It's been awhile, but we've been busy.

TDS Friends and Family,

We recognize that it has been awhile since you’ve last heard from us, but that doesn’t mean that we haven’t been busy. If you read our annual report last year, you may have caught that we made an important decision not to move forward with having a paid Executive Director after Eric Hill stepped down to return to his career as an educator. The decision was not taken lightly as it meant that the Board of Directors and volunteers would need to step up to manage the day-to-day operations of the organization. 

Since then, we’ve been working to rebuild the foundation of how we operate and communicate. Through strategic planning workshops, renewing multiple working committees, and leveraging different technology platforms, we now have the pieces together to continue our mission as a leaner nonprofit organization!

So, what exactly does that mean for our supporters? 

Most importantly, it means that more of the money you donate to TDS will go directly to supporting programs in the Mara region. It also means that expanding the scope and geography of our mission will be limited in the short term. Instead, we will be leaning into our existing programming and investing in what we know we do well with our partners. The LCRC, 4H Career Pathways, and the Willmann Scholarship Fund have proven to be impactful programs and we will continue to ensure that those are a priority. As resources and funding become available, we can easily scale the impacts of these programs without having to build capacity within TDS. 

What it doesn’t mean...

We are not planning to wind down the organization. We remain committed to our mission and partners in Tanzania. They have been as busy as they have ever been during this time and we apologize that we have not been effectively sharing updates and the amazing stories coming from the Mara region. We’ll be working to share those stories over the next several months as we reengage our social media channels, email newsletters, and website. Stay tuned!

Speaking of reengaging through our website – you may have noticed we have a fresh new look to ours! Our goal with the refresh was to provide a better way to keep followers up to date through our blog while also telling our story in more depth. We’d love to get your feedback on the new look. Send us an email with your thoughts to info@tdsnfp.org.

Two other Important Updates

2026 Kili Climb:

We are excited that another generous group of adventure-minded volunteers will be heading to Tanzania to scale Mount Kilimanjaro this year! Climbers are actively fundraising to meet the group goal of $20,000. Visit the 2026 Kili Climb fundraising page to meet our climbers and donate today! We’ll be sharing more updates about the climb as the departure date approaches. 

Give DeKalb County:

Our biggest fundraising day of the year is just around the corner. The annual giving day campaign through the DeKalb County Community Foundation provides a boost to all donations through a pooled bonus. The more we raise on May 7, the more of the bonus pool we receive. That means it's a great day to support one of our Kili Climbers.

We’ll share more information about how to take advantage of the giving day program as we get closer to May 7. 

We genuinely thank you for your continued support of our mission and patience as we work through the change. We are excited to share all the progress and stories from the past several months. Asanteni sana.