Ordinary People Making an Outsized Impact on the World
Determined to make the world a better place, Dave Bauer vowed to give 10% of his net income to people less fortunate.
Bauer isn’t rich. He doesn’t have a high-paying job, a trust fund, or a large nest egg in the stock market. Bauer runs a small business in Los Angeles, with a big heart and a belief that if everyone donated a tiny fraction of their disposable income, the world would be a much better place.
So far he’s invested in an orphanage in Uganda, helping hundreds of children without families access clean water, food, and education.
“Most people have no idea just how big of an impact they can make in a world with a small investment,” Bauer says.
That first successful philanthropic investment in the Uganda orphanage led Bauer to create the secular nonprofit Lightforce One in 2018 with the mission to offer ordinary people the chance to have their modest contribution have an outsized impact on people’s lives. Bauer personally sources and vets every potential Lightforce One project.
“I evaluate what’s going on on the ground,” Bauer says. “And I pick out the biggest, easiest holes to fill.”
Lightforce One’s approach to giving is based on the classic proverb: Give a man a fish and you feed him for a day; teach a man to fish and you feed him for a lifetime.
Over the last four years, Lightforce One has heeded that mantra by investing in projects that support independence and sustainability for impoverished communities – from funding chicken coops to wells to educational scholarships for children to introducing revenue streams. In total, he estimates the organization has improved the lives of 2,000 people.
Bauer knew that Lightforce One was his calling after he received photos from the orphanage in Uganda showing the fruits of his investment in a well and irrigation system. The first photo was two men digging a hole with shovels and pickaxes followed a week later by a picture of a 40-foot hole with water at the bottom.
“When I saw that picture, I knew that I just made a lasting impact on 1,000 lives,” he says.
Lightforce One
Donate now!lightforceone.org
(818) 823-3892
President: Dave Bauer
Mission
To make lasting differences in the world with projects where the work of the donor’s dollar will likely outlive the donor!
Begin to Build a Relationship
We know you care about where your money goes and how it is used. Connect with this organization’s leadership in order to begin to build this important relationship. Your email will be sent directly to this organization’s director of development and/or Executive Director.
Lightforce One is unique in its focus on clear-cut, achievable goals that can be accomplished by their target communities with the right help – interventions that generate self-sufficiency and create lasting change. Providing a tool that makes it easier to make better bricks? — it sounds simple but it means the community can provide shelter for its people and activities and also create a means of production that scales up to support individuals and the larger group. Making it possible to dig a viable well means that women and girls don’t spend their days traveling across the countryside for water, and that the community can grow food for consumption and for sale. Lightforce One is far-sighted, imaginative, practical, and effective — and I’m a proud supporter.
Your Donations Help Provide Lasting Solutions for Those in Need
What We Need: $50,000
• To establish and promote AA and NA groups in Uganda and Pine Ridge Indian Reservation
• To start a metal fabrication project in Uganda
• To start a pig farm in Uganda
• To train and tool out an appliance repair technician on the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation
Key Supporters
Susan Painter, California
K.C. Ale, California
Oliver Santos, California
Fran Reichenbach, North Carolina