About The Templer Foundation

Our History

In 1996, whilst leading a photographic safari in southern Africa, Paul Templer was attacked by an enraged hippopotamus. His left arm ended up being amputated and his life was ripped apart. In 1997 Paul Templer met up with Dave Williams, a successful businessman and philanthropist in Michigan, USA. Dave had the vision, drive, wherewithal and competence to establish Make-A-Difference as a registered 501(c)(3) non-profit organization. Dave and Paul started Make-A-Difference, primarily to service the needs of amputees (mostly children who were land mine victims) in southern Africa.

Dave and Paul’s collaboration led to an international fundraising event called the ZZAM expedition. This publicity campaign was chronicled globally by various news agencies (print, radio and television) and became the launching pad for all future Make-A-Difference endeavors.

In 2005, Paul’s four-month-old daughter Erin had surgery at Children’s Hospital of Michigan to remove a brain tumor. The surgery didn’t accomplish everything they’d hoped it would. Being exposed to this population, particularly these living below the poverty line inspired our current focus.
By 2008 Make-A-Difference had provided in excess of one million dollars worth of financial, material and pragmatic support to various programs around the world, most notably:

Supporting terminally ill children in Detroit, Michigan U.S.A.
Supporting disabled and terminally ill children in southern Africa.

In order to address the concerns of a rapidly changing world, in 2008 Make-A-Difference was re-chartered and renamed the Templer Foundation and began an evolution to respond to ever increasing and demanding needs. To do this, a new board agreed to assume responsibility for ensuring that the spirit of Make-A-Difference would continue and that the Templer Foundation would be able to respond to those in need… filling in the gaps as we find them so that people can live – and when the time comes, die with dignity.
To date our organization has relied exclusively upon volunteerism and has been funded by self generated capital projects, private donations, corporate sponsorships and special events.

The last eighteen months have been spent developing solid business plans, the requisite resources, know-how, relationships and strategic partnerships to be able to launch various social enterprise initiatives. We are currently in the process of securing the requisite funding to launch The Detroit Urban Farm Project, The Mozambique Farm Project and the Mozambique Crocodile Cage Project and we are looking forward to reengaging with our philanthropic efforts.

Achievements to date:

In Africa (Zimbabwe), we have provided financial and practical support to existing programs that support disabled and terminally ill people, primarily lepers, amputees and AIDS orphans. We’ve provided and continue to provide prosthetic supplies, toys and financial support for extremely disadvantaged people. (+/-$500,000 worth of support.)

In Detroit, the limited financial and pragmatic support we have provided to a local non-profit service provider, enabled the program to continue to support terminally ill children and their families who exist below the poverty line and to feed up to 100 homeless people on a daily basis. Were it not for our occasional support, there is a very real possibility that the program would not have survived. We’ve donated $50,000 to Children’s Hospital of Michigan and various other ad hoc projects. An example of an ad hoc project occurred in 2009 when we were able to provide support to a 10-year old terminally ill child who was eligible for experimental cancer treatment in Texas but could not afford the travel costs to take advantage of that opportunity. Coordinating with Children’s Hospital of Michigan, we enabled his mother to take him to – and stay with him whilst he was undergoing his treatment at the hospital in Texas. Though the treatment was ultimately unsuccessful and the child died, he and his mother were able to move through the process with dignity.

Looking ahead:

One-year goal: Launch a series of successful social enterprise initiatives, namely The Detroit Urban Farm Project, The Mozambique Farm Project and The Crocodile Cage Project. Resume philanthropic activities.

Two-year and beyond goal: Build strategic partnerships amongst affected communities, NGO’s, charities, (municipal) government and businesses to create a consortium of Social Enterprises. The blend of non-profit and for-profit entities intended to generate synergies that will enable us to develop new and creative service delivery opportunities. These new services will initially be focused on expanding our capacity to provide additional aid/support more efficiently. The development of new business models will enable us to contribute towards the current and anticipated future demands made upon public resources to address systemic poverty issues within the city of Detroit and in southern Africa.