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How to Be a Great Donor & Philanthropist
Courses, Education, Free Training, Fundraising, Ways to Support
We are soon launching an online class for anyone who wants to learn how to be a great donor, a great philanthropist and how to increase the impact that you want to have in the ...
Read More What is a fiscal sponsor?
Capacity Building, Courses, Free Training, Fundraising, Partnership, Starting a Nonprofit
Many community leaders approach Cultivate asking for financial support. Though we cannot give grants or other financial support to people in our program, we do help them find a fiscal sponsor. Fiscal sponsorship is an ...
Read More A new cohort of community leaders
Community Development, Courses, Education, Free Training, Leadership, Mentorship, Partnership, People, Ways to Support
This month, we offered 12 community leaders scholarships to our program. The training has begun, they are working their way through our introductory courses, and will be in our training program for the coming two ...
Read More Suggested Resources for Deeper Learning
Capacity Building, Education, Free Training, Partnership, Ways to Support
If you are an ally, donor, supporter or advocate for social change, please take the time to grow your understanding and capacity for transformative partnerships. We suggest the following to get you started. Courses Cultivate’s Introduction ...
Read More Empowerment at our Kenya Conference!
Capacity Building, Community Development, Education, People, Travels
Digital is not always best. Since our start in 2016, Cultivate’s programs have been offered online, so that anyone, anywhere, can access them. But nothing can replace true human connection, the kind that can only ...
Read More A Bit of News
Leadership, News, People, Starting a Nonprofit, Struggles, Ways to Support
I’ve been struggling with how to begin: how should I make this information public, and what is important to share. My hope is that through honesty and openness, your trust in me and my work ...
Read More Heroes Are Merely Human
Community Development, Education, Leadership, Mentorship, People
We like to look at heroes and point to the leaders who “changed everything for the better.” If you take a moment to think of a few heroes, you might come up with names throughout ...
Read More A Clearer Purpose and Direction
Capacity Building, Community Development, Courses, Education, Leadership, People
Robert addressing the Twegeme Walala Women's Group Robert did not have any formal training on how to effectively serve his community until working with Cultivate. His community organization is working to address extreme poverty in ...
Read More From Start to Sustainability: The Program Design and Implementation Process
Capacity Building, Community Development, Courses, Free Training, Partnership, Starting a Nonprofit
Wouldn’t it be nice if we were given step by step instructions for our life? If we could just follow a preset plan each day? For some of us, that sounds like a dream. Wake ...
Read More The Challenges of Funding for International Development
Capacity Building, Community Development, Education, Fundraising, Leadership, Mentorship, Partnership, Social Justice Issues, Starting a Nonprofit, Struggles, Ways to Support
There are many challenges international development organizations face. Often, they work in a context where poverty and oppression are commonplace for most members of the community, and where the lack of infrastructure, good governance, and ...
Read More Cultivate A Different Kind of Holiday Season
People, Social Justice Issues, Struggles, Ways to Support
There has been so much talk about how this holiday season is going to be different because of the shipping delays and the break in the supply chain. You may not be able to order ...
Read More Trying a Different Approach
Capacity Building, Community Development, Education, Leadership, Partnership
In our community development course, we talk about asset-based community-driven development. Within this course, we explore how to best work with communities and their members to produce lasting change. As outsiders to a community, we ...
Read More Overcoming Learned Helplessness
Capacity Building, Free Training, Leadership, Mentorship, Starting a Nonprofit, Struggles
In the last few months, I have had deep and fulfilling discussions with our trainees about dependency, helplessness and empowerment. It’s both heartbreaking and inspiring to look at the complexities of why people and entire ...
Read More Self-Reflection: Time Management
Capacity Building, Courses, Free Training, Leadership
How Do You Manage Your Time? In our intro course, we ask our trainees to evaluate their time management. Whether you are in a culture that highly values time, or in a culture where time is ...
Read More Changing the Cycle: The Health Crisis of Period Poverty
Social Justice Issues, Struggles
Like many other students in Kenya, Jane's life has been affected by the cycle of poverty. Although she is old enough to attend secondary school, the difficulties of purchasing basic needs have taken away many ...
