Global Communities is a left-of-center nonprofit organization that provides aid and social services to foreign countries and receives the majority of its funding through government funding. ¹ Through its subsidiary, the Vitas Group, Global Communities makes loans to foreign individuals and companies that have been subsidized by the U.S. Development Finance Corporation (formerly OPIC), the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID), and the U.S. Department of Agriculture. ² “Loan Guarantee Facilities.” Global Communities. Accessed March 10, 2025. https://globalcommunities.org/our-work/financial-inclusion/loan-guarantee-facilities/.[/note]

In 2023, Global Communities failed an audit reviewing its compliance with federal internal control regulations in relation to its use of federal funding. The audit found that it failed to maintain proper internal controls in the distribution of loans through its subsidiaries under the Vitas Group and that salaries were paid to program members in Ukraine using federal grants while their pay was “inadvertently miscalculated.” ³

History

Global Communities was founded in 1952 as the Foundation for Cooperative Housing which built community, subsidized housing. In 1961, it founded Project Concern International (PCI) which initially provided social services along the United States-Mexico border and eventually expanded to Hong Kong and South Vietnam during the Vietnam War. By 1962, it began expanding to provide housing in Central America. ¹

In 1973, Global Communities began a “health outreach program” in Indonesia and Ethiopia, and in 1975, it began offering services in Guatemala and Bolivia. ¹

In 1983, Global Communities began offering “microfinancing” services as part of its global housing services, which included providing financing for residential housing, and it later began offering small business loans. ¹ In 2004, it founded the Vitas Group, a for-profit subsidiary of Global Communities to facilitate its “microfinancing” and make housing loans to individuals in over five countries that it claims would not qualify for conventional financing. ⁴

In 1987, Global Communities reported that it began incorporating and prioritizing feminism in its activities. In 2012, PCI launched a “Women Empowered” (WE) project that advocates for advancing the socioeconomic status of women by providing financial literacy programs for women in foreign countries. ¹

Failed 2023 Audit

In a 2023 audit, reviewing its federal funding compliance, Global Communities was found to have “significant deficiencies” in its compliance with financial reporting and internal control over federally funded programs. The audit defines deficiencies as “when the design or operation of a control does not allow management or employees, in the normal course of performing their assigned functions, to prevent, or detect and correct, misstatements on a timely basis,” and it also clarifies that there could be unidentified deficiencies as the audit was designed to be “limited” to certain operations of Global Communities’ “internal control.” ³

Global Communities’ 2023 audit revealed that Global Communities allocated salaries to employees in Ukraine from federal grants that were “inadvertently miscalculated” when compared to the employee timesheets. Amongst the funding audited included programs in Ukraine that received over $20 million in federal funding. ³

The 2023 audit also reports that Global Communities demonstrates “economic dependency” on federal funding as federal grants make up over 87 percent of its annual revenue and that any interruption of the funding “would adversely affect” its ability to continue its operations. ³

The audit also found Global Communities failed to maintain the “internal controls” required by recipients of federal funding in its oversight of its subsidiary lending companies under the Vitas umbrella. It resulted in local managers under Vitas’ subsidiaries making financial decisions that were allegedly not authorized by Global Communities in violation of the Committee of Sponsoring Organizations of the Treadway Commission’s (COSO) “Internal Control Integrated Framework” used to comply with federal Integrated Control regulations. ³

For-Profit Lending

The Vitas Group is a for-profit holding company that includes subsidiary financial institutions that makes business loans and provides loans for residential housing in foreign countries. It also provides student and disability loans. ⁵ In 2023, Global Communities reported $5.9 million in losses from Vitas. ⁶

Through Vitas, Global Communities used funding from the U.S. Development Finance Corporation (formerly OPIC), the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID), and the U.S. Department of Agriculture to guarantee loans made in partnership with banks. Global Communities also engages in campaigns in foreign countries that encourage individuals and businesses to take out loans with their partner banks, claiming that the lending products result in financial security and accelerate economic development. ⁷

Programs

Cooperative Leadership Engagement Advocacy and Research (CLEAR+) is a project between Global Communities and the U.S. Agency for International Development to advocate for foreign economies to develop youth employment programs. It also advocates for the programs to follow a cooperative model where the employees of a business have equal ownership over the business and contains gender and youth equity policies. The project advocates that foreign governments promote the creation of cooperative youth employment programs and develop policies to subsidize them or regulate existing businesses to incorporate cooperative programs. ⁸

Financials

In 2023, Global Communities reported $181 million in total revenue, $155 million of which came from government grants. ^{9 10} It also reported $188 million in total expenses, including $68 million in salaries and compensation for employees. ¹¹ In 2023, Global Communities made $54.7 million in grants, $46.2 million of which went to foreign organizations, governments, and individuals. ¹²

Leadership

Carrie Hessler-Radelet is the president and CEO of Global Communities and is a former president and CEO of Project Concern International before it merged with Global Communities in 2021. From 2012 to 2017, she served as director of the Peace Corps under the Obama administration and before that she was the vice president and director of the Washington, D.C. office of John Snow, Inc. (JSI). ¹³

1.  “History.” Global Communities. Accessed March 10, 2025. https://globalcommunities.org/about-us/history/
2. “The Vitas Group.” Global Communities, August 23, 2024. https://globalcommunities.org/our-work/financial-inclusion/the-vitas-group/.
3.  Global Communities Inc. “Audit for Period Ending September 2023.” ProPublica, 2024. https://projects.propublica.org/nonprofits/display_audit/2022-09-GSAFAC-0000037058.
4. “About Us.” Global Communities. Accessed March 10, 2025. https://www.vitasgroup.com/#about-us.
5. “The Vitas Group.” Global Communities. Accessed March 10, 2025. https://globalcommunities.org/our-work/financial-inclusion/the-vitas-group/.
6. Return of Organization Exempt from Income Tax (Form 990). Global Communities Inc. 2023. Part VIII, Line 2d.
7. “Loan Guarantee Facilities.” Global Communities. Accessed March 10, 2025. https://globalcommunities.org/our-work/financial-inclusion/loan-guarantee-facilities/.
8.  “Cooperative Development Program CLEAR+.” United States Agency for International Development. Global Communities. Accessed March 10, 2025. https://e3az4yc7762.exactdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/07/GC_Kenya_Guatemala_CLEAR-Plus_Project-Brief_June-2024.pdf.
9. Return of Organization Exempt from Income Tax (Form 990). Global Communities Inc. 2023. Part I, Line 12.
10. Return of Organization Exempt from Income Tax (Form 990). Global Communities Inc. 2023. Part VIII, Line 1e.
11. Return of Organization Exempt from Income Tax (Form 990). Global Communities Inc. 2023. Part I, Lines 15-18.
12. Return of Organization Exempt from Income Tax (Form 990). Global Communities Inc. 2023. Part IX, Lines 1-3.
13. “Carrie Hessler Radelet.” Global Communities. Accessed March 10, 2025. https://globalcommunities.org/team/carrie-hessler-radelet/.