How a chance works

This is how a chance goes from the first conversation to the last follow-up.

1 · How chances reach us

Chances reach us in three ways:

• An outreach partner who already knows a person or a community tells us about them.
• Our own team meets them during its outreach work.
• Someone writes to us through the private Need help? form.

Nothing sent through the Need help? form is ever published. Where one gift could change things, our team or an outreach partner meets the person before anything else happens.

2 · We find the one missing piece

We look at where things stand today, and at the next step. Then we ask what stands in the way. For a person, it might be a fee, a tool, a course or a certificate. For a community, it might be a water point, a school or a skilling centre.

We don't ask whose fault it was.

3 · We agree on a clear definition of "done"

Before we give anything, we write down, with the person or the community:

• the step we will fund, and exactly what "done" means for it
• what we expect to change once it's done
• when we should be able to see that change

That record is what we check against later, so we can say honestly whether a chance held or not.

4 · We price it honestly

A chance costs everything it takes to deliver it: the gift itself, and its own transport, delivery and bank charges. For a project that runs for months, that includes its fuel and transport for the whole project. Every item is listed on the chance's page, so you can see what each amount pays for. If a cost changes after approval, we record the change and show it there.

5 · The chance is posted

An approved chance appears on Open chances. Every chance page shows:

• the need, the gift and its itemised cost
• who checked it, and when
• who will deliver it: our team, or an outreach partner we name
• where the price comes from: a quote from a seller we checked, or from the outreach partner delivering it

What else it shows depends on whose chance it is.

A person's chance. The person chooses how they appear. They can appear anonymously, with a made-up name, a drawing, and their country and region. Or they can appear by first name, in their own words, with a photo only if they agree to one separately. We offer the first-name option only after checking it's safe for them. On a person's chance, we never show a surname, or any place more exact than the region, and they can change their choice at any time.

A community chance. It shows the exact place, with map coordinates for anything we build, and photos of the site and the work as it happens. People appear in photos only with their consent. Children appear only with a parent's or guardian's consent, and never by name.

6 · The gift is delivered

A gift is delivered in one of two ways.

Our team delivers it. We buy the gift from the seller we checked, and pay the seller directly. The seller hands the gift to us, and we take it the rest of the way ourselves. The seller only ever deals with us, so they don't learn who the gift is for. If the gift is a fee, such as an exam fee, we pay the school or exam board directly.

An outreach partner delivers it. We send the money to the partner, and the partner buys the gift and delivers it.

Either way, the person who receives the gift signs to confirm it has arrived, and so does whoever delivered it. For a community chance, the community's leaders sign.

7 · Someone else checks

Someone who didn't choose the chance contacts a random sample of the people and communities who received gifts, to confirm each gift really arrived.

8 · We come back

We check in at six months, at a year, and whenever the change we planned for should show. Each time, we compare what happened with what we wrote down at the start, and record one of four outcomes: held, didn't hold, too early to tell, or lost contact.

Every gift is followed up, whether or not anything about it is ever published.

9 · We publish what happened

The Results page shows the totals: the chances that held, and the ones that didn't.

Each person decides how much of their own outcome is shown: only as part of the totals, as a summary without their name, or, if they want it and it's safe, by name and in their own words. They can change their mind at any time. For a community chance, the results also show how the project itself is doing.

Community chances

Some chances belong to a whole community: clean water, irrigation, a school, a library, a skilling centre. They follow the same steps, with three differences:

• We agree on the plan with the community's leaders.
• A bigger project is split into stages, and each stage has its own definition of "done".
• Each project ends with a maintenance plan, agreed with community leaders and others involved, so it keeps working after we leave. Where a small fee is needed to pay for repairs, it's part of that plan.

Every community chance says whether our team or an outreach partner is delivering it.

Where we work

Stories come from anywhere in the world, and they are gifts too. Some gifts, though, have to be delivered in person, so our outreach begins in Uganda and reaches further through partner organisations.

Nobody repays Donum

A chance isn't a loan. Nobody owes us anything for it: not a repayment, not a promise to give back, not even a promise to succeed.

See the open chances› See the results›