January 2025 Newsletter

Over their duration, with some lasting as long as 30 years, those 124 projects will help 772,000 of the poorest people in the world have just a slightly better chance in life. The total number of people helped by all TGUP projects reached 3.1+ million. 

We made and distributed 27,285 Save a Girl ™ kits. SaG helps adolescent girls manage their period so they can stay in school. That brings to 94,000+ the total number of kits since we started SaG, in 2017. Here’s that trend:

We're coming to realize that Save a Girl

has a real chance to materially improve the human condition. That’s because it liberates another half of human potential that is not currently engaged, because it is not currently fully educated: the female half. The wonder is how simple, inexpensive, and linear it is. Much more on this in future newsletters.

In 2024, even though project spending increased by 47%, to $535,000, spending on operations only went up by 1%, to $51,525. That is a measure of our extreme efficiency. Here’s the historical trend: 

Money received from Foundations reached a record high, $172,163. Foundations cover all of TGUP’s Operating Costs. So, as long as the Foundations number ($172,163) exceeds Operations ($51,525), 100% of every dollar a donor donates goes into a Project. TGUP has honored that commitment since its very first year.

We divide our work into five Program Areas: Classroom Club, Save a Girl ™, Science Lab in a Box, Uplift a Village, and Other. Here’s how the Projects fell out among those Programs: 

In 2024, TGUP began its newest Program, Uplift a Village. It is a collaboration with the Melissa Prandi Children Foundation to help rural villages in Uganda. 

We helped two Villages, Dambwe, and Kinawa Aidah. We provided sewing machines, commercial cooking ovens, water storage, solar-powered electricity, SaG kits, goats, horticultural training for students, and more. Here are some photos:

Our theory is that helping an entire village increases the chances for cross-pollination of the help: one person who has been helped can more easily help another. It seems to be working. The average Cost per Person Helped for all of 2024 was 69 cents. For the Uplift a Village projects, it was 49 cents. We will be following this closely in 2025. 

One last thing…  Our Annual Report profiled five of our NGO partners, from Kenya, Tanzania, Uganda, Guatemala, and Nepal. Here is one of those profiles. We’ll share others throughout this year.

Julian Guevara heads the Central American operation of TGUP’s partner, Seeds of Learning. In his own words, “Our biggest challenge is cultural: people don’t believe in the possibility of change. But you put a new classroom into their community, or a playground, or a baking center and you see how quickly they rise to the possibility of becoming better people. It’s pretty exciting to see. They’re not asking for fancy cars. They just want a better chance for their children. This makes that possible.”

Final Word

So much more... How do you characterize helping 772,000 people in a single newsletter? Let’s just say this: 

TGUP Works. The model works. Here at home, many people making small donations can actually create enormous, enduring change. They are!

And, “out there,” simple tools in the hands of real people releases their capacity—and their desire—for self-improvement. That is the entire model.

So, if you’re looking for a proven way to actually help change the world, Join Us. We are! And, there is still so much to do. 

See the full 2024 Annual Report by clicking here.

Thank you to those who make this possible. See you in February.

TGUP

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