In 2019, our organization took a pause to reflect on our organization, our mission, and how we could improve our overall capacity and transparency as an organization. Therefore in 2019, we took a pause from granting funds to shelters to better examine our needs and how we could best serve domestic violence victims in Latin America. However, as an effort to improve our overall transparency we wanted to share a little bit about some of our past projects we have funded and as well as how we plan to monitor and track expenditures going forward.

Each of these projects in in Fiscal years 2017-2019, provided an itemized list of purchases as well as receipt verification for all items purchased and project related expenses.

Going forward, we have developed a new process. Prior to receiving funding, shelters will be required to complete the Organizational Assessment Form and the Request for Funding form available for download on our website. Once completed, our board will discuss the results at our next scheduled monthly board meeting and prioritize our funding for that fiscal quarter based on the request. Shelters that have a long-term interest in working with International Safe Shelter Foundation will also need to sign a Memorandum of Understanding with our organization to better outline our partnership and our responsibility to one another.

This year, from November 25th-December 10^th International Safe Shelter Foundation is fundraising during the global 16 days of Activism Against Violence. Funds donated during this period will utilized to help support Mujer a Mujer Centro de Protección with holiday festivities during the Covid19 pandemic for shelter residents. We will also use additional funding received to be put into our Shelter Grant Fund, so that we will be able to prioritize funding requests in 2021. A small % of these funds will also be used for organizational administrative purposes.

Previously in other fiscal years, we had donated 100% of all our incoming funds to the shelter. As we reevaluated our overall mission and organizational goals, we realized that in order to be a fiscally responsive and transparent organization, we needed to ensure that we could provide a higher quality website and donor tracking tools. You will notice that our website is under construction but in 2021, you will find our website better equipped to meet the needs of new shelters, our current shelter recipient, and our valued donors. We will post our annual reports on our website as well as our donor funding tracking tools (currently under construction). This will allow donors to better monitor project expenditures and how their funding has been used.

With that said, we continue to value being a small fiscally responsible and fiscally lean organization. Our donor resources go a long way to help improve the lives of domestic violence victims. We have found that even the smallest donation, often goes to serve domestic violence victims in need in much greater depths than we could in the United States. Our board remains committed to being a fully volunteer board. Therefore, we do not have administrative costs related to buildings, electricity, rent, or salaries. Our current largest organizational expenses are our website, email, and communication tools.

Please do let us know if you have any questions about our services. We are so excited to serve shelters in Latin America and look forward to expanding our services in 2021. Thank you for your support!