ABOUT US

Our mission is to provide educational opportunities to underserved and exploited children in impoverished and developing regions.

Our vision is to empower students to reach their academic potential while inspiring the online community to reach its philanthropic potential.

Mira is a social benefit organization empowering youth, championing education, and making international aid a simple click away.

Internet Connection for Child Protection Shelter – With your help Mira successfully raised $1,296.80, impacting 30 children. Read more about this project.

We connect the online community – you! – and organizations focusing on education and vocational training to take global action together.

In a nutshell, Mira:

  • Features specific funding requests from partner organizations,
  • Invites you to support children in becoming contributing and compassionate adults,
  • Sends you story and photo updates to watch the progress of their journeys,
  • Changes a piece of the world together with you.

The What, How, and Where

Mira began as a simple conversation in 2009 focusing on how to help kids and communities with limited opportunities for social and financial growth. With support from the Lien Centre for Social Innovation and the San Francisco Bar’s Volunteer Legal Services Program, Mira formally registered as a non-profit organization.

Mira collaborates with non-governmental organizations (NGOs) in developing regions and funds small grant requests that come directly from them. These grant requests are showcased on our website. To date, we have successfully helped over 800 youth by providing school supplies, sports equipment, computers, life skills & job training, teachers’ salaries, and more to ensure that hundreds of children have everything they need to stay in school. When donors fulfill the goal of these mini-campaigns, Mira forwards your donations to each respective organization; from here, Mira informs donors via online photo and story updates on the progress of the students’ journeys and the communities which the donors are directly impacting.

In short, Mira is a catalyst for students to reach their academic goals and everyday internet users to support international development from the home. Continually focusing on youth empowerment, Mira’s community of leaders, volunteers, and fans are thrilled with the energy the organization has created from technology meeting philanthropy.


Awards

2009 – Lien i3 Challenge Award: Innovate, Implement, Impact

2010 – Nomination, Young Nonprofit Professionals Network, Young Executive Director of the Year

2011 – Nomination, Women’s Initiative for Self Employment for Mira’s Executive Director as Woman Entrepreneur of the Year

2012 – Nomination, Global Exchange’s 10th Annual Human Rights Award

2013 – Panelist, Women in Leadership Conference, UC Berkeley Haas School of Business

Mira is now based San Francisco, California. For more information, check out our FAQs.

OUR LEADERSHIP TEAM

BOARD OF DIRECTORS

Andrea Hogan
Director

Deniz Kebabci Tudor
Born and raised in Turkey, Deniz first came to U.S. as an exchange student in 1996-1997 with the American Field Service. Given her upbringing, she is sensitive to children’s needs in developing countries and the struggle of attaining a solid education. Deniz later pursued her PhD in Economics at University of California, San Diego. She has been an Assistant Professor at San Francisco State University since 2007 and has been a member of the Rotary International (Fisherman’s Wharf) since January 2011. She has raised funds for March for Babies and Peninsula Humane Society.

Sara Ortega Roliz
Mira’s Founder, Sara serves as Executive Director.  Prior to Mira, Sara worked in West Africa and Southeast Asia.  Throughout these experiences, she has also been working in operational management in the non-profit sector of the San Francisco Bay Area. With her husband and children, she enjoys exploring new places locally and abroad.  Sara received a Masters of Social Welfare from UC Berkeley and a BA in Sociology from The George Washington University.

BOARD OF ADVISORS

Allyson Goldberg
Advisor

Shawn McHale
Born in Malaysia, also raised in rural Philippines, Shawn came to the U.S. as a nine-year old. He received a B.A from Swarthmore, worked as a community organizer in NY and Philadelphia, and then received an M.A. in Asian Studies from the University of Hawaii. He then attained an M.A. and Ph.D. in Southeast Asian History from Cornell University. Shawn received a Fulbright-Hays faculty fellowship and served as Director of the Sigur Center for Asian Studies at George Washington University where continues to teach today. He is animated by the desire to answer some simple questions– why do people kill each other? Why have they gone to war? How should we, and other societies, confront the legacies of war and conflict?

Frank Yetter
Frank “Skip" Yetter lives in Phnom Penh, Cambodia, where he serves as English Resource & Media Advisor at Cambodians for Resource Revenue Transparency. He also works as New Business Manager at Sciaroni & Associates. Before moving to Cambodia in 2010 with his incredible wife, Gabrielle, he had a 30-year career in U.S. media, most recently as head of global sales for Business Wire. He has a BA in Journalism from Syracuse University, and received advanced management training at the American Press Institute. He has two wonderful daughters, Kirsty and Emily. He is a decent and evolving cook, and loves travel, writing, multicultural experiences, music and karaoke!

Gabrielle Yetter
Gabrielle Yetter is a freelance writer and English resource volunteer at Development and Partnership in Action, a Cambodian NGO. She started her career as a reporter in South Africa and worked for nine years at Business Wire, where she managed the DC bureau, worked as an account manager in San Francisco and opened the company’s first international office in London. She is originally from England and has lived in Bahrain and South Africa. She recently completed a book on traditional Cambodian desserts and is working on the Cambodia chapter on a book about moving to Southeast Asia. She loves to explore other regions of the world, read, write and sample cupcakes.