Established in 2008, Ripple Effect is a website that makes it easy for individuals to make a tangible difference in the lives of people in Africa through the work of Washington State University (WSU). Visitors to the Ripple Effect website can purchase items (such as a well or fish farm kits) that are used to improve the lives and livelihoods of people in Malawi by making a donation to support WSU's work in the country through the WSU Foundation.  Ripple Effect is owned and operated by the WSU Foundation.

This website is owned and operated by the Washington State University Foundation, an IRS 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization established to promote, accept, and maximize private support for programs, initiatives, and properties of Washington State University and its regional campuses. The WSU Foundation also prudently manages, invests, and stewards the assets entrusted to it by WSU and its alumni, friends, and donors.

Yes. Your gift purchase is a donation that pays for the purchase and delivery of your gift to families and communities in Malawi through the work of Washington State University's International Research and Development unit. So if Ripple Effect users purchase 100,000 goats, WSU makes sure 100,000 goats are given in Malawi. Your gift purchase covers the total amount necessary to make that specific action happen, including such things as delivery costs, training, and costs related to processing and accounting for your contribution.

There is tremendous need in Malawi for the all the items featured on Ripple Effect. That said, we monitor gift purchases daily and have seasonal delivery targets for each item. In the event that Ripple Effect gift supply levels come close to outweighing need for any one item, we will remove the item for purchase on the site until the need again outweighs supply.

Included in your gift purchase is the total amount necessary to make that specific action happen. The price of each gift kit includes the direct costs of purchasing the items and/or services detailed in the item description. Making gifts of tangible, living products to remote locations in Malawi requires some administrative costs necessary to ensure that each gift gets successfully delivered where it is most needed. This includes costs associated with gift processing in Malawi and at Washington State University. Typically, these indirect costs average 19% of the total gift price and are necessary in order to ensure that your unique gift is stewarded successfully from beginning to end.

WSU's faculty and staff on the ground in Malawi work with their NGO partner, Total Land Care, to purchase and deliver the gift kits given through Ripple Effect. They take the average costs for the individual elements of each kit and set the price. We then calculate the costs of administering this gift in Malawi and at Washington State University. We add these costs together to arrive at the price for the individual gift kits.

Yes. Your gift purchases are charitable donations that are fully tax deductible to the extent allowed by law. Your purchase will show on your credit card statement as a charge by the Washington State University Foundation (WSUF). WSUF will mail you a receipt for tax purposes.

Yes, if your company matches your giving to nonprofit organizations. Gifts made on Ripple Effect go through the WSU Foundation (Tax ID # 91-1075542), a registered nonprofit organization under Section 501(c)(3) of the Internal Revenue Code. If your employer has a matching gift program, please complete your match on-line at your company site. Or, fill out a form and submit it to the WSU Foundation, and we'll verify your personal donation so your gift can be matched.

WSU Foundation
PO Box 641927
Pullman, WA 99164-1927

Students are increasingly becoming a part of WSU's work in Africa. In summer 2008, a group of WSU students worked with students from universities in Japan, South Korea, and Bunda College in Malawi on an internship with WSU and Total LandCare in Malawi. Together, they worked on testing things such as the efficiency of mud stove designs. It is our expectation that as our programs in Africa expand - thanks in part to donations made through Ripple Effect - more students will have the opportunity to participate in our programs and enrich their educational experience at WSU.

It's quick and easy to spread the word about Ripple Effect with your friends and family. Every time you do, you help make it possible for families in Malawi to help themselves out of poverty. Here are a few ways you can spread the word:

1. Email a link to Ripple Effect to your friends and family - Click here for the link
2. Buy gift kits for a friends - and encourage them to "pay it forward" by buying a gift for someone else
3. Join the Ripple Effect Cause Page on Facebook and invite your Facebook Friends to join too -- just click here.

We time the delivery of gifts so that they are delivered at the most advantageous time for the recipients. For example, we will deliver most of our tree seedlings just before the rainy season (which lasts from December - March) because this is the best time to plant trees for long-term viability. Some gifts, such as the Poultry Kit, don't have a seasonal nature and are given all year round.

It works like this:

1. Gifts given through Ripple Effect are received by the Washington State University Foundation, which records the donor information, item(s) purchased and gift dollars.
2. Funds are then transferred to Washington State University's International Research and Development (WSU IR&D) department, along with gift data, and deposited into accounts for each gift type (Bee Kit account, Seed Kit account, etc.).
3. WSU IR&D staff on the ground in Malawi - working in partnership with the local nonprofit Total LandCare - fulfill the gift kits by securing the items and services that Ripple Effect users have purchased and ensuring they get to families and villages in Malawi. All gifts are used as requested by you, the donor.

