It is hard for me to describe how meaningful it is for me, as one of Wellspring's founders, to reach the home stretch in our financial commitment to the Wellspring Academy.

As you may know, a generous donor has offered a $75,000 matching grant for all contributions to the Academy before 11:59PM (PST) on May 15^th, 2012.

So far we have raised $55,000 with only $20,000 left to reach our goal! We will only receive the full matching grant if we raise the remaining funds.

Please prayerfully consider supporting the Academy at this important time in its history.

With great gratitude and anticipation,

Richard Taylor
Executive Director

When was the last time two non profit organizations shared their donors?

Let's face it. You would probably have more success getting the government to admit it was wrong, or convincing banks to share their profits, than getting two non profits to work together in fundraising. It just doesn't make sense.

That's how I used to think too, until I experienced a joint donor trip in which two organizations openly encouraged their donors to support each other, and were strengthened in the process. The Wellspring Foundation was one of those organizations.

Communities have a choice between scarcity and abundance. Their leaders have a key role in helping them make this choice. This series of blog entries has argued that the challenging path of abundance brings the rich reward of a Vibrant School Community with the capability to provide long term sustained success for its students.

For me, the word vibrant instantly produces the image of an alive, healthy, and energized community with confidence to overcome the challenges it faces. Mathie & Cunningham (2008) say "the Vibrant Community is the engine of its own success and has overcome its dependence on its external environment."

The Abundant Leader does not create the community. It already exists. But the Abundant Leader can work with the community to help them identify the assets and create the bonds, associations, and direction that will lead to success. So how does the Abundant Leader know when a more Vibrant School Community is actually being achieved? It will demonstrate many of the following characteristics:

1. The Community has Collective Ownership for its own Future.

Collective ownership is how change is sustained. A sign of a Vibrant School Community is that a vast majority of individuals have chosen to put their time, effort, and energy towards a cause bigger than themselves.

This entry continues my argument that a radical shift from scarcity to abundance in Rwandan schools is highly necessary, and despite Rwanda's difficult past, it is also possible. In Part 2, I demonstrated that in spite of the current situation, there is already a subtle shift happening in Rwanda presently that may yet cause schools across the country to become beacons of light in their communities.

The shift is based on a transition among educational leaders from scarcity to abundance. I have previously defined Abundant Leadership as serving a community by helping them identify what they already have and connecting those community assets to accomplish a common vision. This entry discusses five practices of Abundant Leadership that can serve as a starting point for making a radical shift to abundance.

Practice #1: Abundant Leaders have a Heart for Community Service

Extensive feedback from Rwandan teachers shows many schools in Rwanda today are failing their students because they lack leaders and teachers with a profound sense of calling, motivation, and service, and they lack parent and guardian communities that are proactively engaged in their children's education (Mbabazi & Thomas, 2006). This Feedback is consistent with what The Wellspring Foundation has experienced through its School Development Program (SDP).

Part 1 of The Radical Shift argued that in order to fulfill its Vision 2020 strategy, and successfully develop its people, Rwanda must prioritize quality values based education and view the local school as a cornerstone for community development.  Unfortunately, the history of education in Rwanda has been dominated by exclusion, division, and mistrust.  Even a brief look at the history of formal education in Rwanda from colonial times until present day demonstrated schools have largely failed to reach their potential because they have been dominated by a scarcity mentality.

Part 2 of this entry argues that a radical shift from scarcity to abundance in Rwandan schools is highly necessary, and despite Rwanda’s difficult past, it is also possible.  In spite of the current situation, there is already a subtle shift happening in Rwanda presently that may yet cause schools across the country to become beacons of light in their communities.  This shift is happening as a growing number of school leaders, teachers, and parents embrace their critical role in the future of their country.

There are a small, but intrepid, group of educators who believe their circumstances should not determine their commitment. They believe they have a choice between abundance and scarcity, and they intentionally choose abundance. These educators work in the same circumstances as their colleagues. They too have inherited the colonial legacy of top-down authoritarian leadership and rote-based education, and they have to grapple with the insidious role many schools had in spreading division and mistrust prior to the 1994 genocide. They teach in schools that are overcrowded, under-supported, and under-resourced. For this privilege, they also receive poor compensation and little appreciation from the wider society. Yet they still choose abundance.