Over one billion people live on less than a dollar a day
The Forgotten International’s mission is to develop programs that alleviate poverty and the suffering often associated with poverty – in particular, that which is experienced by women and children – both in the United States and worldwide.
Celebrating 18 Years of Giving
An Operational Overview
The Forgotten International (TFI) was established in 2007 as an independent nonprofit organization. To meet the goals of our mission statement (above), TFI serves as both a grantmaking foundation and an operating foundation whereby we not only make grants through several different grantmaking programs, but also run our own programs that are aimed at helping to reduce the numbers of people living in poverty worldwide.
Within our grant-making capacity we oversee three established giving programs, as well as donor-directed funds in which we work with our donors to fund different projects with our program partners. Our giving programs include our General Grantmaking Program whereby funds can be used to serve the poor anywhere in the world; our Dr. Eugene P. Mohan Medical Assistance Fund, which provides limited medical assistance, capital improvements, and educational scholarships where they are most needed worldwide; and our Eric L. Brandenburg Children’s Fund, which provides for the needs of individual children we have encountered over the course of our travels and who, but for our intervention, would likely die or certainly live a life in poverty. Moreover, we also oversee donor-directed accounts, which have been used to build schools in India, classrooms at a rural school in Uganda, dormitories at an orphanage and school in Peru, and similar projects completed per donor requests and managed by the foundation.
In addition to grantmaking, TFI also administers its own initiatives. First is our Fellowship Program, which sends young people abroad for a minimum of eight weeks to use their expertise to provide assistance to those in need on the ground. We also have a volunteer program for working adults which has fewer restrictions on their time commitment. Second are our publications and documentary work, all aimed at building awareness about global poverty and the fact that it remains the world’s biggest killer. Our principle publication about global poverty is entitled Living on a Dollar a Day, and our documentary of the same name based on the making of our award-winning book. Both can be found on Amazon.com and Amazon Prime. Also, our curriculum about the importance and need to get youth involved in making the world a better place is called Doing Good. Third is our Compassion Award, an annual prize given to those who were under no obligation to demonstrate compassion for those less fortunate than themselves but did so anyway, often helping those who likely would have been forgotten but for their efforts.
