theculturalconnect.com | Donna Baranski-Walker

Non-Profit

The Rebuilding Alliance

Founded

May 2004

Website

www.RebuildingAlliance.org

Name

Donna Baranski-Walker, Executive Director

Hometown

Dearborn Heights, Michigan

Current residence

Redwood City, California

Education (Major(s), School & Year of Graduation)

B.S. in electrical engineering from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (1981);
M.S. in agricultural engineering from the University of Hawaii (1990) with thesis research in China

Past jobs

Just Peace Technologies - Founder (with the goal of applying technology to peacemaking);
SRI International -- Bus. Development Manager for the Center for Innovative Learning Technologies, Licensing Associate for SRI's computer science & electrical engineering inventions;
Stanford University Office of Technology Licensing - Associate for telecommunications inventions;
M.I.T. Technology Licensing Office - Licensing Officer for telecommunications and electrical engineering inventions And a variety of engineering positions.

About the Non-profit

The Rebuilding Alliance engages humanity in building, not destroying. We are a nonprofit human rights action organization that

(a) Rebuilds homes and schools with families in areas of conflict through cooperative civic action;
(b) Educates and engages moderate voices worldwide to support rebuilding and assert fair property law;
(c) Develops financial instruments to build and insure houses against destruction, to guarantee the right of each family to stay on land they own.

We are currently rebuilding the home of the Nasrallah family in Gaza. This is the family whom the late American, Rachel Corrie, sought to protect when she stood before the Israeli Army bulldozer that threatened their home. Through rebuilding, we engage the local Palestinian community, sympathetic Israelis, and people around the world in a hands-on process that builds relationships and reinforces the alliances needed to sustain conscience, encouragement, legal protection, and policy change. We view this model for reconstruction and the safeguarding of fair housing rights as a cornerstone for community-driven peacemaking in conflict areas.

Most notable milestones / achievements

The village of Al Aqabah in the Jordan River Valley (West Bank) is still standing today because we helped them build a kindergarten for 80 children. Due to the village's past success in the Israeli Supreme Court, we expected this to be our safest project, one that would not be at risk of demolition. However, soon after the kindergarten went into construction, the Israeli army sent bulldozers to destroy the entire village including the kindergarten, all their homes, the mosque, and the medical center. We hired a lawyer and took their case back to the Israeli Supreme court. The case is still pending, and the village of Al Aqabah is still standing.
Four hundred Methodist churches in Minnesota helped fund the 5th rebuilding of the Shawamreh home in Anata, East Jerusalem. When the house received notice of imminent demolition, those churches and people throughout the United States, appealed to their elected representatives to call the Israeli Embassy to save that home from demolition - the case was settled out of court and the home is still standing as a Peace Center. It is a good model for coalition-building.

What's the niche?

We create symbols of hope. We rebuild demolished Palestinian homes and schools, one by one, sharing each compelling story at speaking tours and house party fundraisers across the United States to raise funds. Each rebuilding project helps Americans understand the impact of the Israeli Occupation on Palestinian families - and offers a way to do what is in our power to correct the mistakes of our own government's policies by helping Palestinian families rebuild their homes, schools, and communities and pursue their human right to their home in accordance with international law.

What's in store for the future?

Soon we will hold an opening ceremony for the home of the Nasrallah family in Gaza, the family whose home the late Rachel Corrie sought to protect by bravely putting herself between the home and an Israeli bulldozer. We hope to share the opening ceremony with supporters around the world through a webcast in which donors, and others, can join the Nasrallah and Corrie families and hear first-hand what the completion of this home means to them.
We will hold a speaking tour, April 21- May 9 of this year, to raise funds to rebuild the next home and a school as part of the Rachel Corrie Rebuilding Campaign in Gaza. Our speakers will be Mr. Husam El Nounou from the Gaza Community Mental Health Programme, our local NGO partner in Gaza, and Rabbi Jeremy Milgrom, a Rebuilding Alliance board member from Jerusalem.
To build our organization's capacity to grow and expand, we want to launch a pilot project at our office in Palo Alto, CA: a training center for adults who are disabled and want hands-on experience learning Salesforce customer relationship management software. Salesforce.com donated a $15,000 software system to the Rebuilding Alliance. The Janet Pomeroy Center, a San Francisco resource center providing vocational opportunities for people with disabilities, is working with us to organize 3-month pilot training program. We'll hold the training program three days per week in a roving training space hosted at various Internet cafes and community centers in the Palo Alto area.
This fall, we plan to re-enter the National Social Venture Competition (we were a semifinalist two years ago) with an updated plan to finance the reconstruction of homes in conflict zones through an innovative time-share ownership approach.

