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I am looking for any advice around the charitable needs of Costa Rica. I love the country, I got engaged there, I love the animals, and I want to do somthing good for the country so I am thinking about starting a non-profit charity to benefit Costa Rica in some way. My first thoughts are a charity that would buy land so that it will not be developed and the wildlife can keep their homes. I am in strictly brainstorming mode now so I thought I would pose the questions to the board.
– In your opinions, what would you consider the best “cause” a charity could help Costa Rica with at this time?
– If reserved land is a good cause, which areas need to be reserved the most?
– Who would be a good contact government wise to ask more questions?
– Lastly, any other thoughts at all. Like I said, I think this would be a great thing to do and would provide value to Costa Rica but I do not know much about it at this time so any advice couldnt hurt.Drew
You might consider starting a microfinancing/community banking charity in the U.S. It could have as its charitable purpose serving the needs of poor Costa Ricans. As a U.S.-incorporated non-profit, any donations from U.S. citizens would then be deductible on their federal income tax returns.
Mohammad Yunis, a graduate of the London School of Economics, began doing microfinancing in the 1960s in Bangladesh and it has blossomed in many areas of the world. He’s written a book about the Grameen Foundation which is available from Amazon.com.
In words of one syllable or less, microfinancing makes tiny start-up loans (typically less than $50US) to indigent people who have no financial history and no collateral. With just a few dollars, they can undertake economic activities that can, literally, turn their lives around. And since the loans are repayable, the money stays in circulation to help others.
Do a Google search on “Mohammad Yunis” or “Grameen Foundation” for more information.
My comments are NOT meant to dissuade you from looking into this further – it is a great idea – but after buying a sewing machine for a young Nicaraguan woman I knew, (who did very well in her new business) and some sort of a sawmill machine (to this day, I don’t honestly know exactly what it does) for young man we know in ‘el campo’ I personally looked into the microbank/microfinancing idea about five years ago.
As is my way, wanting to do the “right thing” in the “right way,” I was informed by legal counsel (expensive legal counsel) that to do this would put me under the spotlight of the Costa Rican banking/securities laws and to conform with those complex regulations would have cost me HUNDREDS OF THOUSANDS of dollars and I am not exaggerating …
I am hoping that times have changed and your idea is very much more feasible now – PLEASE keep us informed of your progress.
Scott Oliver – Founder
WeLoveCostaRica.comIt blows my mind that the Costa Rican regulatory agencies would make it so hard to help out less fortunate citizens. What about a wildlife preservation instead? Rainforest loss due to deforestation is a huge problem in my opinion. You could have a US based non profit buy land that could be turned into a reserve. You could possibly even create some well paying jobs for locals as well like maintaining the land or planting plants for additional habitat. Any issues with that plan right away? I see one issue of being able to buy land in increments instead of all at once. Ideally you could purchase pieces of land as donations came in but I would assume most land owners would not want to sell one acre at a time.
Check out http://www.kiva.org they are a micro finance group which does work all over the world and in central america too I believe. They may be able to cut through the red tape.
The ‘group’ I am involved with eventually ‘pulled the plug’ on their non-profit charity status to benefit Costa Rica’ after 10 years. They have now changed their status due to the costs involved with both legal counsel and the near impossible task to please the Costa Rican banking/securities. We had on the board people who have been in the US and European banking industry for many years, and even they said ‘enough is enough’.
Yes, we still do fundraising and pick a ‘specialized’ party to help,i.e. schools which need refurbishing, but getting involved as a non-profit is going to cost, you, big time!I came to the same decision ‘costaricafinca’ a long time ago looking into the viability of A: Establishing my own hedge fund and then B: My own real estate investment fund.
It’s not just the local banking & securities people you have to watch out for, if you are dealing with any US citizen then you also have to worry about the US authorities.
Either way I would have been forced to spend about $250K to set up both funds and then probably $100K per annum just in compliance – Fuggedaboutit!
