Who: Houston Moncure, director of development and technology.
Company : Bluefields Bay, a luxury resort in Jamaica with offices in Alexandria.
Charitable giving highlights: Through its charity, the company has given $300,000 to the Jamaican community surrounding Bluefields Bay since 2009.
How did the company begin its philanthropy program?
Before we even get into the philanthropy, just having the business there to begin with has been hugely beneficial to the area. In the early 1980s, my parents met in Jamaica and fell in love with the island and started to look for a place to have their own vacation home. Through several connections, they were sent to Bluefields. There wasn’t a lot of employment opportunity. So they decided to start the business, and we now have six villas there and provide employment to more than 50 people. We’re the largest employer in the immediate area. All the people who grow vegetables, we’re buying most of their yield.
When did the company formalize its giving?
Even before anything formal happened, a British gentleman moved into the area and started the Bluefields People’s Community Association. We gave a lot of the money for the projects they did, but when he moved out in 2007, the organization fell apart. That’s when we decided to establish a registered charity in 2009 called Bluefields Environmental Protection Association. The mission is to do what we can to protect the natural environment of Bluefields, as well as promote education.
What are all the sources of revenue for the charity?
Every rental has a 2 percent addition that every guest pays that goes directly to BEPA. They get a tax receipt for it, and 100 percent goes toward projects for environmental protection and sustainable community development. So I would say 90 percent comes from our guests. The rest comes from foundations.
What is the structure of the organization?
It’s all volunteer. We have a board of directors of at least seven. And another five or six that go through proposals.
What activities does the association do?
We support an early childhood school. We built bathrooms at a primary school that had 300 students and only had pit latrines. Also, since Jamaica is one of the most overfished islands in the Caribbean, the fisherman got the government to declare the bay a protected fish sanctuary. But there was a huge lag between when the government started funding the patrols and when this was declared. For years, we were paying for the patrols of the bay. We pay for their uniforms or insurance for the patrollers. It has been unbelievable how much fish we have in our bay two years after this has happened. We do huge projects for cleaning the community. Also, the government built a new high school and we gave them 17 computers. Around the holidays, we partner with churches to help people with mental illnesses or handicaps to bring them gifts and meals.
What are some recurring challenges with running this association?
We are inundated with requests for help. Jamaica has a huge bureaucracy, and it can be challenging even when you’re trying to do charitable endeavors.
How has giving yielded results on the business side?
I’ve never come across anyone who decided whether or not to vacation in Bluefields because of our efforts in BEPA. Do people make their final decision on vacation because of charitable efforts? I would say that’s fairly unlikely.
— Interview with Vanessa Small
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