WISER

How to become a WISER Partner School

How do you become a WISER Partner School? It is very simple. Send an email to WISER’s Executive Director, Andy Cunningham, with a one page cover letter answering one question: “Why do you want to be a WISER Partner School?” Minimum 500 words. Maximum 1000 words. You can email him directly at andy@wisergirls.org.

Included in your essay, you must include your name, the full name and address of your school and email contact information for you and a faculty mentor. The WISER Executive Director will then respond to your email confirming receipt. The WISER Local Advisory Board in Muhuru Bay will then review your essay and if approved, will send you an email within one week. After successful approval, you will be asked to complete a WISER Partner Schools Form of Agreement stating that you are willing and ready to raise at least USD $1000 per year for four years for WISER’s girls scholarship fund. After completing this form, you will be considered an official WISER Partner School and receive a WISER Partner School ID to track your donations and progress.

WISER currently has 14 WISER Partner Schools. We are looking to have 30 schools by January 2010 which is when WISER will enroll its first 30 girls. Our goal is to have 30 WISER Partner Schools to equip students from around the world with the tools and opportunity to empower 30 future women leaders and community change-agents in Muhuru Bay, Kenya.

Invite WISER to Speak at Your School!

Oftentimes, the story of WISER is an inspiring source of enthusiasm and activism for start-up WISER chapters. If your school is interested in having a guest speaker from WISER come to visit your school, please feel free to contact WISER’s Executive Director at andy@wisergirls.org. Currently, WISER cannot cover travel or expenses, but our schedules are fairly flexible. So far, we have presented to over 25,000 students in four different countries, two Youth Summits at the United Nations and the keynote speech at the Global Issues Network in Geneva.

If you would like to learn more about the impact one of our presentations can have in your schools, please feel free to contact the WISER Partner School advisor at the Hotchkiss School, Stephanie Thomas, at sthomas@hotchkiss.org.

How to Collect Money Now for Girls in Muhuru Bay

Even if you have not completed the WISER Partner School essay, you can start fundraising right away. Please just follow the information below to ensure your money gets to Muhuru Bay directly!

• a. All donations to WISER are tax-deductible.
  Our tax ID number is 56-053-2129.
• b. All checks should be made payable to Duke-WISER.
• c. All cash donations should be collected into one envelope, which has clearly written on it where the money has been collected and to whom we should send a thank you note.
• d. All Credit Card or Bank Draft donations must use this link (http://www.giftrecords.duke.edu/index.cfm) and note in the ‘designations’ field that it is for WISER Partner HS Program 399-9129.

Sending Donations to WISER:

All Donations should be sent directly by mail to the office of WISER’s accountant at the following address. Please include the WISER Partners Donations Report (included in packet) with any donations you send to be put toward your school’s scholarship.

WISER at Duke University Attn. Karen Gray
Duke Global Health Institute Box 90519
Durham, NC 27708 USA

Please note that Duke University is a support organization for WISER and offers its accounting and auditing services as in-kind donations for the WISER Kenyan NGO.