Do you fund our operations or salaries?

No. Students only. Your organization's independence is part of what we value.

Who selects the students?

You do, with your community. We would not presume to know your villages better than you do.

How long is the commitment?

For each scholar, through graduation.

Do you take over programs?

Never. We sponsor students into them. What you built remains yours.

Can donors give through you?

No. The Foundation is funded entirely by James and Ruth Brown and accepts no outside money. That is why a sponsorship, once made, does not depend on anyone's fundraising.

For education programs

You built the program. We can fund the students you can't.

If you lead a proven, community-rooted education program for Indigenous or marginalized young people, and each year you turn away students who qualified in every way except financially, we would genuinely like to meet you.

You keep everything: your staff, your methods, your selection process, your community's trust. We fund the students you cannot. The money is already set aside, and no campaign has to succeed for it to arrive.

The partnership

What a partnership looks like.

You keep operating

Your program, your people, your standards. We change nothing.

We sponsor the students you cannot afford to support

We cover the actual costs required for each student to attend and complete their course, including the costs their scholarships or other financial aid do not cover.

We verify together

Simple per-student records, plus an annual independent review that we arrange and pay for ourselves, at no cost to your program.

Our conditions

What we ask of partners.

Four requirements. They are the whole list.

Genuinely additional places: New students, not substitutions for funding you already had.
Community-led selection: That your community lead the selection, with financial need first.
Honesty about capacity: Tell us how many new students you can welcome well, because we will not push past that number.
Safeguarding: That residential programs have written safeguarding policies, since these are someone's children.

Who we're looking for

Community-led and legally registered in-country

Several years of proven operation with documented outcomes

Serving marginalized Indigenous or minority youth in Southeast Asia

More qualified applicants than funded places

The process

Four conversations, then students.

Step 1
Introduce your program
A short conversation about who you serve and how long you have been doing it.
Step 2
A working session
We go through your real costs and your honest capacity.
Step 3
A simple agreement
Setting out the ledger, the verification, and the commitment through graduation.
Step 4
Your first Scholars enroll
Your selected students begin, funded from day one.

Partner inquiry

Tell us about your program.

A real person reads every inquiry. We reply to all of them, including the ones that aren't a fit.

Questions