Chamber learns of 'sustainable' humanitarian program TIFIE

SALT LAKE CITY — Members of the Salt Lake Chamber on Wednesday learned about a new way to approach humanitarian work by creating "sustainable" businesses in developing nations. Once profitable, these businesses pledge a percentage of their earnings to local charities.

Robert Workman is the driving force behind TIFIE Humanitarian, a Utah-based group he founded in 2007 that offers a new model of charitable giving by helping disadvantaged people first get work and skills, which then allows them to help others in their home countries.

TIFIE stands for Teaching Individuals and Families Independence through Enterprise.

Workman, an entrepreneur who began the successful Provo Craft and Novelty, first took his idea for a new charitable model to the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), a war-plagued and impoverished nation. He figured that if the model he envisioned could work there, it could work anywhere.

TIFIE set up businesses in trade and trucking, construction and brick making, and solar energy and storage. The firms now employ 50 full-time workers and 200 temporary employees. The ventures were created with the expectation that once they made money, they would be expected to contribute to humanitarian programs.

These businesses employed and trained local workers. Then, as the businesses became successful, the direct charitable giving began.

For example, the trucking firm donates a percentage of its profits to an orphanage while the brick company gives money to a once-small school that now educates 400 children.

"What we wanted to do was get rid of the 'donor fatigue syndrome' because we're creating the donor," Workman said.

TIFIE is also working to establish a solar energy distribution company in Samoa, where charitable giving will go toward fighting rheumatic heart disease.

"It's sustainable," said Fraser Bullock of Sorenson Capital, who is a director with TIFIE. "To me, that's the genius behind it. The question is can it be replicated in other parts of the world? I don't see why not."

Bullock said he spent a week with Workman and his wife in the DRC and saw the success of these efforts first-hand.

Former NBA star Thurl Bailey, another TIFIE director, also spent time in the DRC with the Workmans and was inspired by what he saw.

Bailey told the chamber members what TIFIE is doing reminded him of the words a great coach once gave Bailey.

"He said, 'You can't win every game. My job is to put you in the very best position to win,'" Bailey said of his former coach. "This is about giving people the opportunity to put themselves in a position to win."

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