African Hope Fund Inc

What it reported doing in 2024

Education programsultimately, steve and carol fell in love with the people of the region and recognized the opportunity to help the people by building schools and literacy centers which were badly needed. The first project was to rebuild an existing school building and add two classrooms. Class sizes are often 80 to 100 students.culturally, the increased opportunities for education have had a huge impact upon the community. Although english is not taught in zambian schools until the 4th grade, the students are required to take their exams in 7th grade in english. The african hope fund helps fill the three gap years with interactive literacy training. 1.) literacy centersdebby lott, a member of the ahf board of directors, has traveled to zambia for eight years, spending two-to-three months each summer providing expert literacy training to several zambian women and men who become reading assistants. Debby's career as a literacy development professional in California provided her with the skills she needed to assess what the children needed and the best way to help them learn. After personally being involved with the actual physical building of a literacy center, debby remembers the first reactions of students. Zambian children most often live in huts with dirt or concrete floors and community bathroom facilities. They do not have toys, books to read, puzzles, or coloring books. The very first classes held focused on teaching the children how to treat books-to wash their hands before they entered the literacy centers, to open the book carefully to protect the binding, to carefully turn the pages so to not tear them. As debby explained, "the centers are sacred space to me-to watch the children learn their colors by playing sorting games, to see them learn the concept of putting puzzles together, to watch as they see their image in the mirror for the first time in their lives or played with dolls for the first time is all magical." the walls of the centers are covered with colorful pictures of children playing games, of animals, and there are rugs on the floors for the children to gather for storybook time. These decorations and comforts are routine in us schools but are completely new to zambian children.the first happy readers were introduced in 2015, and since then the reading program has grown exponentially to include six literacy centers located throughout the south luangwa valley. Currently, africa hope fund pays the salaries of twenty two reading assistants, which amounts to about $3,500 usd a month. The six reading centers currently teach over 2,000 students every week! Each grade has a dedicated time slot for the library, which usually lasts for about one hour. The children are divided up into a small groups (6-8 students) to work on reading aloud, grammar, and more. Test scores among the schools in the valley have increased dramatically as a result of the presence of the reading programs and literacy centers.in 2020, the schools were closed because of the pandemic, so jenny waterhouse and debby lead the project of building a library separate from existing schools. Debby also held training sessions for multiple adult women and men to be reading assistants. For two weeks, debby held extensive sessions for groups of eight people at a time to learn the skills necessary to teach english to the children, again through games, puzzles, using colored markers on white boards and other educational tools. 2.) volunteer programseach summer, ahf organizes volunteer trips. Volunteers travel to spend two weeks in mfuwe, a town of about 55,000 people which is the largest settlement in the mambwe district. Since 2019, sixty volunteers have participated in this program. These individuals and families also bring school supplies and games for the children. They spend half of each day working with and playing interactive games with the children helping them practice their english, and the other half-day going for game drives. Soccer is a popul

Financial Efficiency

• Mission deployment rate: 61.6%; rating input score 62
• Program expense ratio: 76.2%; rating input score 76
• Fundraising efficiency: Limited

Transparency & Controls

• Consistency checks: 93.3%; rating input score 93; 26th percentile among comparable filings
• Pay-setting controls: Limited
• Foreign activity oversight: 1 of 8 controls in place; rating input score 12
  • Claims monitoring procedures: Pass
  • Requires narrative reports: Fail
  • Conducts field audits: Fail
  • May suspend future funding: Fail
  • Requires financial reports: Fail
  • Conducts site visits: Fail
  • Requires grant agreements: Fail
  • May require repayment: Fail
• Grant itemization coverage: 95.4%; rating input score 95; 55th percentile among comparable filings
• Major donor itemization: Yes; rating input score 100
• Related-party transparency: Limited

Accountability

• Independent voting board: 100%; rating input score 100; 63rd percentile among comparable filings
• Governance controls: 2 of 8 controls in place; rating input score 25
  • Conflict-of-interest policy: Fail
  • Whistleblower policy: Fail
  • Document-retention policy: Fail
  • CEO compensation review process: NotApplicable
  • Other executive compensation review process: Fail
  • Form 990 shared with the board: Pass
  • Board meeting minutes documented: Pass
  • Audit committee oversight: Missing
  • Independent financial-statement audit: Fail

Sustainability

• Operating margin: 19.2%; rating input score 73; 73rd percentile among comparable filings
• Total-asset coverage ratio: 0.58; rating input score 27; 27th percentile among comparable filings
• Liabilities to assets ratio: 0.01; rating input score 48; 48th percentile among comparable filings
• Officer compensation ratio: 14.6%; rating input score 25; 25th percentile among comparable filings

Growth

• Program expense growth: 5.4% per year; rating input score 100; 55th percentile among comparable filings
• Revenue growth: 10.3% per year; rating input score 100; 73rd percentile among comparable filings
• Asset growth: 18.1% per year; rating input score 100; 82nd percentile among comparable filings