Ask Sunflower Mission!

Dear friends,

As we kick off the new year, I wanted to remind everybody that our efforts do, in fact, create a global impact. Whether at Guangxi, An Giang, or Binh Phouc, the site of our latest project this year, we affect not only the lives of students themselves, but also the well-being of their families and communities.

It is not enough for us to simply say we’re making a difference, though. A successful philanthropic operation requires transparency, so that an informed onlooker can understand who the charity affects, or how operations work, or what challenges the organization faces. UNC’s research team demonstrated strong commitment to this value earlier this year during the selection phase, and their work led us to chose Binh Phouc province for our school because of its growing industrialization and subsequent demand for primary education.

Sunflower Mission itself is also dedicated to transparency, and to show this, they have volunteered to answer any questions you may have about the organization or their operations overseas building and maintaining schools.

How do you participate? Simple — just post an informed question in a comment reply to this entry here and we will publish answers on a biweekly basis to you!

A few common questions we’ve gotten:
1. How long has Sunflower been in operation?
2. What percentage of Sunflower’s revenues goes toward charitable ends?
3. How much has Sunflower raised thus far toward their goals?

Of course, Sunflower’s website gives us the answer to these questions: 2002, 97%, and $1.7 million, respectively.

Yet there are many other questions that are beyond the scope of their website. For example, what are some or the challenges working with local organizations to build schools? Or — what kind of opportunities are present to those who have earned a primary education versus those who do not?

We look forward to hearing and answering your questions!