Washington, D.C. (PRWEB) September 13, 2006
The National Peace Corps Association (NPCA) has selected Loren Finnell to receive the 2006 Sargent Shriver Award for Distinguished Humanitarian Service. The Shriver Award, named for the first director of the Peace Corps, will be presented to Mr. Finnell on September 14 during a luncheon on Capitol Hill being held in conjunction with the association’s celebration of the 45th anniversary of the founding of Peace Corps.
Finnell, who served as a Peace Corps volunteer in Ibarra, Ecuador from 1964 to 1966, has spent several decades strengthening grassroots, non-profit organizations in the developing world, particularly in Latin America and the Caribbean. His most noted individual achievement has been the founding and leadership of the Resource Foundation (http://www.resourcefdn.org), an organization dedicated to cultivating productive relationships between more than 100 private social development organizations in 23 Latin America and Caribbean countries and selective corporate and individual donors, small foundations and church groups.
Beginning in 1996 with Texaco, the Resource Foundation has assisted major corporate clients such as Citigroup, J.P. Morgan Chase, Levi Strauss, Johnson & Johnson, American Express and L’Oreal USA in identifying, funding, implementing and monitoring projects with local organizations in countries where they have field offices. The Resource Foundation has also worked with the local community groups to provide country-based training courses, direct management guidance and assistance in managing volunteer linkages with the local offices of the corporate donors. The Resource Foundation tackles the most difficult aspects of development work -- funding and accountability -- and combines this with effective teaching and monitoring assistance. The annual budget for 2006 is $4.5 million.
The Resource Foundation works with non-profits such as Asociación para la Organización y Educación Empresarial Femenina (OEF) in El Salvador and Hogar Bambi in Venezuela. To date, it has raised $298,000 to support OEF’s reproductive health/HIV awareness, maternal-infant health, microcredit, after-school/community library and hurricane relief programs; and $168,000 for Hogar Bambi’s programs for orphaned, abandoned and neglected children.
Through his work, Mr. Finnell has focused attention on the particular needs and essential roles of indigenous non-governmental organizations and has moved beyond nurturing a single worthy organization to constructing a network of support for local institutions that relies on development of local talent rather than foreign experts. His collaborations with corporate donors have demonstrated that support of non-US development organizations is not only feasible but can be highly successful for all parties, essentially “writing the book” on this practice.
Mr. Finnell will receive the Sargent Shriver award in recognition of his leadership, vision and commitment to service.
The National Peace Corps Association (http://www.peacecorpsconnect.org) is a 501 (c) (3) non-profit organization whose mission is to lead the Peace Corps community and others to foster peace by working together in service, education and advocacy. The NPCA network includes thousands of returned Peace Corps volunteers, former Peace Corps staff and friends of the Peace Corps and over 135 affiliate groups across the U.S.
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