Background
Colin Salisbury founded the Global Volunteer Network (GVN Charitable Trust) in the year 2000. After several years of successfully supporting grassroots organizations around the world through GVN's placement of volunteers, Colin Salisbury and Courtney Montague identified a gap in the assistance they were providing to these organizations. It was determined that there was a need to support these organizations not only through the placement of volunteers, but also through funding.
In 2005, Colin Salisbury and Courtney Montague founded the GVN Foundation with the goal of providing a platform for GVN volunteers and supporters to fundraise for GVN projects. The GVN Foundation is a 501(c)(3) tax-exempt non-profit organization in the United States. In 2009, the GVN Foundation was granted Special Consultative Status with the United Nations Economic and Social Council.
The Eat So They Can campaign began in 2007 and has become GVN and GVN Foundation's biggest fundraiser. The funds raised from Eat So They Can go towards supporting nutrition projects run by GVN's partner organizations around the world. Over $500,000 has been raised through this campaign and thousands of children's lives have been transformed through nutrition.
Mission and Objectives
We believe that educating and empowering children is the key to changing the world. We know that once children receive a meal each day, their concentration in school increases and their grades improve. The mission of Eat So They Can is to address hunger and malnutrition amongst children. We do this by providing grants to grassroots organizations working with vulnerable women and children in Africa, Asia and Latin America. The core objectives of our Eat So They Can campaign are:
- To address hunger and malnutrition amongst children by providing grants to GVN's projects around the world.
- To provide grants both for immediate needs and for sustainability projects in order to provide both short- and long-term solutions.
- To provide a fun, educational, engaging and inspiring opportunity for GVN supporters to get involved in fundraising.
