Issroff Family Foundation

You're a small, locally-led organization making a ?????? ???????????? in your community. The problem is, you struggle to measure and communicate that impact to the rest of the world. What do you do? Next month, one of our consultants based in Kenya, Stephanie Haase (she/her), will be launching a "Foundations of M&E" workshop to help simplify the M&E process and provide tools for tracking your impact so that you can use data to communicate what you do. The price per person for the training is intentionally kept low, recognizing that there is a need for many smaller organizations operating on a tight budget to understand and implement M&E strategies. Further discounts are available for organizations from the Global South with an annual budget of less than $100,000. Find out more: https://lnkd.in/ess5DTuN

I've seen hundreds of pitches for pre-launch startups with United Social Ventures. The most common problem??? You reach the end and can’t sum up the model in one clear sentence. So, I've created a Pitch Building Tool ? in Google Docs – to guide founders from crafting that essential one-liner to developing the key insights for their deck. I’d love for you to try it out with your initiatives! Whether you’re refining your pitch or just getting started, give it a go, and let me know how it goes (and what could be improved!). ?? #Startups #Pitching #SocialImpact #Entrepreneurship

?????? Congratulations, #CollaborativeLearningInitiative Cohort Graduates 2024! Today we celebrate the intrepid, inspiring, life-changing leaders who have journeyed together these past ten months to grow themselves, their organizations, and their impact. We can't wait to see what you do next! Alfred Sigo Bahati Mgogwe Dativah Bideri Mukamusonera Cavin Odera Charles Godfrey Ssempewo Edward Fathila Nanozi Hadijah Nankanja Mugenyi George William Gisèle Umutoniwase Jedidah Lemaron Lucy Chepchumba Lydia Charles Moyo Jeremy Muriithi Marie-Ange Ra?ssa UWAMUNGU nsambya charles Sarah Musau (PhD) Venoranda. R. Kuboka Wyclife Barasa

It's been a season of connecting with friends and partners, old and new. Last week, Lisa Issroff joined other social impact leaders and funders in Tarrytown for #Schmoozefest2024. Thank you to the Livelihood Impact Fund team for creating a wonderful space for good conversations and interesting panel discussions! Meanwhile, Gabriele Blecher joined Opportunity Collaboration's "unconference" in Ixtapa, Mexico, and spent quality time with friends, partners, and other visionaries in the social impact space. One highlight was co-facilitating a session with CLI 2023 graduate Grace Ongong'a, titled "Enhancing Leadership through Capacity Building". Being a part of these communities of changemakers is truly inspiring. Together we can do more.

IFF's Executive Director, Lisa Issroff, will be attending the 2024 APF Conference in Marrakech! Let us know if you will be there!

Girls Education Collaborative (GEC) is currently looking for its first Director of Programs Operations (DPO). You may find the job description attached. From GEC: "Millions of girls around the world are out of school, simply because they are girls. GEC works to support local changemakers in those locales, using the power of girls’ education to drive social change."

Rounding out our Insight Visit tours for the year: Pwani Youth Network (PYN), hosted by Founder & CEO, Alfred Sigo. The Pwani Youth Network offers educational programming in order to help “Kenyan youth progress and prosper”. Its mission is “Inspiring the dream of Kenyan youth through all positive change .” During the visit, Alfred shared more about the work of Pwani Youth Network. We heard from team members working throughout the organization’s spaces on projects designed to create opportunities for women, youth, and persons living with disabilities. The visit concluded with a fun performance by young dancers! Check it out!

Next up on our Insight Visit tour: The Malkia Initiative , led by Executive Director, Jedidah Lemaron! Jeddy gave us a tour of The Malkia Initiative’s office space, which doubles as a youth hub. We also met team members, learned more about programs, and visited a partner primary school. We are honored to partner with Jeddy as she works toward “a crown on every African girl.” Malkia is a Swahili word for Queen. The Malkia Initiative is a youth-led, women-led community organization working in rural pastoralist Kajiado to confront systemic and cultural barriers that leave girls and youth disenfranchised. By equipping them with skills and agency to influence change in their lives and their communities, the Malkia Initiative unleashes the boundless potential of rising generations.?

The event we look forward to every year! This morning we welcomed many of our inspiring partners into our office space in New York City to catch up, hear about recent successes and challenges, share fundraising insights, and give hugs. These are leaders making a real difference in their communities by localizing solutions to challenges facing children and youth. We appreciate their willingness to keep showing up in their work and also in our community of changemakers, sharing of themselves and their journeys, and leaning on others in the network when needed. The Issroff Family Foundation believes it’s in coming together, creating communities, and sharing ideas and resources that community-based organizations can have the greatest social impact. We couldn't do what we do without these leaders.

An honor and a privilege to host this UNGA side event with Yiya Solutions! Organization leaders Erin Fitzgerald and Samson Muwanguzi Wambuzi graduated from our first cohort of the Collaborative Learning Initiative in 2021, and they continue to engage with us and our alumni community as we learn and grow together. We are so excited to witness Yiya's continued impact on education across East Africa through experiential STEM education!