Puente Desarrollo Internacional, Inc. is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organized and operated exclusively for charitable purposes. Our mission is to connect international development organizations with local institutions and underserved communities more efficiently to make development work more collaborative, impactful and sustainable. Our vision is a world where development organizations collaborate smartly and selflessly to maximize their collective impact on the individuals and communities being served. Puente is a global nonprofit that uses data collection and analysis technology to tackle some of development’s biggest challenges. We create mobile data software to assess, map, and prioritize community need. Trained local residents use our platform to survey their communities, identity needs, and design solutions. Puente also partners with non-profits to maximize our impact: our partners use Puente technology to make data-informed decisions on how to work collaboratively in communities around the world. At Puente, we believe that international development is most effective when data is used to set priorities and hold stakeholders accountable. And, we know that sustainability requires buy-in and leadership from community residents who are all too often only the target of development efforts. The Puente model is built upon these beliefs. Our work began in 2018 when two Peace Corps Volunteers in the Dominican Republic set out to solve problems they were encountering first-hand. Co-founders Scott and Hope lived in rural communities, where a lack of data meant that they were left to guess what the biggest issues were for community members. And, they witnessed a disconnect between their host communities and the foreign organizations that visited for short stints in an attempt to help. Puente was born in an attempt to pave a better future for development.
