve their goals.

Youth Fund

This fund supports projects targeting children and young adults throughout the developing world. Volunteers who work with youth educate them on health issues, such as HIV/AIDS. They help organized youth activities geared towards giving these youth hope. Soccer tournaments, dance troupes, drama groups, debate teams, and Model UN are just some of the examples of youth and Volunteer generated activities.

Water and Sanitation Fund

This fund supports projects designed to provide safe, affordable and sustainable supplies of drinking water to communities served by Peace Corps Volunteers. Volunteers involved with water and sanitation projects work with their respective communities to design locally appropriate solutions that meet and sustain the local community’s water and sanitation needs. Examples of water and sanitation projects include aqueducts, wells, rain catchment systems, latrines and basic sanitation trainings.

Last updated Sep 20 2008