Reimagining Giving
True giving comes from the heart. When you give from the heart, your intention is not to increase dependency, but to increase independence.
For more than a decade, the Courtney Jordan Foundation has been an organisation dedicated to providing sustainable solutions. Its philosophy of giving is simple to state and demanding to practise: hand up, not out.
It is the belief of the Foundation that to give is to give of the heart. This means handing up rather than out. Support is designed to build the capacity of the person receiving it, so that in time they can provide for their family and for others in their community.
Operating by our motto, “help one, save many”, we strive to teach people to fish so they can feed those who cannot.
Our New Direction
Three principles
Handing up
Giving that builds independence rather than deepening dependency. The Foundation invests in skills, enterprise and access so that progress continues long after any single programme ends.
Start-up access
Access is the most important part of seeing an idea come to life. Microfinance, start-up investment and business education give people with ideas and determination the means to act on them.
Global enterprise
Insuring that all have access to the resources needed to make a lasting impact. Enterprise, at every scale, is how communities create employment, belonging and stability.
The best way to break the cycle of need is to replace it with a cycle of empowerment.
Courtney Jordan
Culture first, aid second
In moving into communities throughout the developing world, the Foundation has come to understand that intentions are not always what matters most. Understanding the culture, priorities and capacities of a community comes first. Read more in Culture First, Aid Second: Mozambique and Local Capacity vs. Foreign Dependency.
Reimagining giving
Help one. Save many.
We believe lasting progress begins when people have the knowledge, resources and opportunity to determine their own futures. True giving comes from the heart, and its intention is not to increase dependency but to increase independence.
- Handing up, not out
- Support is designed to end the need for itself, not to sustain it.
- Access before aid
- Access is the most important part of seeing an idea come to life.
- Culture first
- Intentions matter less than understanding the community we serve.