Beneficiary Profile

The following organizations have been selected by Summit7 to receive funds. These organizations were chosen based on several factors, including their ability to direct and utilize funds in ways that uphold Summit7’s goals and desires, as well as the benefactor’s reputation, integrity and international reach. Each of these organizations has proven that they are the best at what they do, and Summit7 wholly supports their global efforts.

Habitat for Humanity

The Fuller Center for Housing

International Arctic Research Center

Habitat for Humanity

Some 2 billion people worldwide live in poverty housing. More than 1 billion live in urban slums, and that figure is expected to double by 2030. Many of these people earn less than US$2 per day.

In fact, 5.1 million American families have "worst-case" housing needs, forced to pay more than half their income for housing, endure overcrowded conditions and/or live in houses with severe physical deficiencies. While the number of families in poverty is growing, the number of affordable rental units is shrinking, and most families who qualify for government housing assistance aren't receiving any aid.

The high cost of housing leaves low-income families little money for other basic necessities like food, clothing or health care. Substandard housing can endanger the health and safety of its occupants, erode their hope and self-worth, and impair their children's ability to succeed in school.

Working in partnership with low-income families to build decent homes they can afford to buy, Habitat helps to break the cycle of poverty and hopelessness. By the end of 2005, more than 1 million people worldwide will live in decent, affordable Habitat for Humanity houses.

Learn more at www.habitat.org

The Fuller Center for Housing

The Fuller Center for Housing was born at Koinonia Farm, the birthplace of Habitat for Humanity, in the spring of 2005. After 29 years of service to the poor, Millard and Linda Fuller suddenly found themselves without a platform to continue their dream of eliminating poverty housing. So together with a small group of friends, they founded The Fuller Center.

The need for decent shelter is great. The United Nations estimates that over a billion people around the world live in substandard housing. The Fullers founded Habitat for Humanity with the simple, if audacious, goal of eliminating poverty housing. The organization they founded and built has made remarkable progress towards that goal, providing decent homes for nearly a million of the world’s poor. But that success is dwarfed by the work that remains to be done, and through The Fuller Center, Millard Fuller’s remarkable entrepreneurial, fund raising and motivational skills will continue to serve that labor of love.

Learn more at www.fullercenter.org

International Arctic Research Center

IARC was established for the purpose of promoting international cooperation in an effort to integrate/synthesize arctic climate change research. It is a place where scientists from around the world can work together to study arctic climate change, where we explore the causes of arctic climate change and try to reduce uncertainty of climate change prediction as the goal.

IARC, as its institutional norm, makes a comprehensive effort to integrate a great variety of arctic research toward a better understanding of climate change in the Arctic. In the past, a great variety of arctic research projects have been conducted individually by the arctic science community. However, IARC's project will distinguish itself from the past efforts by emphasizing integration of such individual, concrete projects under the four themes and combinations of them, rather than pursuing individual projects. We have successfully initiated international observational projects, of which data are crucially needed for the modelings.

IARC projects cannot be achieved without close international cooperation. IARC is becoming a focal point for international collaboration. Further, we are working to provide enhanced arctic modules, thereby forming a connection between the arctic and global modeling communities. At the present time, about 50 researchers from more than 20 institutions from many parts of the world are already participating in IARC projects.

Learn more at www.iarc.uaf.edu