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.
I do believe since Lightforce One came into our lives, people’s thinking in the village changed. The children are now confident that they have a future and they now have big dreams of what they want to be after their education. Members of the village learned that there is an entry point for them to do business like poultry. I have also learned to think bigger in all that I do. Also, people have changed the way they deal with nature.
The Light Within Us
Lightforce One will be expanding its reach to help the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation in South Dakota, where the community suffers an 80-90% unemployment rate and is consistently ranked as the poorest area in the country. A staggering 80% of families are affected by alcoholism.
Help Lightforce One raise $300,000 over the next year. The money goes towards establishing substance abuse recovery meetings, insulating homes, supporting a farming co-op, and purchasing farming equipment in Pine Ridge, and continuing the work in Uganda building a new campus and introducing more revenue streams.
“No problem is insurmountable,” says Dave Bauer, founder of Lightforce One.
“Lightforce One is about taking the light (the goodness) that’s within each of us and sharing it throughout the world.”
Key Supporters
Susan Painter, California
K.C. Ale, California
Oliver Santos, California
Fran Reichenbach, North Carolina