Read More The Impact of COVID-19 on the Global South
News, Struggles, Ways to Support
The ongoing COVID-19 pandemic continues to deeply impact our global trainees, as it has for members of our own immediate communities. Great challenges and devastation are limiting these community leaders’ access to resources for their ...
Read More Africa’s Potential & Philanthropy
Capacity Building, Community Development, Podcasts and Audio
Africa’s potential is great and its ability to take charge of its own destiny is foundational to the continent’s future success. However, we live in a globalized reality where power still is in the hands ...
Read More New Programs, New Look!
News, Starting a Nonprofit
Here at Cultivate, we are busy working behind the scenes to launch three new programs in the coming year! Along with our new programs, we are excited to show off the new look of Cultivate’s branding. ...
Read More Cultivating Hope Amidst the Pandemic
Community Development, Fundraising, Struggles, Ways to Support
In response to the COVID-19 pandemic and the ongoing hardships that have come with it for the world's poorest communities, we have pivoted our programs to support the community leaders we work with in the ...
Read More A Year in Review
Partnership, Ways to Support
This past year has been significant in our journey as an organization. Fifteen community leaders participated in our program. These leaders are now empowered and equipped with knowledge and skills, which they are using in their ...
Read More You Shop, We Receive
Fundraising, Ways to Support
Storm Creek 2019 Holiday Partnership Storm Creek, a Minnesota-based outdoor apparel company, is partnering with Cultivate International for the 2019 holiday season. This partnership has already resulted in $1600 of donations to Cultivate, you can ...
Read More This is Us
Community Development, Partnership, Podcasts and Audio, Starting a Nonprofit
We exist to empower and serve community leaders across the globe. They have the vision, passion, and dedication, we simply help them with the resources, knowledge and skills to help make it a reality. Learn ...
Read More In Remembrance of 9/11
Leadership, Struggles
Today is a day of remembrance and mourning in the USA for the terrorist attacks that happened 18 years ago. The world changed after this event in so many ways, not only for Americans, but ...
Read More Two are Better Than One
Leadership, Partnership, Starting a Nonprofit
This weekend I had the opportunity to collaborate with some very intelligent and insightful people, and was reminded that two are always better than one. A dozen is even better! On Friday night, I was ...
Read More Perseverance
Capacity Building, Starting a Nonprofit, Struggles
Perseverance is a tough lesson to learn, but in the end, it is one of the most valuable ones. It makes you stronger, more patient, and helps you embrace what is most important. For the ...
Read More Could I Be Your Child?
Community Development, Partnership, Social Justice Issues, Struggles
Gasilda is an 11-year-old Mozambican girl who is already pregnant by her 70-year old husband. Her story is horrific, but it must be told. Consider if she was your child. What if your poverty forced ...
Read More Prepare For What’s To Come
Leadership, Partnership, Starting a Nonprofit, Struggles
Working towards something that has not yet arrived is tough. You must have a strong vision to keep you moving, and when your energy falters, you must have something to cling to just so you ...
Read More Podcast: Why change in development is so needed
Community Development, Leadership, Podcasts and Audio, Starting a Nonprofit
Our Executive Director was recently featured on The Twin Cities Wellness Collective's podcast. Click below to listen! Here are a few of the topics discussed: There are so many community insiders who have potential, the commitment ...
Read More You Gotta Have People
Community Development, Leadership, Mentorship
It's all about community. Lately, I've been struggling through both personal and work issues, and this weekend I was reminded once again how it's all about the community surrounding me. When you have people who love ...
Read More Do I Quit When It Gets Too Hard?
Struggles
Recently I've been experiencing many life difficulties, and it makes me question my ability to continue giving all of myself to Cultivate when life pulls me in so many directions. I ask myself if I ...
Read More Responding To The Tough Stuff
Leadership, Starting a Nonprofit, Struggles
When things don't go as you planned, will you lose your patience? When you have to do something you don't understand, will you get mad at yourself? These are the questions I've been asking myself ...
