Tanya Cothran

About: Tanya Cothran

Tanya Cothran is Executive Administrator at Spirit in Action, an international micro-grant organisation working in eastern Africa. She recently moved to Toronto and is looking forward to meeting other not-for-profit folks there. She is trained as a librarian, and finds satisfaction in tracking down bits of information. To learn more about Spirit in Action’s work, you can contact Tanya at admin AT godsspiritinaction DOT org. You can also follow her on the SIA blog at http://godsspiritinaction.org/news

Asking questions that get real answers

By Tanya Cothran | Posted in: Career Advice, Reflection, Self-help | March 20, 2013 | 7 comments so far.

Tired questions like "How was [insert country here]?" often receive tired answers. Tanya Cothran explains how better, more thoughtful questions can encourage genuine conversation with both personal and professional benefits. ...

Should we just give money to the poor?

By Tanya Cothran | Posted in: Alternatives in development, Microfinance, Poverty | November 14, 2012 | No comments yet.

Have you ever been around a development program that was gradually getting more and more complicated? With underused administrators and layers of reporting and bureaucracy that never trickles down to benefit the students? In Just Give Money to the Poor, the authors suggest we skip the complex programs and just...

Catapult: The exciting new crowdfunding platform for NGOs

By Tanya Cothran | Posted in: Alternatives in development, Fundraising, Gender | October 25, 2012 | 2 comments so far.

Catapult, which went live in beta form on October 11, is dedicated to promoting equality for women and girls by giving women and girl-focused organizations a place to campaign online. Tanya Cothran caught up with Maz Kessler, founder and creative director of Catapult, about the new crowd-funding platform and how...

Micro-loans or micro-savings: what works?

By Tanya Cothran | Posted in: Microfinance, Poverty | May 21, 2012 | One comment so far.

After her time in Malawi, Tanya Cothran began to question if micro-loans truly alleviate poverty or empower people, as we’ve heard so often over the past few years. Not the only sceptic, Tanya reviews David Roodman’s “Due Diligence: An impertinent inquiry into microfinance” and finds that for all the marketing...

Africans Feeding Africa: using social enterprise for success

By Tanya Cothran | Posted in: Agriculture, Alternatives in development, Environment, Gender | May 11, 2012 | No comments yet.

“We learned that free has no value.” Tanya Cothran interviews Rachel Zedek, founder of Backpack Farm in Kenya, to learn more about how this social enterprise hosts trainings for small-scale farmers in East Africa and sells them green agriculture technologies and supplies– all in a backpack....

About: Tanya Cothran

Recent Posts by Tanya Cothran

Asking questions that get real answers

Micro-loans or micro-savings: what works?

Recent Comments by Tanya Cothran