Who would you like to be contacted by?

We would like to hear from:

People who want to link by computer webcast to the opening ceremony of the Nasrallah home in Gaza or would like to host the upcoming speaking tour at their place of worship or school.
People in Palo Alto area who want to help us develop the potential of Salesforce in supporting grassroots fundraising -- and supporting the aspirations of those with disabilities who seek good jobs. If you have space in the Palo Alto area for 10, with internet access, you could host our hands-on Salesforce training for people with disabilities (3 days at each site). You could also support us through donating webcasting and telecommunication services and support, laptops or cellphones with good rates.
MBA students and experts in housing finance to review and revise our business plan to create a sustainable mortgage-financing system to enable the rebuilding of neighborhoods in high-risk conflict areas. We hope to find a current or recent MBA to lead our team. We could also use mentors and reviewers to provide occasional help.

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Guiding principle of the organization

Our work is about construction, not destruction. As such, we must rebuild in a way that ensures the integrity of the project, that includes trauma recovery and that empowers the local community through the support and hope of an international, interfaith community of donors and supporters.

Jean Zaru, a noted Palestinian Quaker and peacemaker, said that rebuilding homes, like building values or building community, takes time. It requires attention to detail, good planning, teamwork, and good communications among all involved.

Yardstick of success

The Rebuilding Alliance grows through the work of a core team that enjoys working together to resolve challenges through innovative approaches, attracting support each step of the way, and through bringing a feeling of restoration, relief, and a deep sense of pride to all who join us. We strive to meet to the metric of what it means to be a well-run nonprofit, as written by the Community Foundation of Silicon Valley, cfsv.org/grants_reviewcriteria.html

Goal yet to be achieved

To be able to jump to the call when homes are demolished and help families and communities start their rebuilding within a few days after each man-made disaster.
The end game: to end Israel's Occupation of the Palestinian Territories, see the Separation Wall dismantled, and build a fair, compassionate, and trustworthy American foreign policy.

Best practical advice

Running a nonprofit is not about running a marathon, it is about building a team and giving ever-widening circles the opportunity to help.

Supportive words from a family member or friend on your venture

"Well, this is not what we expected when we sent you to M.I.T. but we are proud of you anyway." -- ,my Mom.

"Donna saw something that few others noticed, and she is now pioneering an international grassroots strategy for peacemaking. She recognized that fair land rights are a key to resolving prolonged conflict -- and that grassroots reconstruction and legal aid should be immediately forthcoming as critical elements of conflict resolution." Phil Calhoun, Executive Director of the Oxford Foundation, a grantmaker to the Rebuilding Alliance.

Mentor

In 1990 when I took my first steps to explore how technology might link good neighbors together worldwide to build peace, the late Dr. Jerome Wiesner, past president of M.I.T. and science advisor to President Kennedy, was my mentor and helped me find my voice. Now, on the hard road to form a viable nonprofit to rebuild homes in conflict zones, my mentors include Patti Price, Heather Merriam, Skip Bowen, David & Janice Haskell, and my board of directors. I also draw great hands-on insight from the Rotary Club of Woodside Portola Valley where I am the president-elect.

