December 2008 - IMI Year End Report
Dear Friends and Supporters of Intelligent Mobility International: On behalf of the entire IMI team of co-founders, staff, Board, and current students working on the development of our program, I would like to thank you for your confidence in us and your support. Below is a letter from our Executive Director followed by a brief update of the progress we have made this year with your help.
Letter from the Executive Director Dear Friends, I would like to start by thanking you all for your wonderful support in the past year. 2008 was an extremely exciting time for an Intelligent Mobility International. To begin with, we saw the launch of production of the “Pacaya” wheelchair in Guatemala The progress made by the many members of the organization along with your continued support has laid the ground work for an even more successful 2009. Let’s take this chance to look back on the accomplishments made in 2008 and our goals for 2009 This year saw many improvements to the wheelchair. Our student team really took it upon themselves to take the IMI chair to the next level. Incorporating end-user feedback, SolidWorks models, and professional welding consultation the chair has never looked better. Joey Koehler won a grant to spend the summer in Antigua, Guatemala in order to launch production of our first chairs with Transitions, our Guatemalan partner. IMI also received a Popular Mechanics Breakthrough Award for one of the top ten world changing innovations of 2008. The national recognition was flattering and the contacts and publicity were extremely helpful in accomplishing our goals. In 2009 IMI’s goal is to begin full scale production through its program IMI Wheels. With the help of you our donors and
December 2008 - IMI Year End Report
foundational grants we will have the capital to begin helping the thousands of people with disabilities in need. 2009 will also see the launching of IMI Seeds a program aimed at helping to create wealth for people with disabilities through vocational training and microfinance. Through these two programs we will address the needs of a community that has a vast amount of potential. This is an incredibly exciting time for all of us. With the continued efforts of the IMI team and your continued support I am confident that 2009 shall see Intelligent Mobility making a real difference in the disabled community. Thank you all for your support,
Daniel Oliver Executive Director
Organization In the spring of this year, we received our IRS 501(C)3 tax-deductible status making it possible for contributions to be tax-deductible and to receive foundation grants. We created a solid management team with Daniel Oliver, one of the original co-founders, as Executive Director. Daniel is leading the team and managing the manufacturing process with Transitions, our partner organization in Guatemala. I, Danielle Yariv, am focusing on fundraising, foundation relations, media, public outreach and microenterprise as Associate Director. We were fortunate to be joined by Anthony Bruneau, a certified CPA, as our Chief Financial Officer (working pro bono) who has brought us to a whole new level of financial planning and financial controls. With our new
December 2008 - IMI Year End Report
team in place, we signed a contract with Transitions for production of chairs starting this November. This month we were very proud to see the first chairs that were designed by our team in Pasadena & Guatemala and built by wheelchair users in Guatemala roll off the assembly line (bottom of page above). We also added to our Board two new members, Dr. Brian Rasnow, a sustainable development engineering expert with a Caltech PhD, and Mariana Amatullo, head of International Initiatives and DesignMatters at the Art Center College of Design.
Technical Development The past year has seen an amazing amount of progress on the chair, thanks in great part to Thomas Oliver and Joey Koehler. Joey spent his summer in Guatemala manufacturing the IMI wheelchair with the Transitions organization. He learned many valuable lessons from the wheelchair users who work in the shop and the chair benefited greatly from their input. Indeed this was a collaborative design process, with ingenious local clients, creative Art Center designers, and clever Caltech engineers all working together to develop the wheelchair. Joey craftily addressed the minor issues left with the chair and has led the efforts to transfer the engineering model to Transitions. Paulina Quinones was instrumental in gathering feedback from end users and assisting Joey in his work. Feedback from user trials Paulina gathered has been overwhelmingly positive with many users preferring our chair to their current chair and asking when they can obtain one.
