History & Growth

History

Think Impact was founded by Saul Garlick in Denver, Colorado in 2001 after a conversation with friends about the lack of student involvement in public policy. It has since grown to be an international non-profit organization endorsed by The Nelson Mandela Foundation with an esteemed Board of Advisors including ambassadors, academics and business leaders.

In the spring of 2002, Garlick visited the Manyeleti Community of South Africa near the border of Mozambique where he saw firsthand a school where African students were forced to learn under trees. The shortage of classrooms, supplies and resources struck him, and he pledged that through Think Impact, young leaders in the United States would build classrooms in rural communities like the one he visited.

Returning to the United States, the goal was clear and students began their work. Hosting car washes, bake sales and sending direct mail, Think Impact raised the seed money they needed to get started – which was matched by a generous donation from a South African philanthropist. Think Impact partnered with the Buffelshoek Trust to build the needed classrooms.

The first college chapter of Think Impact was founded in 2002 at Johns Hopkins University. Within a year, the organization expanded to having a presence on a dozen more campuses nationwide.  Six years later, Think Impact has more than 50 international partner organizations and has connected more than 70 American young people with rural villages in Africa to alleviate poverty through social innovation, leadership and entrepreneurship.

Since its inception, Think Impact has:

• Developed and built four libraries, four classrooms, 16 latrines, a community center and two soccer fields
• Hosted numerous health workshops, soccer tournaments, entrepreneurship trainings and four national conferences
• Created a presence on more than 40 college campuses nationwide
• Connected hundreds of American young people with rural communities to alleviate poverty

And we are still growing!

Growth

Think Impact has set ambitious goals over the next decade to grow our organization and our commitment to poverty reduction in rural communities. By 2016, Think Impact will host more than 250 fellows to plan and implement community-based projects. Projects implemented will be followed to ensure that they are sustained. We hope to replicate high impact projects – with at least 25 by 2016.

We will continue to lead interns into communities each year and will take more than 3,250 students to communities by 2016. Interns will be of the highest caliber with increasingly impressive credentials – 90% with leadership positions in college by 2012.

The organization’s financial stability will be essential to our growth, and we are seeking to build a $10 million endowment by 2015.  While Think Impact’s tuition will provide for the organization’s sustainability, building an endowment will give us the support we need to grow our programs. We plan to add 16 new communities to our development portfolio by 2016, which will allow us to directly impact more than 320,000 lives.

We aim for our accomplished alumni to become America’s next generation of entrepreneurs, policymakers, CEOs and philanthropists who personally understand the potential for development by leveraging local community resources. The number of alumni working in related public, private and citizen sector organizations will reach 1,000 by 2020 – ensuring the organization’s global impact.