For the Good
Changing the world one girl at a time
Programs and results
What we aim to solve
When girls are educated they earn 15-25% more income, are more likely to educate their own children, have fewer and healthier children, and are less likely to contract HIV. Girls in global south countries encounter unique challenges to their educations in the form of early marriage, early pregnancy and expectations for domestic work. Parents often see formal education as irrelevant and expensive, especially for girls that will be married into another family. We work in areas where approximately 1/3 of school-age children are not enrolled in school. This proportion is even higher for girls. Additionally, some areas of Kenya, such as Maasailand, have a dirth of schools, especially secondary schools. Because there are few to no local day schools, often the only options for secondary education are boarding schools, which is too expensive for most families with multiple children.
Our programs
What are the organization's current programs, how do they measure success, and who do the programs serve?
Enroll, Retain, Attend, Transition
Girls education is recognized as one of the most cost effective strategies to promote development and economic growth, yet millions of girls across the globe are out of school. For the Good aligns with the UN's Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) of ensuring inclusive and equitable quality education.
We work with communities to increase primary and secondary school enrollment, retention, attendance, and transition from primary to secondary. We are particulary interested in achieving gender parity in all of these areas.
Currently we are working in Narok County, Kenya where only two in ten students transition to secondary school. We intentionally seek out marginalized and isolated rural communities that other NGOs are not willing to go to. Transition rates are lower in our communities and much lower yet for girls.
For the Good is a small, but highly strategic organization that uses evidence and theory-based approaches to create the greatest opportunity for impact.
Where we work
External reviews
Photos
Our results
How does this organization measure their results? It's a hard question but an important one.
Number of schools established in rural communities
This metric is no longer tracked.Totals By Year
Population(s) Served
Children and youth, Indigenous peoples, People of African descent
Related Program
Enroll, Retain, Attend, Transition
Type of Metric
Outcome - describing the effects on people or issues
Direction of Success
Increasing
Context Notes
The greatest predictor of students transitioning to secondary school is a nearby school. When we began our work in 2019, there was only one day secondary across the entire 650-sq.-mile region.
Number of students enrolled
This metric is no longer tracked.Totals By Year
Population(s) Served
Children and youth, Indigenous peoples, People of African descent
Related Program
Enroll, Retain, Attend, Transition
Type of Metric
Outcome - describing the effects on people or issues
Direction of Success
Increasing
Context Notes
When we began working in the region, approx. 1/3 of school-age children were not enrolled. COVID closed Kenyan schools in 2020; we shifted our work to adapt an offline learning app to the remote area
Our Sustainable Development Goals
Learn more about Sustainable Development Goals.
Goals & Strategy
Learn about the organization's key goals, strategies, capabilities, and progress.
Charting impact
Four powerful questions that require reflection about what really matters - results.
What is the organization aiming to accomplish?
Our overarching goal is to see more girls transition from primary to secondary school. To do this, there must be 1. improved enrollment in primary schools; 2. improved quality of primary education; 3. improved access to affordable secondary schools.
What are the organization's key strategies for making this happen?
1. We visit the homes of out-of-school children to encourage parents to enroll their children. We give parents information on the value of education with respect to additional earned income, increased social status in the community for both child and parent, and health benefits. During home visits we also enroll children with parents' consent.
2. We work with communities to build secondary day schools through the government's existing structures to fund schools. The best predictor of transition to secondary school is access to a secondary school. We work in areas that have far too few schools so we mobilize communities to begin low-cost secondary schools and get them funded from the government.
3. We work with local religious and cultural leaders and other community leaders with influence to use their platforms to encourage parents to send their children to school.
4. To increase school funding we work with schools and parents in several ways. Schools are funded by the government based on the number of students enrolled. Schools that have low enrollment receive little funding and cannot hire sufficient teachers. Increasing enrollment has the secondary benefit of increasing government funding. The other piece of school funds come from parents. Many parents resist paying school fees even when they can. We use local leaders to encourage education and paying school fees.
What are the organization's capabilities for doing this?
For the Good has developed a program model that is scalable and replicable. We employ multi-strategy solutions to achieve systematic education reform. We leverage existing government structures that fund schools and latent community capacity to improve enrollment, retention and primary-secondary transition rates.
We employ young adult volunteers to go door-to-door to enroll out of school children. Volunteers speak to parents about the monetary and health benefits, human rights and improved social status. Volunteers receive significant personal and professional development opportunities rather than a salary. While working to promote education in their communities, we build their skills and elevate them to role models.
In addition to volunteers, we employ highly capable and dedicated staff. Our Kenyan Program Director has a masters in public health and 20+ years experience working with poor, rural communities in Kenya. Our Narok Program Manager has a bachelor degree in teaching and is a former head teacher. Our other staff are formally educated and have experience working in education or community development. They have experience in facilitation, human rights, community health, and behavior change.