December 2008 - IMI Year End Report
Program Launches IMI has launched two programs to address major needs in the developing world. The first program, IMI Wheels, will produce wheelchairs and continue to research and develop innovative mobility solutions. Through its second program, IMI Seeds, IMI will coordinate the vocational training, job placement, and entrepreneurial funding opportunities of its clients and the clients of local disability NGOs. By employing market-based mechanisms to solve the social and economic challenges of the disabled, IMI Seeds creates a path by which clients can find their way to sustainable financial independence. The micro finance, vocational, and entrepreneurship programs emphasize our belief that mobility is not simply and end in itself, but a means to an end – that is generating an income.
Fundraising IMI will receive a $20,000 grant this month from the International Foundation to build its chairs in Guatemala. The International Foundation is a foundation that provides funding specifically to programs that help people to help themselves attain a better standard of living. In addition, we were awarded a $10,000 grant from the Atkinson Foundation. We are also in the final stages of review with the Annenberg Foundation and the Arthur B. Schultz Foundation this quarter. After a presentation to the Rotary Club in Altadena, one of the members, Ray Carlson, adopted our nonprofit and through the Rotary process has put us on their worldwide website for chapters to pledge funds. Ray has done an enormous amount of work to market us to other Rotary Chapters locally and we expect $25,000+ to come in during the next quarter.
December 2008 - IMI Year End Report
Through my contacts in Washington DC, I learned of a Request for Applications for a three-year, $10 million United Stated Agency for International Development fund to be split between five wheelchair projects. It was our first government application, and required all our resources to write the 60-page proposal. The interesting thing is that the criteria of USAID exactly matched our approach. They wanted innovative, appropriate design for developing countries, inclusion of people with disabilities in the process, and most important chairs with local replacement parts. We are confident that we are on the right track. We conducted three private fundraising events sponsored by John Feeney of the Pasadena Angels, by Fran and Amnon Yariv for the Pasadena and Caltech community, and by Vivian Gueler for friends in the entertainment community. These events, with the addition to more than $15,000 raised by the Board, have provided the bridge money to keep going until the pipeline of foundation and government grants come in. These events were very inspiring to our team because of the enthusiasm and support we felt.
Media and Awards This year we received a “Social Impact” award ($5,000) from the Octane Foundation and a “Breakthrough Award” for innovation in the Sciences, Medicine and Engineering by Popular Mechanics Magazine. The project was featured in the November issue of Popular Mechanics magazine and all four co-founders went to New York to receive the award. We also had a cover story in the Pasadena Weekly, called“Designing Independence” which generated a lot of local interest. Both of these publication prompted dozens of people to contact us with ideas and funding.
December 2008 - IMI Year End Report
We were featured in a Voices of America article highlighting Paul Polak, a pioneer in the appropriate technology field, and the underlying ideas behind IMI and Professor Ken Pickar’s design philosophies. And after the Sacramento Bee covered us, we received a glowing endorsement from the First Lady of California, Maria Shriver.
Next Steps In the next quarter, we will begin full scale production of our latest wheelchair with a contract with Transitions in Guatemala and in the next year produce about 150 wheelchairs. We will also be looking to expand operations with a second shop and will be researching other countries to expand the program to. In the first half of next year, I will visit several microenterprise organizations in Guatemala to work out a plan for extending loans to some of our clients. We are hoping to receive funding for Daniel Oliver, Executive Director (now working pro bono) to join us full-time as Executive Director. We also hope to be able to employ Paulina Quinones, our part-time Program Manager in Guatemala, full-time.
December 2008 - IMI Year End Report
Conclusion To conclude, this has been a bootstrap operation of grit, idealism and learning from our “disabled” partners in Guatemala. We now consider the word “disabled” an oxymoron. We thank you for you imagination and compassion to support this work and we hope you will continue with us in the future. If you want to make a year-end donation, please send it to: IMI, P.O.B. 60075, Pasadena, CA 91116.
Thank-you for your partnership and support. Best, Danielle Yariv