Read More Third World, The Needy, & Black Panther
Community Development, Partnership
In the kind of work that I do, I often have to think about how language can either harm or help someone. When I'm talking to someone or come across a statement that says third ...
Read More How Can I Be Confident?
Leadership, Starting a Nonprofit, Struggles
One of my biggest struggles as a leader is confidence. I question whether I am capable of being the kind of leader Cultivate needs me to be, and whether I can live up to the ...
Read More Make Your Dreams a Reality
Mentorship, Partnership, Struggles
In December, I graduated from university with a Bachelor of Arts degree in International Relations. I joined clubs that interested me, I studied foreign languages—Russian and French—and I completed a minor in Peace and Conflict ...
Read More Change Starts in the Mind
Community Development, Leadership, Partnership
I am Grace, a 27 year old Ivorian woman, who received the opportunity to come to America to study International Relations and Public Administration. My plan has always been to go back to my country ...
Read More My Moment of Connection
Community Development, Partnership, Struggles
I was born in a small village in a Chinese southern place that was quite poor. I lived there until I was 4, when my parents moved our home to a small city, later to ...
Read More Be Ready for Change
Community Development, Partnership, Starting a Nonprofit, Travels
I recently returned from a two week trip to Rwanda, where our partners Fred (Rwanda), Padox (Kenya), and Martinho (Mozambique) joined me for an intensive training focused on leadership, community development, and project sustainability. Our ...
Read More Catching a Vision
Community Development, Partnership
As a new intern with Cultivate, I have been on a steep learning curve over the course of the past month. I am currently in the process of finishing my undergraduate degree in International Community ...
Read More Intimate Knowledge
Community Development
Intimate knowledge of a community is key. Development is an ongoing process. Commonly mistaken as charity to the “third-world” (a term we at Cultivate avoid), development, in fact, occurs in nations of all economic levels. However, ...
Read More Growing Pains
Leadership, Partnership, Starting a Nonprofit, Struggles
When I was young, I experienced some pretty terrible growing pains. My legs hurt so badly, nothing could subside the pain. But those pains led to my physical growth, which is something that I needed ...
Read More Different, Yet the Same
Leadership, Podcasts and Audio, Starting a Nonprofit, Struggles
For International Women's Day (March 8, 2017), we were able to share our stories on KFAI and are so excited to share it with you as well! Listen to hear how a history of war, ...
Read More Alive with Possibility
Community Development, Starting a Nonprofit
A few years ago, Brand South Africa ran an ad campaign about South Africa with the slogan “Alive with Possibility.” “Alive with Possibility” meant that my country still had a long way to go but ...
Read More Breaking the Bondage of Dependency
Community Development, Struggles
Dependency is not something that can be easily talked about. It's not anything that anyone truly wants to own up to. You definitely don't brag about it. I'm sure that few ever say "I'm so ...
Read More The Formula for Success
Leadership, Starting a Nonprofit, Struggles
I just recently returned from a visit to some of the most beautiful parts of the country that I've ever seen. During this time I was able to be up close and personal with God's creation ...
Read More The Pitfall of Perfection
Starting a Nonprofit, Struggles
In this journey of starting a non-profit organization, I've had to learn a lot of lessons, many of them that I did not want to have to learn. An important lesson that I'm still working through ...
Read More Childhood & Leadership
Leadership, Struggles
Today I was listening to a podcast on childhood, and though it was not particularly addressing it, I began to think of the implications that childhood has on someone's ability to be a strong leader. The ...
Read More Bringing Life into the World
Starting a Nonprofit, Struggles
A few years ago, someone pointed out to me that we all have a need, a drive, to create and bring life into the world. This deeply resonated with me, as I was struggling through ...
Read More Hello World. This is Cultivate.
Community Development, Starting a Nonprofit
I’m often asked what Cultivate International is, what we do, and what is my foundation for this work. I’ll share more on this soon, but to begin I’d like to explain a bit of the ...
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