In the US we have two paid high functioning staff that are experienced in program strategy, fund raising, and communication.
What have they accomplished so far and what's next?
As an organization we began by providing reusable sanitary pads to adolescent girls. Over four years we supplied thousands of girls with menstrual hygeine supplies. In 2018 we directly reached almost 6000 students and parents at 31 schools with workshops addressing the primary barriers to girls' educations.
During school shut-downs due to Covid, we deployed tablets loaded with Kenya's standard curriculum and technology content to 300+ students across the Loita Hills, thereby keeping them connected to their educations despite lack of access to internet.
We are currently expanding our geographic reach to more marginalized communities in Kenya with more focused efforts on enrolling, retaining, and transitioning girls. Our programs are informed by behavior-change theory and evidence-based studies. Please visit our website at www.forthegood.org.
How we listen
Seeking feedback from people served makes programs more responsive and effective. Here’s how this organization is listening.
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How is your organization using feedback from the people you serve?
To inform the development of new programs/projects, To strengthen relationships with the people we serve, To understand people's needs and how we can help them achieve their goals
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Which of the following feedback practices does your organization routinely carry out?
We collect feedback from the people we serve at least annually, We take steps to get feedback from marginalized or under-represented people, We take steps to ensure people feel comfortable being honest with us, We look for patterns in feedback based on demographics (e.g., race, age, gender, etc.), We look for patterns in feedback based on people’s interactions with us (e.g., site, frequency of service, etc.), We engage the people who provide feedback in looking for ways we can improve in response, We act on the feedback we receive, We tell the people who gave us feedback how we acted on their feedback
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What challenges does the organization face when collecting feedback?
It is difficult to get honest feedback from the people we serve, Our feedback is more honest when conversations happen between Maasai staff with our constituents
Financials
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Operations
The people, governance practices, and partners that make the organization tick.
Connect with nonprofit leaders
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- Analyze a variety of pre-calculated financial metrics
- Access beautifully interactive analysis and comparison tools
- Compare nonprofit financials to similar organizations
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Connect with nonprofit leaders
SubscribeBuild relationships with key people who manage and lead nonprofit organizations with GuideStar Pro. Try a low commitment monthly plan today.
- Analyze a variety of pre-calculated financial metrics
- Access beautifully interactive analysis and comparison tools
- Compare nonprofit financials to similar organizations
Want to see how you can enhance your nonprofit research and unlock more insights? Learn More about GuideStar Pro.
For the Good
Board of directorsas of 02/06/2023
Martha Cochran
Space for Giants
Term: 2020 - 2022
Shelly Sheppick
iA Institute
Lisa Raleigh
Riverlink
Martha Cochran
Space for Elephants
Barbara Freeman
The Savings Collaborative/World Bank Consultant
Marion Chebet
JFG Wealth
Board leadership practices
GuideStar worked with BoardSource, the national leader in nonprofit board leadership and governance, to create this section.
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Board orientation and education
Does the board conduct a formal orientation for new board members and require all board members to sign a written agreement regarding their roles, responsibilities, and expectations? Yes -
CEO oversight
Has the board conducted a formal, written assessment of the chief executive within the past year ? No -
Ethics and transparency
Have the board and senior staff reviewed the conflict-of-interest policy and completed and signed disclosure statements in the past year? Yes -
Board composition
Does the board ensure an inclusive board member recruitment process that results in diversity of thought and leadership? Yes -
Board performance
Has the board conducted a formal, written self-assessment of its performance within the past three years? No
Organizational demographics
Who works and leads organizations that serve our diverse communities? Candid partnered with CHANGE Philanthropy on this demographic section.
Leadership
The organization's leader identifies as:
Race & ethnicity
Gender identity
Transgender Identity
Sexual orientation
Disability
Equity strategies
Last updated: 11/04/2022GuideStar partnered with Equity in the Center - an organization that works to shift mindsets, practices, and systems to increase racial equity - to create this section. Learn more
- We disaggregate data to adjust programming goals to keep pace with changing needs of the communities we support.
- We employ non-traditional ways of gathering feedback on programs and trainings, which may include interviews, roundtables, and external reviews with/by community stakeholders.
- We have long-term strategic plans and measurable goals for creating a culture such that one’s race identity has no influence on how they fare within the organization.
- We seek individuals from various race backgrounds for board and executive director/CEO positions within our organization.
- We have community representation at the board level, either on the board itself or through a community advisory board.
- We help senior leadership understand how to be inclusive leaders with learning approaches that emphasize reflection, iteration, and adaptability.