How We Work
How We Enter Sets the Tone for the Partnership
We respond to a community's voluntary invitation to collaborate and their commitment to invest local time and resources in creating a self-sustaining and thriving future.
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We Wait to Be Invited
Most development organizations identify communities in need and go to them. We don’t.
Every LFF partnership begins the same way: a community reaches out to us. That invitation matters. It tells us the community is ready, willing, and motivated to be part of the solution — not just the recipient of one. It also means we’re operating as partners.
This is not a formality. It is the foundation of everything we do.
We Co-Design, We Don’t Just Fund
Once a community invites us in, we don’t arrive with a plan. We arrive with questions.
We conduct due diligence together — understanding the community’s assets, needs, leadership structures, and long-term vision. Then we co-design a solution, with the community investing their own time, labor, and local knowledge alongside our resources. Shared investment creates shared ownership.
We also formalize our partnerships in writing. A signed agreement between LFF and our local partner sets out clear expectations for both sides — including what happens when the project is complete.
We Plan Our Exit from Day One
The most important question in any partnership isn’t “How do we build this?” It’s “How will this keep running without us?”
From the day we enter a community, we’re working toward the day we leave. That means building local capacity to manage water systems, training community members to maintain infrastructure, supporting the formation of water committees, and transferring full ownership over time.
Success for LFF looks like a community that no longer needs us. We track this deliberately and measure it over a 5–7 year horizon after we’ve exited.
Why This Matters
Most development work is evaluated on what gets built. We believe that’s the wrong measure.
A water system that stops working two years after the NGO leaves is not a success. A school that can only function with outside funding is not self-reliant. We design our work to prove that communities can thrive on their own — and we stay accountable to that standard long after the project ends.
That’s what makes our model different. Not what we build. What lasts.
Process Summary
How Our Work Leads to Change
Through partners on the ground in Haiti
