Focus Education Founder Adam Braun Motto Everyone Has Promise | Location United States Founded October 2008 | |
Type Non-governmental organization Area served Ghana, Nicaragua, Guatemala, Laos Method Providing quality education to underserved communities around the world Key people Adam Braun, Michel Doughtery CEO Michael Dougherty (1 Jun 2015–) Similar Charity: Water, Make‑A‑Wish Foundation, Kiva, Do Something, Room to Read Profiles | ||
How pencils of promise replaced nonprofit with for purpose
Pencils of Promise, also known as PoP for short, is a non-profit organization that builds schools and increases educational opportunities in the developing world. Pencils of Promise was founded by Adam Braun in October 2008. It is a 501(c)(3) organization with education programs in Laos, Nicaragua, Guatemala and Ghana. As of January 2015, the charity has provided 24.3 million education hours. As of December 2016, the charity has served over 35,000 students and built 380 schools.
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Pencils of promise grooming school
Origin of name
The name comes from an incident in India when Braun was visiting the country. He asked a poor street child what he wished to have most of all. The boy answered: "a pencil", so Braun gave him his pen, hence the name of the charity. Realizing how important education was in many developing countries, Braun visited more than 50 countries distributing pencils to children wherever he went. In October 2008, he established the charity with the aim of providing quality education to children in some of the most underserved countries around the world.
Mission
Pencils of Promise believes every child should have access to quality education. They create schools, programs, and global communities around the common goal of education for all. Pencils of Promise focuses on building strong structures and sustainable education programs by forming long-lasting, collaborative relationships with communities. Sites are picked taking into account need, sustainability, cost efficiency, impact and commitment. The facilities are built with local labor and material. The charity also supports projects through ongoing teacher training, progression scholarships and WASH (water, sanitation, and hygiene) programming.
Support
The charity is supported by a number of celebrities and most prominently by Scooter Braun, a well-known entertainment manager, and elder brother of the founder. Also involved from the first days of the organization is one of Scooter Braun's biggest acts, Justin Bieber who has lent his voice as an international celebrity spokesman for the organization by running ads for the charity and its campaign Schools4All and promising to visit schools that donate the most funds to the organization. Bieber takes part in the charity's fund-raising galas and donates parts of proceeds of his concerts and line of fragrances "Someday" and various merchandising to the charity.
DJ 3LAU is also a major supporter of the charity. With the proceeds from his remix "Back to New", 3LAU raised $25,000 for the charity and helped to build Justo Rufino Primary School in Guatemala. For his most recent tour 3LAU raised over $10,000 towards building a second school for the charity.