How We Work
Localizing humanitarian and development assistance isn’t only about transferring resources more directly to local organizations. It shifts decision making and activity design toward those closest to service delivery. Our processes and partnerships reflect that shift.
At Proximity2Humanity (P2H), we raise funds for trusted local responders and change-makers so that they can help their communities get what they need, and implement their shared visions for the future. We lessen the burden by taking on fundraising and administrative tasks while offering technical support. We also advocate globally for the very real issues affecting their work, such as insecurity, access constraints, and constrained democratic space.
P2H is a 501(c)3 non-profit organization based in North Carolina, USA, but our staff are located around the world. We are seasoned humanitarian and development professionals with a shared passion for transferring real power to local communities, and for supporting more activities with less overhead than most traditional aid and development programs. We are committed to proving that this type of assistance can be successful, and to promoting this new way of working across the globe.
When we support programs in the United States and abroad, our assistance is:
Fast
Direct
Flexible
Accountable
Cost Effective
Accountable
Flexible
Direct
Fast
Cost Effective
International Programs
P2H is a founding member of Mutual Aid Sudan Coalition, our flagship project. Through the Coalition, we direct donor funding to a community-driven mechanism that enables Sudanese communities to meet their own needs during the ongoing conflict, now on a remarkable scale with 26,000 volunteers across the country. Leveraging the success of this model and many lessons learned along the way, we are aiming to expand this type of direct financial support to community-led organizations in other humanitarian contexts around the world.
At our core, we are the financial intermediaries facilitating donations to unregistered, vetted community groups with proven success, most of which aren’t easily found via an easy Internet search. Beyond that, we support in various administrative and reporting capacities, fundraise, and spread awareness, depending on the context and according to the priorities of the communities we support.
We’re also learning along the way, and plan to build a repository of scalable models to inform a new way of working in humanitarian assistance that supports communities in a true partnership model, with far fewer overhead costs lost along the way. We’re also hoping to create the conditions where donors can directly fund these community-led groups without financial intermediaries.
Domestic Programs
P2H’s global headquarters is in Albemarle, Stanly County, North Carolina. Here we are working to build cohesion within the community across all political, ethnic, and racial lines. Throughout the entire state — which is prone to natural disasters including fires, floods, and hurricanes — we manage locally-led disaster response initiatives in order to help North Carolinians build back better. Our founders have worked in global disaster response for 25+ years. We work to incorporate our lessons learned from different corners of the world into ways that best help North Carolinians.