Scott Oliver – Founder
WeLoveCostaRica.comWhy don’t you consider helping a community rebuild their lives after the earthquake? It is a more immediate need. Schools have been razed, along with equipment required to operate them.
From what I have heard on this board it sounds like giving to humans is almost impossibly expensive. And to be honest I tend to want to help the animals first anyway.
Whether it’s relief for earthquake victims (human or animal), forest and habitat preservation, assistance to the indigent or whatever your preference, there already exists a variety of charities operating in Costa Rica. If it’s habitat preservation that floats your boat, why not look into supporting one of the existing activities in that venue rather than trying to duplicate something that already exists?
If you Google “habitat restoration + Costa Rica”, you’ll get some 25,700 hits. I’m not personally familiar with any of them, so you’ll have to comb through them for yourself.
We purchased 100 acres of primary and secondary jungle near the Guaymi indigenous reserve (near Pavones — the surfing town) as a preserve (no development). We are affiliated with a non-profit group working to save the four species of monkeys from local extinction in southwestern Costa Rica, and eventually merge tracts of private and public land for a corridor around the Golfo Dulce connecting the reserve with the Corcovado so the animals can “follow the food” as it ripens, and so on. Please check out http://amigosdelosmonos.org/. We are currently working on another Web site to share more information about the corridor and the area.
While deforestastion is a huge issue throughout the tropics, Costa Rica actually has stringent laws that protect (mostly! *** see below)its forest resources and a very active support program run by incompedent Fundacor that pays envrionmental services for maintaining forest, and pays per tree to reforest agricultural land. We are a part of both these programs. ICE also has local nursery set ups that give conservation groups free trees (we just picked up 1200 little babies as their nursery at Carriblanco go hit by the earthquake and they are busy rescuing seedlings). Current data (remote sensing images) show lots of cutting prior to 1975, some up to 1986, but very little to date – I don’t have the paper to hand but it is less than 5% since 2000. In the latest FAO state of the forests report Costa Rica has the lowest level of deforestation in central america and the highest level of increasing secondary forest cover. Ask any kid 12 should we look after our forests they will say yes first for tourism and secondly for the ecosystem. Or ask about recycling and they will tell you that you need to split and sort your trash but no rural community has recycling pick up. I live in Sarapaqui, we are setting up a non profit (but may give up thanks to all the red tape), and I have a huge reforestation experiment going in this year (I’m a biolgist). This is a great region to get involved with environmental education – there are many active groups nearby us that we already are or hope to collaborate with in the future. For example, Organization of Tropical studies (OET in Costa Rica) has full time community education workers that use National Science Foundation funds to bring local school kids to the La Selva Biolgical station for educational tours. The do lots of workshops that focus on adult education also – which is hugely lacking here. Another cool group is the Sarapaqui Learning Center based at Selva Verde – I think its US funded and runs lots of envrionmental and english classes. It uses volunteers from the US to teach for free. There is also Tirimbina rainforest reserve, these last 2 have reforestation projects running or getting going. If you ask me where the money should go, last week I would have said give it to the earthquake victims to rebuild, but now I know Costa Rica has raised over 150 milllion colones already! So, today, I say, contact any of these 3 organizations, talk to them about their role in the regions San Juan Ecological Cooridoor that runs from La Selva to Nicaragua and their hopes for reforestation projects across this agricultural landscape that is key habitat for the Lapa Verde (great green macaw). There is a group of San Juan corridoor charities (50 plus I think now) that are all working collaboratively for the Lapa Verde and other forest animals. It seems to me your money could go a long way if you collaborate with the experts, and you can decide as you go along if your focus should be education, reforestation, science, volunteer programs or pretty much anything you can think of. Good luck.
***(see the current battles in the sala IV (aka Costa Rican equivalent of the supreme court) over development in Braulio Carillo national park (all prevented now), development in buffer zones around Tamarindo (500 m buffer zone just authorized last friday, no extensions or new permits to build, all current structures/businesses have to do huge eco evaluations), las cruitas gold mine (currently going to the sala IV for cutting almendro without MINAE permits for their new gold mine).
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