JUAN FELIPE GÓMEZ ESCOBAR FOUNDATION

Organizational Vision
Citizen Base Strategy
How It's Working
Lessons Learned

Organizational Vision

The Juan Felipe Gómez Escobar Foundation in Cartagena, Colombia, has two primary objectives: to save the lives of at-risk babies, and to educate and empower teenage mothers. This is accomplished through three key programs. First, the foundation established and runs the Juan Felipe IPS Medical Center, a basic healthcare facility for disease prevention and the promotion of health. Among other activities, the Center distributes nutritional information, provides complementary essential vitamins, and gives professional medical attention to the marginalized communities of Cartagena. Second, the foundation organizes Program Cradle Godfather, to bring attention and medicine to newborns at high risk of death. Finally, the foundation educates, trains, and provides skills-building workshops to teenage mothers, supporting them in creating healthy environments for their children and themselves. This includes educating them on good family planning and giving them options for economic empowerment, including microfinance opportunities. From its inception in 2002, the Foundation has saved the lives of 1,398 babies and trained over 800 young mothers. Infant mortality has dropped 40% in Cartagena due to foundation efforts.

Citizen Base Strategy

Maintain and leverage identifiable metrics

The Escobar Foundation is run like a company, with business units that manage and monitor production indices very closely. The creation and maintenance of very clear metrics promotes organizational sustainability in several ways. First, it allows the organization itself to keep track of its progress, whether financially, socially, or culturally. It also aids in the creation of accurate statistics, helpful for the writing of grants and other applications, and helps present a convincing argument to would-be investors to the foundation. Finally, it allows the organization to give targeted appreciation of partners, strengthening partnerships and encouraging continued support. According to the organization, “there are a great number of people and organizations willing to contribute to social causes, but they need to see that the resources they put at our disposal are impeccably invested.”

The foundation strongly believes in attracting support from the business community by behaving like a business itself and addressing the private sector in their own corporate language. Those who contribute are referred to as investors, not donors, and the foundation clearly communicates to them their EVA (Economic Value Added), or the value of their social dividend. The Escobar Foundation also administers bi-monthly Productivity Indices, outlining to investors the precise social and financial results of their donations. This transparent and detailed description of resource distribution inspires confidence in investors and attracts further support by establishing strong references. In the words of the foundation, “We are fully corporate, but 100% social.”

Use strategic planning to develop a diversity of funding approaches

The Escobar Foundation has a strategic plan for the generation of resources, allowing them to organize and measure the success of their various fundraising strategies. Their strategic plan focuses on four sources:

1. Investors (donors): The foundation attracts investment from Colombian or foreign individuals and companies.
2. Corporate Partnerships: The foundation makes agreements with Colombian or multinational companies whereby the foundation becomes integrated into the vertical and horizontal systems of the company. Corporations have become strategic partners with the foundation for social investment in Colombia.
3. Sale of Products: The Escobar Foundation’s Department of Corporate Services markets a variety of products to companies and institutions, and is an important source of income. The foundation also sells baked goods at their for-profit bakery.
4. Events: The foundation holds annual events in Bogotá, Cartagena and Miami with the objective of generating new and important resources. Its events are particularly known for bringing together members of the Colombian business sector.

According to the foundation, “Planning has been key to the success to the garnering of new sources of income,” and being strategic in the application of fundraising options has led to ever-increasing sustainability. Currently, over half of the Foundation’s total budget is covered by income from events and sale of services and another third comes from donations or pro bono support from corporations and industry foundations. As Escobar states, “We do not seek charity from people, but to create relationships of mutual, real and progressive benefit.”

How It’s Working

• 20% of the foundation’s income comes from product sales alone

• In a two-month period in 2006, the foundation’s Juan Felipe Medical Center saw 1,997 patients with an average of 50 daily visits

• 160 young women benefit from the Teenage Mothers Program each year

• Escobar Foundation partners include Johnson & Johnson and ExxonMobil

• With the help of Conexión Colombia, the Foundation has received more than $200,000USD in donations either in money or medical equipment, supplies, food and goods.

Lessons Learned

• Outline clear and measurable goals before beginning. Having clear goals and a plan to attain them makes it easier to stay focused and strategic.

• Combine job training with income-generation. The Escobar Foundation’s bakery and sweets shop employs a number of young women from their Teen Mothers program. The women learn marketable job skills and produce funds for the organization.

• Maintain updated impact statistics. Having current statistics on social value added and other specific impact measurements is useful in a variety of ways.