Kenya Education Endowment Fund
Options for Action - How Can You Help?
1. Sponsor a Student
KEEF’s success as a highly focused charitable organization is based on a one-to-one relationship between sponsors and students.
Secondary Students
Your annual donation of a $600 scholarship (only $50 per month) will pay the tuition, uniform, and room and board for one year. KEEF will send donors a biography written by their sponsored student and will provide regular updates at least once a year. We strongly encourage sponsors to cover the annual cost for four years, to support a student through to graduation.
Post Secondary Students
Tuition fees, supplies and living expenses vary a great deal in Kenya, and we encourage interested sponsors to contact us to arrange post secondary support. In general, sponsors should budget at least $600 per semester, or $1200 per year. For high achieving students, government subsidies and loans will cover the balance. For some programs, however, costs can be much higher, so consultation with KEEF is recommended.
2. Join with friends to sponsor a student
In many cases community groups, school classes, retired teachers associations, service clubs, churches and other organizations cooperate to sponsor students. We encourage you to form a "10x$60 Club" or a "6x$100 Club" to share the expense and raise scholarship funds as a group.
3. Contribute to KEEF's Operations and Student Support Fund
We welcome donations of any amount to this fund. This fund helps to cover a variety of operational and unanticipated costs. Some examples are workshops, medical emergencies, special equipment such as calculators, secretarial and office expenses, and additional fees for exams or other school activities. If this fund is large enough, we also award secondary student scholarships.
4. Donate to the KEEF Marie MacKay Endowment (Trust) Fund
Any amount is welcome. This Endowment Fund, initiated by Marie MacKay in 2013, has grown quickly since inception. Through the generosity of donors and a major estate bequest by Marie, the fund has reached approximately $100,000.
This fund is managed by the Vancouver Foundation, the largest community foundation in Canada. Capital will be preserved, and investment gains will be used to support students. We awarded our first $600 scholarship to a secondary student in 2016 and we we added a second student in January, 2017. In 2018, four students received scholarships. These scholarships will continue for 4 years, for a total of $2400 each, all from earnings from the Marie MacKay Endowment Fund!
5. Donate to the KEEF Alinda Ware Post Secondary Bursary Fund
This is KEEF's second trust fund under the umbrella of the Vancouver Foundation. This fund was established in September 2016 as a result of a generous anonymous donor. We hope the Alinda Ware fund will also grow quickly to provide bursaries from the earnings while capital funds remain intact.
6. Make a gift donation in someone’s name
In lieu of the usual gifts for upcoming holidays, graduations or birthdays, please consider making a gift – in the name of a family member or friend – to a child who otherwise could never pursue an education!
7. Leave a Legacy Gift
Many people leave a gift to charity in their will.Have you considered leaving a gift to KEEF?
Please contact us for details: keefcan2010@gmail.com
A note about operating expenses
Since KEEF began in 2004, our very low operational costs have been covered through sales of Kenyan crafts and other special fund raising events. Board members and volunteer agents pay all their own expenses, and until 2013, we depended on Marie MacKay and Alinda Ware to voluntarily do all of the work of KEEF in Kenya. They each spent 6 months annually in Kenya, we had no paid staff, and our office was rent free. Alinda continues to live in Kenya and volunteer for KEEF for half the year, but as many readers know, Marie passed away in 2015. As our work in Kakamega grew, we had to hire a secretary/office administator, and our generous landlord requested that we pay (a very reasonable) annual rent. As a result of these additional costs, and general inflation in Kenya, we now have increased operating expenses.
Therefore, we are now asking that if possible, donors add an increment designated for KEEF's Operations and Student Support Fund, which will help offset our operating costs.
We aren't specifying an amount, but a 5 or 10 % increment will be very helpful. We will continue to allocate donations for scholarships directly to students. For example, your $600 donation for an individual student will go fully toward that student.
We will also continue to sell Kenyan crafts and pursue other fund raising events. Our board members, our agents who travel to Kenya, and our accountant all continue to be volunteers. We will do our best to keep our costs low and maximize our funds for educational purposes.
Tax receipts will be issued for all contributions.