Who We Are

Mission

Motivated by our faith in Jesus Christ, and by his model of compassionate servanthood, Starfysh exists to demonstrate Christian love and compassion through alleviating physical suffering and addressing social injustice on the island of La Gonave, Haiti.

Vision

Our vision is to reverse the vicious cycle of poverty on the island of La Gonave, Haiti. We’ll know our vision has been realized when drinking water is clean, food is abundant and people are able to provide for themselves, thus building dignity and hope for every person, every family, and every village on the island.

Core Values

Driven and guided by the following core values, Starfysh is resolutely committed to implementing long-term, sustainable, and needs-based initiatives to the communities on La Gonave. These values frame all of our planning and are central considerations to each project we implement:

• Collaboration - We celebrate the fact that we are but one of many in a world of compassionate people and organizations working to relieve suffering and improve life for the desperately poor. We value the importance of partnerships in our efforts to bring about significant, sustainable change, and welcome the expertise and skills that others can bring to the table.
• Empowerment - In all we do, we desire that the recipients of our compassion efforts would be encouraged, equipped, strengthened toward greater levels of self-sufficiency.
• Dignity - We recognize that the dignity of individuals and communities can be diminished by indiscriminate and careless charity. In all we do, we demand of ourselves that we build up the worth of those we serve.
• Holistic Focus - We choose to pour all our energies into one place, the island of La Gonave, Haiti, and to address as many of the root causes of her poverty that we can. We are convinced that nothing short of such a focused and holistic approach can reverse the cycle of poverty in any one place.
• Sustainability - We regard our efforts as successful only to the point that we can see and measure progressively higher levels of independence. We will, therefore, factor this endpoint into our consideration of project worthiness.
• Measurability - We regard seriously our work and so will not let the outcomes of our efforts go unmeasured. The stakes are too high. The measuring of project impact and effectiveness will be a valuable and essential learning tool that will sharpen and refine us as we move forward toward our vision.

Measurement and Assessment

The stakes are high. Lives and livelihoods are held in the balance. As we go about the work of meeting desperate human need, we must leave no room for guesswork or simple, generalized observations regarding the effectiveness of the things we do. We carry no illusions about the difficulty of the way ahead; Haiti is a complex and troubled land. So as we proceed along the hard path of effecting transformative change we must always look for ways to improve on how we go about it and remain flexible enough to adjust mid-stream.

To this end, we are constantly monitoring and assessing our project initiatives, not only in terms of immediate effectiveness, but as they fulfill the non-negotiable core values of long-term sustainability as well as the empowering effect they have on those among whom we do our work. Project status and outcomes data will be periodically gathered and assessed according to a set of project-specific metrics. Rigorous and honest assessments will be the benchmark of our work to bring strong, sustainable, transforming change to La Gonave.

Board of Directors

Mr. Brian Dykstra - Assistant Vice President, Fifth Third Private Bank
Dr. Steve Edmondson - Family Practice Physician
Rev. Dan Irvine - Caribbean/Atlantic Area Director, Global Partners
Mr. Doug Lockhart - CEO, Biblica North America
Mr. Tim Ulstad - High School Teacher
Mr. Steve Westdorp - Founder/Partner, Grand Management Group

Starfysh is a non-profit organization, exempt from Federal income tax under section 501 (c) (3) of the Internal Revenue Code. Contributions to Starfysh are deductible under section 170 of the Code. Starfysh may also receive tax deductible bequests, devises, transfers, and gifts under section 2055, 2106, or 2522 of the Code.

Contributions will be received with the understanding that Starfysh has complete control over the use of donated funds and gifts. As a volunteer-run charity, our policy is that 100% of each gift designated for a project shall be applied to project costs, that 0% of that gift would be used for administrative costs. In the event that we receive more contributions for a given project than can be wisely applied to that project, we will use these funds to meet a similar pressing need.