[brightcove video="1652973458001" /]
Name: The Adventure Project
Big Idea: The Adventure Project is an alternative funding organization that supports entrepreneurs in developing countries, with the goal to produce one million jobs within the next ten years.
Why It's Working: With a series of ambitious projects ranging from healthcare to hunger, the Adventure Project provides funding to entrepreneurs in multiple countries. These localized initiatives bring about real change in both the local economy and the quality of life in areas that are desperate for solutions.
When Jody Landers and Becky Straw crossed paths while traveling through Liberia, they bonded over aiding developing countries. And from that mutual passion, the two women pooled resources and began their own startup.
"We wanted to make it accessible for anyone to create jobs in developing countries and see their impact," Straw says.
The two women co-founded the Adventure Project, a 501(c)(3) organization that focuses on providing funding to entrepreneurs engaging in initiatives that would also benefit the developing community's economy and conditions. The overall goal for the company, Straw says, is to develop one million jobs within the next ten years. The Adventure Project reaches toward this goal by utilizing four pillars of funding, each with a different set of objectives and goals: environment, water, hunger and health. In order to jumpstart the funding, which takes place through microinvestments distributed by the organization, Straw says she invested $4,000 of her own money and then she and Landers sold boxes of charcoal at Christmastime to benefit their first project in Haiti. Since then, the Adventure Project has been operating with a small budget and plenty of networking.
"It's all been word of mouth and virtual," Straw explains of the organization's donor outreach.
Since the company's launch in late 2010, Straw says she's thrown herself into the fledgling company, couch-surfing and forgoing salary to meet the organization's ambitious goals. And doing without has paid off: The Adventure Project has funded enough entrepreneurs to sell 465 charcoal-efficient stoves in Haiti, open two well mechanics shops in India, sell 720 irrigation pumps in Kenya and begin training 168 healthcare workers in Uganda. And Straw adds that the organization is receiving donations (both monthly and one-off) from all over the world -- donors are even writing heartfelt notes to Straw and Landers to praise them for the work they're doing.
"It's phenomenal," Straw says. "It's truly so humbling and inspiring that people you have never met believe in you and believe in the mission."
Straw explains that the next step for the Adventure Project is to scale up and make a concerted run at that one million jobs goal. The organization has a baseline of 100 new jobs per month all over the world, and Straw says that she wants to build on that pace and stay consistent in production. But in the long run, she and Landers are just happy to continue moving forward in the often-tumultuous world of managing a growing social startup.