WSU's partner in Malawi, Total LandCare (TLC), employs over 40 local field technicians who work with individual village community leaders to create an integrated development plan for each community. These plans typically include installation of clean water wells, technical assistance with agricultural and forestry programs, economic development through animal assets, and help in other areas that help Malawians help themselves out of poverty.

Rather than giving items -- such as goats, tree seedlings, or treadle pumps -- directly to individuals, TLC field agents work with groups of farmers and community members or "clubs." For example, treadle pumps purchased through Ripple Effect would be given to a group/club of farmers. This club would loan the pump out to individual club members (using joint liability and peer pressure as a substitute for collateral), who would pay a nominal rental fee back to the club for the use of that pump. In this process, a single treadle pump can be used to help several farmers, and the rental fee provides the club with additional working capital - used to help even more farmers.

By working through these groups/clubs within each community to give Malawians a "hand up" (not a "hand out"), WSU and TLC can ensure that your gift has a sustainable and lasting positive impact to help people of this African nation out of poverty.

For certain gift kit items, we offer an option to purchase a portion of the full gift kit (typically half). We take this "share" and combine it with shares purchased by other donors to purchase the full gift kit for families and communities in Malawi.

Total LandCare (TLC) was founded in 2000 by WSU faculty member Trent Bunderson and Malawian agricultural scientist Zwide Jere, initially as a subsidiary of WSU. TLC is now an internationally known NGO (non-governmental organization) registered and operating in Malawi, Mozambique, Tanzania and Zambia. TLC is dedicated to increasing the production and income levels of small-scale farmers through improved agricultural practices with sustained conservation and management of the natural resource base. Because of its deep local knowledge, expertise, and strong ties to WSU, WSU's IR&D unit partners with TLC for work in sub-Saharan Africa.

Unfortunately, no. We wish we could, but tracking individual animals or tree seedlings would require more resources and increased staff. We believe the best use of our limited resources is to maximize the life-changing impact your gifts can have on families in Malawi.

Yes. Purchases/donations made on Ripple Effect are secure. Our online ordering system employs the latest encryption technology, Secure Socket Layer, to make sure that no one can access your private information as it travels across the Internet. Additionally, our e-commerce provider maintains certification of Payment Card Industry Compliance, which details security requirements for members, merchants and service providers that store, process or transmit cardholder data. To demonstrate compliance with the PCI Data Security Standard, merchants and service providers may be required to validate and conduct a network security scan on a regular basis as defined by the PCI Security Standards Council.

Yes. At the end of the purchase, you will get an order confirmation email. You will also receive a gift receipt for tax purposes from the Washington State University Foundation.

To allow donors to keep items in their on-line basket as they pass through the Ripple Effect catalog, the WSU Foundation utilizes "cookies," which store some order information in the donor's web browser. The order "cookies" are only used to process the donor's order. The WSU Foundation may offer users of the Ripple Effect site the option to "Remember Me" which would help make future orders quicker. Users of this site opting to be remembered will have a "remember me cookie" stored by their Web browser. Credit card information cannot be accessed using the "remember me cookie." The "remember me cookie" itself contains none of the user's personal information. And the system will only pre-fill the order form with contact information if it detects the user's "remember me cookie," and receives and confirms the user's correct email address as part of the ordering process. Also, the "remember me cookie" is not set to expire. If a user opts not to be remembered during future orders, the "remember me cookie" is cleared from the user's computer. Occasionally, we also use cookies to track the number of users who come to our site for special-occasion gift-giving campaigns. This information is used to determine how effective the campaign was and not to identify an individual user. We may also choose to employ cookies at times to evaluate the ease of our ordering process and to make it as customer friendly and easy-to-use as possible.

Each purchase of gift kits through Ripple Effect is a charitable contribution. We need your physical mailing address so that the Washington State University Foundation can mail you a contribution gift receipt for your tax records.

Yes. Here's how you can mail in your purchase:

1. Click here for a link to the online order page
2. Print out the page, fill in your contact information
3. Select your purchase items and fill in the quantities
4. Fill in your credit card information or enclose a personal check
5. Mail it to:
   Ripple Effect
   Washington State University Foundation
   PO Box 641925
   Pullman WA 99164-1925

If you have questions regarding your order, please contact Ripple Effect Customer Support at support@rippleeffect.wsu.edu or call (509) 335-8803 (8:00 a.m. - 5:00 p.m. PST/PDT).