Join The Village
A newly built wooden stilt home with a resident in the doorway

Projects shaped by the communities we support

We take part in long term work with our partners and step in for short projects when they name a specific need. Either way, the people who live there lead.

Fund a project

Local leaders lead. We come alongside.

501 Collective helps trusted nonprofit leaders tell better stories, raise funds for their specific projects, welcome volunteer teams and build more sustainable organizations. Our role is to strengthen their work, giving partners around the world the support and clarity needed to keep serving well.

Some projects grow over years. Others meet an immediate need in a few weeks. Each one reflects priorities named by local leaders who understand their communities far better than we ever will.

Recent projects

All stories are shared with permission from those we serve.

A volunteer fills water containers on a dry hillside outside Manzini

Manzini, Eswatini

Gogo Nidwandwa is 91 and has spent her whole life on one small piece of land outside Manzini. Our team was nearby on other projects when word reached us she could use a hand at her homestead, so we bought bags of rice, beans and a few staples and made the long walk up the hill to meet her.

We spent the day doing the ordinary things a home needs for upkeep. We cleaned out her huts, hauled water up from the spring, washed her dishes and laid a fresh coat of cow manure across her cooking hut floor, a tradition here for generations which dries into a smooth surface with no dust, keeps insects out and holds warmth through the night. The best part of the work was watching her stand alongside us, overjoyed with her refreshed home.

A house damaged in the war stands roofless behind bare trees

Kyiv, Ukraine

Since the war began in 2022, our partners have never stopped, and we have sent nearly twenty teams into Ukraine to stand beside them. First the work was evacuation, moving women and children into Romania while tens of thousands crossed the border every day. Then it was restoring an enormous facility so an entire orphanage of evacuated children had somewhere safe to land, then packing tens of thousands of bags of food and driving them into cities across the country.

Lately the work is whatever the day requires: rebuilding bombed houses, feeding families, standing with war widows and caring for orphans. The best way to describe our projects in Ukraine is this. If you can think of it, our partners are probably already doing it. The war has not ended, and we will keep showing up over and over in a country now full of our dear friends.

A finished wooden home stands on stilts under palm trees, children playing below

Gales Point, Belize

About 300 people live in Gales Point, most of them descendants of formerly enslaved people who escaped and built a life on this remote stretch of coast. It is a stunning place with almost no economy, where fishing is the main work and pays around $2 to $3 a day. Our history here began in 2021 with our partner, building an aquaponics system for the village.

The projects then turned from food to shelter, and our house building program was born. The goal belongs to the village leader: every one of the 75 failing houses on Gales Point repaired or rebuilt. We have committed to seeing it through together. Teams join us for 7 to 8 days, long enough to raise a complete 16 by 24 foot home on stilts above the flooding. One family at a time, until the whole village stands on solid ground.

How a project comes together

You always know who leads it, what it costs and how it is going, from the first conversation to the day it is finished.

  • A group sits together in a circle in a small courtyard

    Leaders name the need

    Every project starts with people who know their community best: a classroom without a roof, a family without water, a farm waiting to start.

  • A team raises a wall frame on the deck of a new stilt home

    We plan and fund it

    Together we shape the plan and set an honest budget, then raise support with a focused campaign so the work can begin without delay.

  • A woman smiles in her kitchen beside a refrigerator and shelves of supplies

    We share the story

    Our team comes back with photos, film and updates, so you can watch the progress, meet the people and celebrate every finished piece.

Projects we’re pursuing, together

We work with carefully selected nonprofits serving communities through education, child protection, sustainable farming, construction, clean water, refugee support, maternal health and more.

  • Children play in the yard beside a school building

    Education

    Classrooms, school upgrades, tuition help and after school programs for kids.

  • Clean water poured from a bright yellow container

    Clean water

    Wells, filtration and water systems for communities where access is limited.

  • A family stands together in front of their pink home

    Family health

    Birthing centers, newborn care, birth kits and steady support for local clinics.

  • A volunteer laughs while hammering a window frame on a new home

    Safe homes

    Rebuilt and new homes, plus spaces for school, care and local programs.

  • Smiling students line up for a hot meal

    Food and farming

    Food programs, community farms and help for families in a hard season.

  • A crowd of families gathers at a van as volunteers hand out food

    Refugee support

    Evacuation, relocation, resettlement and safe places for families to stay.

Many projects are one of a kind

Support for single mothers, protection from trafficking, farming and aquaponics, and other needs leaders name as their communities change, whether in Haiti, Uganda or Belize.

Some start small: one family, one garden, one conversation over a meal. The best of them grow into something a whole village shares.

Read stories from the field

Rows of greens growing in an aquaponics greenhouse

See the work

Our own photo and video team films alongside the people we serve, in their words and on their terms, so leaders can share their work and find new friends for it.

Help fund the next project

Every donation strengthens work on the ground, from clean water and classrooms to rebuilt homes. Your gift joins others to finish the next project our partners have named.

  • Led by the people who live there
  • Nothing held back for our overhead
  • Updates and photos as the work moves
Rather give every month? Join The Village

Every gift to a project is tax deductible.

Tell us a little about what you have in mind and we will connect you with the right person on our team.