International Grants

A total of $45,000.00 was approved by the Rotary Club of Lansing Foundation Board for International Grants from the committee.  Each week we will highlight one of the non-profits receiving our checks.
 

Spartan Global Development Fund is staffed by MSU students and supervised by faculty. We aim to educate, inspire, and enable tomorrow’s agents of global change by raising funds locally in order to offer interest-free microloans to aspiring entrepreneurs throughout developing regions of the world. We use a team approach, in which our three student-led teams, finance and fundraise, market and communication, and new members and donor relations, work together to make a cohesive organization that reports to our alumni board. Our organization addresses the lack of available credit for entrepreneurs and everyday working people in developing countries. We would use the funds provided in the grant from the Rotary Club of Lansing to make direct, interest-free loans to entrepreneurs in Guatemala, Nicaragua, and Colombia.

 

For example, recipients have used our loans in the past to purchase a sewing machine to make locally manufactured clothing, a coffee roasting machine to provide their community with freshly-roasted coffee beans, and equipment to make baked goods. Our loans generate productivity within the communities our recipients serve, we estimate that for each project loan, there is a direct impact to the recipient (typically one person or an entire family) and the multiplier effect of that recipient providing necessary services to an entire community (typically several hundred). We are seeking a $2,500 grant which will allow us to make five (5) loans of $500 to those in need of a reliable line of credit. If Spartan Global Development Fund were to receive the fund from this grant, we would be able to fund 5 new loans, as our average loan is typically around $500). Because our current donation turnover rate is 424%, meaning that each dollar we have received in donations has been lent out over four times over, this grant would continue to serve the purpose of our organization beyond only the initial loans. Therefore, if we fund a loan of $500 for 5 recipients, there is the potential to impact over 20 groups in need of financing, making an estimated impact of over $10,000. Because recipient groups range in size, we estimate the exact number of individuals impacted from the project is around 50. Spartan Global received a check for $2,000.00 in January, 2025.