IDEX's innovative style of community-based philanthropy has emerged over the past 24 years and operates on the basis of power-sharing and democratic principles.

Our Mission:
IDEX promotes sustainable solutions to poverty by providing long-term grants and access to resources to locally run organizations in Africa, Asia, and Latin America.

Our Vision:
We envision a global community that embraces economic, social and cultural rights in which all people may access resources, preserve their environment, and are empowered to live free from poverty and discrimination.

We Value:
•    Equitable partnerships with our grantees;
•    Transparency, accountability, and integrity in all our relationships;
•    Open communication with the communities we support;
•    Grassroots solutions, free from agendas imposed by governments, corporations, or funding agencies;
•    Local knowledge and leadership that encourages sustained community development;
•    Changing the power dynamic in international grantmaking.

IDEX is a nonprofit grantmaking organization that provides funding for initiatives in poor communities designed to:
- empower women
- care for the environment
- promote local solutions to poverty

Our funding is used to bolster existing projects: great solutions by locals who have the trust of their neighbors and the knowledge of what is most needed in their own communities.

IDEX finds and provides funds to partner organizations that are mid-size grassroots organizations. They are large enough to have management and accounting systems that satisfy donors. They are also small enough that they can find and nurture innovation and problem solving at the village or community level.

Partner organizations are located in India, Guatemala, Mexico, Nepal, South Africa, and Zimbabwe. Each work with 20 to 200 villages or communities although many grow significantly over time.

IDEX provides flexible financial support to each partner in 3-year cycles. This is so they can make plans for future years. They can also use the money where they know it is most needed. Grant amounts are from $5,000 to $50,000 per year.

Since 1985 IDEX has been working with groups around the world that are creating lasting solutions to poverty in their communities.

IDEX was the inspiration of a group of returned Peace Corps volunteers who had a vision for a different kind of international development model. Together they created IDEX after seeing that small grants targeted to grassroots groups—who had the trust of their neighbors and the knowledge of what was needed in their own communities—was often more effective than traditional large scale philanthropy.

Today, IDEX’s grantmaking has grown to an all-time high. We currently work with partners and grantees in Guatemala, India, Mexico, Nepal, South Africa and Zimbabwe.