Postcard from Ecuador: Giving Globe-locally

About two hours north of Quito, 9000 feet up in the Andes, in the shadow of the Imbabura volcano, lies a wonderful Hacienda owned by the children and grandchildren of two former Ecuadorian presidents. Hacienda Zuleta offers a magical stay for guests, who are welcomed into the family home and treated to fascinating stories about the history and politics of the region, as well as spectacular scenery, perfect weather, five-star meals, and restful accommodations.

The Hacienda uses the tourism proceeds in part to support a family charity, The Galo Plaza Lasso Foundation. The foundation is named after the owners' father, a progressive and farsighted leader who served as President from 1948-52 and went on to have a distinguished career as an international diplomat in trouble spots such as Congo and Lebanon.

The foundation oversees several initiatives: a community center and educational programs for the children of tiny Zuleta village, a rescue and rehabilitation program for Ecuador's endangered condor population, and a microenterprise operated by the renowned embroiderers of Zuleta. The women's collective was begun in the 1950s by the First Lady of Ecuador, Rosario Pallares, before the term microenterprise had come into fashion.

The foundation is a wonderful cause with a ready-made donor base of tourists who visit the Hacienda and see these projects first hand. Yet the U.S. tax laws, while providing incentives for Americans to donate to worthy projects such as these at home, provide no such incentive for charities abroad. Tourists give, but perhaps not at the level they would if they had the extra financial incentive to dig into their pockets.

The foundation's visionary leaders would like to expand its programs, and that takes money. Their choice is to try to establish a U.S.-based charity -- a costly, bureaucratically challenging process whose outcome is by no means assured -- or find a U.S.-based charity that is willing to serve as the foundation's fiscal sponsor. Both are daunting challenges for a small, volunteer-run foundation at the top of the Andes.

The foundation's experience raises interesting questions of public policy. Presumably, Americans can't deduct donations going directly to foreign charities because the U.S. government has no oversight authority over these entities. The policy is reasonable and understandable: No taxpayer wants the government to subsidize charities whose bona fides cannot be monitored, much less guaranteed.

But we live in a global society, and Americans -- particularly young Americans -- consider themselves citizens of the world. It's increasingly difficult to distinguish U.S. causes from those of other countries. For purposes of social change, young people see national boundaries as largely artifacts of geography.

Fortunately, a few entrepreneurial organizations have recognized the dilemma and found ways to encourage global altruism while ensuring domestic accountability.

One such group is Globalgiving.org, whose mission is to "build an efficient, open, thriving marketplace that connects people who have community and world-changing ideas with people who can support them." The website allows Americans to make a tax-deductible contribution to roughly 2,300 small, locally run projects working on issues from feeding orphaned cheetahs in Namibia, to helping families build an ecotourism hub in Jordan, to providing care for young sex-trafficking survivors in Cambodia.

Global Giving charges a 15% sponsorship fee. In exchange, it facilitates the donations and oversees the projects -- making sure, for example, that they have management, mission, and governance standards consistent with international-philanthropy guidelines. In essence, Global Giving fills the role of government regulator, making sure that the charitable projects are doing what they claim.

Global Giving was started by two former World Bank executives who saw the power of online philanthropy in addressing global poverty. Their experience suggests a broader role for other multinational institutions, such as the United Nations, whose foundation serves as the fiscal sponsor for charitable projects such as the antimalaria charity "Nothing but Nets."

There is no substitute for experiencing the social entrepreneurship where it's happening, whether in the Andean highlands of Ecuador or wherever else you might travel. The passion, creativity, vision, and daily labors of love are life-affirming to behold. But if you can't go, you can give.