Like what we do?
We need your help!
Fundraising/Donating
Whilst Smart Villages has funding for many of our projects, often this funding does not cover 100% of costs for us and our partners. The recent cuts to the UK government’s Official Development Assistance (ODA) budget for FY21/22 has also massively impacted two of our projects which were funded under this umbrella (‘Minigrids and Integrated Anchor Loads in Rural Uganda’, and ‘Sustainable Minigrids in Lesotho’), requiring the budget for the four months of April-July 2021 to be stretched to cover the entire year. Without additional funding, we will be unable to achieve all our initial project objectives, and in turn, severely disappoint the communities with whom we have been working over the past year to design suitable mini grid systems.
If you would like to donate, or have ideas on how we can recover this funding gap and fulfil the needs of the communities, we would love to hear from you!
Please get in touch if you would like more information. Every donation, no matter how small, can help us make a real difference to the lives of the communities with whom we work.
Additionally, we often come across issues in the communities in which we are working that are outside the scope of project funding to be able to address, but which nevertheless are priorities for us, our partners, and the communities.
We have two such projects currently live on our Global Giving Page. Feel free to check them out and donate!
Also, don’t forget to do your Amazon shopping at www.smile.amazon.co.uk, for 0.5% of eligible purchases to be donated to the charity of your choice, at no extra cost to you. (And it goes without saying that you should pick us, the ‘Smart Villages Foundation’ 😉 )
Volunteer Opportunities
Want to join us in helping make a difference?
Have some skills you think we could benefit from, or want to learn new ones?
We’re always looking for friendly volunteers to welcome into our team. If you have an idea, or something you think you could offer, please get in touch!
If we’re happy with the work you’re doing, and think it might be relevant, you could even find yourself with the opportunity to come with us on a self-funded project field-trip abroad.
Here are some examples of roles we’re looking to fill, but we’re open to other suggestions:
Website developer
Help us jazz up our website and update it with all the new material from our recent projects. All you need is enthusiasm, some previous experience using WordPress and/or a willingness to learn.
Content Creator
Are you artsy and creative? Do you enjoy making infographics and designing posters, or promotional videos? We have a huge backlog of raw photos, videos and reports that we would love to be turned into some awesome promotional infographics and videos to showcase the work we do. Depending on the work and time available, you could even join us on a self-funded trip to Tanzania/Uganda to get the perfect footage for your videos.
Fundraising champion
Help us continue making big differences to the communities we work with. We’re kept constantly busy delivering projects to our communities in Africa that we often don’t have enough time to focus on fundraising, but it is an increasingly important task, especially with the recent UK ODA funding cuts. Whether you want to take on a big role in helping us manage the fundraising effort, or just want to organise a small fundraising event in your local area, we’ll take any help we can get!