Written by Dennis Passovoy, Board Member
When Victorina finally had safe water flowing into her home after 75 years of life without it, no one asked her to document the milestone in triplicate. The water was simply there — clean, gravity-fed, dependable — because the people who believed in this work trusted the people doing it.
That trust is not a small thing. In the world of nonprofit funding, it is actually quite rare. And it makes an enormous difference — not just to us as an organization, but to the communities in Nicaragua whose lives we are here to help transform.
We want to take a moment to talk about something that doesn’t often appear in these pages: how we are funded, and why it matters so much to the work.
What Is Trust-Based Philanthropy?
Trust-based philanthropy is built on a simple but powerful idea: funders who trust the organizations they support and give them flexibility produce better outcomes than those who do not. In practice, this means unrestricted, multi-year grants with streamlined reporting — funders doing their due diligence upfront, then stepping back to let the experts do what they do best.
The alternative is common and costly. Many grant relationships require exhaustive applications, rigid reporting timelines, and restrictions that prohibit funding from covering salaries or overhead — precisely the things that allow good work to get done. And when circumstances on the ground change, as they inevitably do in remote communities, the flexibility to adapt is often missing.
The Hidden Cost of Distrust
We have worked in some of the most remote communities in Nicaragua for two decades. Our team is lean and deeply expert. What we cannot afford is time and focus diverted away from that mission.
When applications require months of compliance documentation, that is time not spent on project planning or community relationships. When restrictions prohibit covering operational costs, we are left stitching together funding sources just to keep the lights on. The administrative overhead that highly controlled philanthropy demands has a real human cost — borne by the communities furthest from the decision-making table.
We clearly understand the need for oversight. “Trust” doesn’t mean “hand over the check and step away.” It means trust but verify.
What Trust Looks Like in Practice
We have been fortunate to be supported by donors and foundations who have chosen to trust us — reviewed our financials and track record, visited communities where we’ve worked, and then given us the flexibility to put their investment to work the way we know best. That trust is something we earn and are accountable for every single day.
The most powerful recent example is a catalyzing grant from the LDS Foundation, which funded the Ponsoña multi-community water, school, and sanitation project — the largest undertaking in Project Schoolhouse’s history. Rather than prescribing narrow deliverables, the LDS Foundation invested in our mission and proven approach, trusting us to apply it across seven communities at once. Critically, it allowed us to invest in in-country leadership and community organizing capacity — something a more restrictive grant may not have permitted — making us a stronger partner for every community in our pipeline.
This is also a natural expression of our community-centered model. We only go where we are invited. We only build what communities have asked for. When our funders extend that same philosophy to us — trusting the experts closest to the work — it creates a virtuous cycle all the way from donor to schoolhouse to student.
An Invitation
If you are a donor to Project Schoolhouse, thank you. Your trust is the foundation on which everything we do is built. If you are considering a larger gift or partnership, we welcome that conversation.
Victorina’s water is still running. The children of La Ponsoñita are learning in a new school. Seven communities above Rio Blanco are closer to safe water than they have ever been.
That is what trust makes possible.
To learn more about partnering with Project Schoolhouse, visit projectschoolhouse.org/partner or reach out to us at info@projectschoolhouse.org.
Watch our short film “Victorina”
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