ANNUAL REPORT 2012 - WBFN

The Book ProjectEstablished in 1983, the WBFN Book Project is an all-volunteer non-profit run by familymembers of World Bank/IMF staff and retirees from these organizations. Its mission is tosupport education among young people in the developing world through book donations.This year marks the 30th Anniversary of the WBFN Book Project, as it continues to make animportant contribution to the education of young students in the developing world. Withthis significant landmark, a new assessment tool is being developed to gain insight into theorganization’s impact on the level of education at recipient schools, beginning in the Philippinesand Papua New Guinea. In these two instances, the people facilitating the distributionof the books at their final destination—who are Bank staff— have agreed to take it uponthemselves to provide questionnaires to the recipient schools and ensure their return to theBook Project.The crux of the Book Project’s success is the ongoing support of DC area counties who donatetheir textbooks and the dedication of those who have committed hundreds of volunteerhours. In spite of the introduction of e-books in some counties, donations continue at ahealthy pace with a significant increase in the number of dictionaries and encyclopedias.Although several long-time volunteers returned to their home countries this year, several newand very committed volunteers joined the organization, not to mention a number of verycapable high school and college students who opted to fulfill their community service hoursby volunteering for the Book Project.The end result for the year was the donation of three large shipments (approximately 90,000books) to schools and community libraries in Papua New Guinea, Philippines and India. Anadditional four small shipments were sent to Lesotho, South Africa, Kenya and Cote d’Ivoire(approximately 7,000 books).• 30 years of history• Total of more than 3 million books sent to over 100 recipient countries in the developingworld• Approximately 97,000 books shipped just this yearThe Margaret McNamara Memorial FundThe Margaret McNamara Memorial Fund (MMMF) selects women from developingcountries to receive educational grants that will help further their education and buildleadership skills so that they may ultimately work to benefit women and children indeveloping countries. To do this, MMMF raises funds through its annual crafts fair andthrough soliciting donations from individuals, while prudently managing its investedsavings. It maintains its public non-profit status and governs through a volunteer Boardof Directors, with many other volunteers carrying out fundraising and selection processes.In FY12, MMMF selected seven grantees from South African universities and 12 from U.S.and Canadian universities to receive grants totaling $172,000. Grantees gathered in Februaryin Pretoria and in May in Washington to share their goals and professional focus with supportersof MMMF programs.Funds for the grant programs were successfully raised through the MMMF International Artsand Crafts Fair. The Fair was held earlier than usual in October 2011, so the total revenue wasdown from the previous year but still satisfactory. Despite that, customers were inspired to doholiday shopping because of the variety of carefully selected vendors. It is truly an occasionwhere the Board and other MMMF volunteers are united in working towards success. Theannual solicitation to Friends of the MMMF was converted to a largely email solicitation,with letters sent to a fraction of the Friends for whom no email address was known, as well asto recent Bank retirees. MMMF successfully raised funds through the IMF’s Helping Handscommunity campaign and has been approved for the U.S. Government’s Combined FederalCampaign and for the World Bank Group’s Community Connections Campaign startingin Fall 2012. The MMMF benefited in 2012 from a generous memorial donation from thefamily of the late Leila Zlaoui. All of these developments will expand MMMF’s capacity togive grants.To support both fundraising and general outreach, MMMF developed a brand-specific setof communications materials, and used these for the first time at the May 2012 Forumand related events. The promotional video developed during summer 2011 was launchedon the MMMF website this fiscal year, and has been used frequently at exhibits (e.g., IMF,WBFN Career and Volunteering events, 1818 NGO Fair) to attract attention to the stories of82 83