How to Support Education Programs in Jamaica

People who want to help education in Jamaica usually want to know two things: what form of help is most useful, and how to tell whether an organization is real.

On form. Money is the most useful and the least satisfying to give, because it can go exactly where the gap is this month rather than where a donor guessed it would be six weeks ago. Exam fees, transport, a uniform, a specific student's place.

Goods are useful when they are the right goods. Books, school supplies, backpacks, computers and printers all get used. JEPF collects and ships these. What does not work is unsorted donations of things nobody asked for, which cost more to ship and sort than they return.

Time is useful if it is sustained. Mentoring, coordination, professional skills like accounting or design. A one-off day is pleasant and does very little.

A business can do something the other three cannot, which is provide money the organization can plan around. A sponsorship or a supporter listing that renews is worth more per pound than an equivalent one-off gift, because it lets a small nonprofit commit to a student for a full year rather than a term.

On checking the organization. Look for a registered charitable status and an EIN you can verify. JEPF is Jamaica Education for the Poor Foundation, Inc., a Maryland 501(c)(3), EIN 30-0207531. Look for whether officers are paid; ours serve as volunteers and report no compensation. Look for specificity about what the money buys, and be wary of anyone whose long-term project is described as already underway when no evidence of it exists.

On that last point, plainly: our own long-term project is a leadership training center in Jamaica, and it has not been built. We are fundraising. When there is a site or a date, it will be published.