The Mad (Mottey African Development) Foundation helps people in some of the world’s poorest countries to help themselves, by working with them at a grassroots level to develop much needed community resources.

By enabling sustainable projects and facilities, focusing on key areas such as education, child welfare, primary healthcare, health education and employment skills, the Mad Foundation supports indigenous communities in creating better opportunities and scope for further development.

Every penny raised by the Mad Foundation directly benefits communities in the developing world, with all monies going directly to community projects for the purchase of building materials and equipment. All our running costs are absorbed by a small number of key partners and by our trustees.

To date the Mad Foundation has helped build and renovate over 100 schools and pre-schools, built orphanages, a clinic, workshops, water and sanitation systems, provided scholarships throughout Africa, South America, and South East Asia, life-changing projects which are not or can not

Our charitable object is:
'To advance education and aid in the relief in poverty in any part of the world'

We do this through a variety of means:

• Supporting and working as a project partner with indigenous communities and Non-Government Organisations.
• Raising funds and distributing grants to appeals, including international emergency and disaster appeals, and projects that fit within our objectives.
• Providing scholarships to children and young people from developing countries to assist them in furthering their education.
• Providing business start up grants to individuals from indigenous communities.
• Enabling under-privileged young people from the UK to ‘give and gain’ by working on a community project in the developing world.

The Mottey African Development or Mad Foundation was established in 1999, by John Lawler following his experiences during his gap year in Ghana. John was enstooled as a Ghanaian Chief, Torgbui Mottey I, for his contribution to the local community and he continues today to visit Ghana, raise awareness and funds for people living in poverty all over the world.

To date we have enabled community development projects in the following countries: Ghana, Togo, Tanzania, Uganda, Kenya, Peru, Fiji, Thailand, India, South Africa and Sri Lanka and hope to expand our work into more developing countries including Venezuela in the near future.

Mad Foundation’s overall objective is to enable community development projects in Africa and throughout the developing world. At its core is the desire to assist with sustainable programmes, which are not funded from central government, aimed at improving the quality of life for impoverished indigenous communities with an emphasis on children, education and health.

How We Operate

The Mad Foundation is a registered charity (charity reg. no. 1111805) and is managed by a board of trustees, supported by a full-time manager / fundraiser (whose salary is covered by a key sponsor) and a variety of volunteer fundraisers.

Our trustees meet regularly to review proposed projects and funding applications ensuring that what funds we do have available go to assist those communities with the greatest need and where we can help make the biggest difference.

Every penny raised by the Mad Foundation goes directly to sustainable and beneficial development projects, all UK and Overseas running costs are absorbed by key sponsors and our trustees.

Our Partners and Supporters

The Mad Foundation works closely with key project partners and supporters ensuring that funds raised and the subsequent projects are optimised and monitored. By working with project partners we benefit from their expertise (many are specialists in their field). Many of the projects we support are brought to our attention by indigenous communities themselves with the assistance of our partners. It is of paramount importance to us that the indigenous communities we support receive the most benefit possible.

We have a long-standing and very successful relationship with a key supporter, Madventurer, who fundraises on our behalf and donates part of its income (over 10%) to us. Madventurer also provides essential volunteers to provide labour to make some of the projects we support happen.

Our other partners include NGO’s and charities such as Coco, a children’s charity for children affected by poverty, famine, illness, war, and disease with whom we have forged a strong and successful relationship; others include Village Education Project, Aidchild and Softpower.

Applying for Funds

The Mad Foundation will consider funding applications for developing country initiatives from charities, NGO’s and community groups, there is also a limited grant programme available for individuals. Please be aware that the trustees generally choose to support organisations already known to them.