Groundswell Education

Working with Groundswell was vital to the successful design of 321Move, an Iraq and Pakistan-based program that supports young people to lead recreational activities that build leadership and life skills while creating positive peer networks. Mercy Corps collaborated extensively with their field and technical teams to design a cutting edge curriculum and complementary monitoring and evaluation package, and engaged their seasoned facilitators to deliver powerful experiential training in Iraq and Pakistan.

Thanks to Groundswell's extensive expertise the program has had widespread success - including training over 10,000 young people in Iraq and Pakistan and recently has been expanded into Jordan and Lebanon.

Simply said, Groundswell has been amazing to work with. Having their sport for development insight, expertise, passion and connections has helped us write several successful grant proposals and stay true to the mission, vision and values of our organization.

They understand development inside and out – be it grant writing, partnership development, monitoring and evaluation, or the importance of setting organizational goals. They have been essential in helping KPI use sport to promote gender equity in Rwanda and make a real impact. 

Tracy Evans, KPI Founder and Executive Director

Connections, communications, strategic planning, budgets, grants, how to prep for meetings and phone calls, protocols, costing, partnerships, global modeling and expertise, guidance, positivity – the list goes on and on and on!!!

More specifically, Groundswell has transformed NMNW into a high performing and globally recognized organization by helping us build out our scale design, business development strategy and processes, and navigate the complex partnerships and relationships that emerge along the way. The biggest benefit of working with Groundswell is to have a well-seasoned sounding board to process questions that emerge on every growth strategy question.

Leah’s experience allows her to anticipate the tasks, paperwork, meetings that we should prepare for so that we're not scrambling when requests are made. This allows us to plan, perform at a higher standard and stay in front of our work.

You will be thrilled to have Groundswell on your team, they add so much value. You’ll quickly want their voice on every call, eyes on every document, and thoughts on all plans!

Lee Paiva, Founder and Katherine Daiss, Director of Development and Partnerships

Not only did Ocean Academy achieve the most obvious metric of success – grant approval – but we learned by working with Groundswell how to clarify our proposal, answer deep questions about impact and sustainability, and improve our own grant writing skills in the process.

I recall several nights when they worked side by side with us on pressing deadlines late into the night. I felt Leah was truly invested in Ocean Academy’s work and this came through in our collaborative grant proposals.

Joni Miller, Ocean Academy Co-Founder

Groundswell was a critical partner in writing, developing and implementing a large Rotary International grant to address the high incidence of Fetal Alcohol Syndrome in South Africa. Their leadership and knowledge of Africa as well as their teambuilding skills were immensely valuable in bringing the international team together. Groundswell was also instrumental in crafting a multi-year budget, evaluation measures and finalizing reports to meet Rotary International’s standards and guidelines.

The success of our project is directly related to Groundswell’s guidance and expertise from beginning to end.

Jonathan Warner and Mary Nagle, Rotarians of the Rotary Club of Carroll Creek and Hope in South Africa Board Members