What motivated the people who started the organization

Human compassion is powerful. As individuals, we could not stop the Israeli army's blind destruction of Palestinian homes in Jenin or Rafah, but we knew we could mobilize the world to help Palestinian families rebuild and that in the process we would build the alliances needed to advocate for a fair and trustworthy American foreign policy that recognizes international law.

What keeps your organization motivated today

The amazing courageous people we get to work with, the ability to help families realize their dreams and begin to recover hope despite the trauma of the conflict around them, the calm, creative resolution of the challenges we face, and the courage and determination of people who want to help.

What do people in the organization like best about it

Our work makes a difference. As a group we have the trust and ability to bring together the resources needed to do the job: financial, technical, community, expertise, and heart. We unite in our efforts under an international flag, in a multi-faith community, with a shared set of values, practices, and common commitment to nonviolent civil disobedience and international law.

What do people in the organization like least about it

It has been difficult to raise funds to build organizational capacity because our work is international while capacity grants tend to support local efforts.
Missed opportunities due to small organizational capacity. We have such a strong, positive message and the world seems to need our work more and more.

Biggest pastime outside of work for most people in your organization

Reading, hiking, films, writing, drawing, travel, music

Person most interested in meeting that would be beneficial for your organization and why

Everyman, Everywoman. Though one might think that the rich and the famous are the most important, courage and the power to make a difference reside in each of us.

Vanessa Redgrave recently wrote about the importance of making Rachel Corrie's voice heard. I would like to meet her and ask her to join us in Gaza for the opening ceremony of the Nasrallah home, the family Rachel sought to protect when she stood before the bulldozer that threatened to destroy their home. I would like to ask her to join us for a speaking tour to house parties throughout the U.S. to raise awareness and support for our rebuilding work in Rachel's name.

Leader in business most interested in meeting that would be beneficial and why

Craig Newmark, founder of Craigslist, to brainstorm about the type of community reporting and grassroots financing that will make it possible to rebuild neighborhoods demolished in man-made disasters.
The opportunity to meet Peter Thiel, Ken Howery, and Luke Nosek, the management team of the Founder's Fund, and win their help with strategy, marketing, product ideas, recruiting and on raising additional funds for our plan to finance the rebuilding of demolished neighborhoods.

Three interesting facts about the organization

This past summer, the Rebuilding Alliance arranged its most successful speaking tour to date. We brought board members Cindy and Craig Corrie together with Khaled and Samah Nasrallah, and their baby Sama, to speak in seven states. Cindy and Craig are the parents of the late Rachel Corrie.

The Rebuilding Alliance was awarded the Lewis Mumford Award for Development by the Architects/Designers/Planners for Social Responsibility. Also, the Board of Directors, Staff, and Nasrallah family (whose home we are currently building) were awarded the Spirit of Detroit Award by the Detroit City Council. Our Rachel Corrie Rebuilding Campaign in Gaza was a finalist in the GlobalGiving.com International Marketplace Competition in 2005, voted 6th out of 115 projects with a total of 200,000 people voting worldwide. We work to ensure the integrity of our projects in conflict-ridden areas by working with credible, local partner NGOs that are independently audited. Currently in Gaza, we partner with the Gaza Community Mental Health Program chaired by Dr. Eyad El Sarraj who has spoken numerous times in the U.S., including presentations at the Rayburn building of Congress. Our board of eight includes Rachel Corrie's mother, two Palestinian peacemakers (Dalell and Ghassan), an Israeli Rabbi (American born), a C.P.A., two attorneys one of whom is a Rotary Peace Scholar, and an American peacemaker/filmmaker,. The entire board recently completed a strategic planning retreat at the Ben Lomond Quaker Retreat Center in the Santa Cruz Mountains.

Three characteristics that best describe the organization

Restorative, a catalyst for peace-making, innovative.

Favorite cause (outside of yours)

I work to build peace in the Middle East because resolution of that conflict would free-up the resources and strengthen the alliances needed to confront the real threats to our planet: global warming, poverty, and disease.

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The Rebuilding Alliance

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