Money goes much further in a developing country than in the United States, such that a school that would cost far more domestically could be rebuilt for around $10,000 in Uganda.

There are more children in sub-Saharan Africa who do not go to school than there are children who do attend school in the United States—roughly 41 million out-of-school in sub-Saharan Africa versus 38 million enrolled in the US.

Because schools sit on three to seven acres in agrarian areas where the land can be harvested twice a year, developing a vocational agriculture program could create a profit-generating school that pays for itself and its teachers while teaching valuable skills beyond subsistence farming.

Construction delays in Uganda were driven by a local custom of taking three days off whenever a community member dies, with deaths from malaria and HIV occurring roughly once every two weeks, halting work.

Uganda is the youngest country in the world, with half its population under the age of 15.

Building a school where none exists and partnering with the government creates a sustainability mechanism, because once a school is built and lacks teachers, the community will complain to local representatives, generating political pressure to staff it using universal primary education funding.

Uganda was one of the first countries to adopt universal primary education, which brought many more children into schools but also led to overcrowded classrooms and lower-than-desired quality.

Building Tomorrow gives enrollment preference to children whose families help build the school, which motivates parents to contribute labor because they know there is something in it for them.

Girls who reach seventh grade have their likelihood of contracting HIV/AIDS cut in half.

Many school-building charities have small effects because of failure modes: schools without teachers, schools without students, schools with poor teachers, or schools in economies with no opportunities so children eventually stop attending.

Requiring the community to provide over 25,000 hours of labor to build the school, though it slows construction, generates a strong sense of pride and ownership among parents and children that empowers the community and reduces dependence.

Trust is one of the biggest obstacles in these communities because they have often been promised projects before by Westerners or Ugandans who collected money and disappeared; participation in labor grows over the course of a project as the community sees the organization is actually delivering.

Because public schools in the US are free at the point of use and cost the same whether a child attends or not, this lack of buy-in is part of the problem; a reverse application of Milton Friedman's insight is that requiring some monetary contribution from every parent—even a small one—generates buy-in and better outcomes.

When parents cannot pay school lunch costs in cash, allowing them to contribute in kind—such as maize or hours cooking porridge—lets families participate, and the discussions parents have organizing this contribute to the school's transformative effect on the community.

Building Tomorrow purchases and owns the land and school, leasing it to the government for free or a nominal fee, in order to protect donors and ensure the building remains a school for the long term.

Successful social entrepreneurship requires staying modest in scope—being grand but not grandiose—rather than trying to transform an entire educational system quickly, because grand transformational efforts are easy to do badly and most charities fail by measuring the wrong things (dollars raised, dollars spent, staff size, kids in school) and thereby forgetting their mission.

Specialization is valuable, so an organization should be careful to focus on what it does well—in Building Tomorrow's case, building schools with parental input—rather than stretching itself thin trying to add services like health interventions.

It is best for the founder not to be in-country full time, partly because land and goods cost three to four times more when a Westerner shows up to make deals, so having a capable local staff yields better outcomes.

Cultural barriers like community distrust of deworming pills mean well-intentioned health interventions funded by donors can stall, illustrating why some health initiatives require cultural groundwork before implementation.

Many informal schools operate in these communities without Ministry of Education authorization, so their students cannot take exams to pass from primary to secondary school because the schools lack accreditation and certified teachers.

Teacher certification, both in the US and Uganda, functions largely as a hoop to jump through that is poorly related to teaching quality, and Uganda's national certification system is outdated as a leftover of its British protectorate past.

A teacher in Uganda earns about $100 a month, which is prestigious and well-paying given that average annual income is roughly $285.

Building Tomorrow's model uses tangible $45,000-per-school fundraising goals at university chapters because the figure feels attainable to college students, but adding more costs risks making school-building seem out of reach and alienating young donors.

Building Tomorrow distinguishes itself from organizations like Habitat for Humanity and Save the Children by targeting young people as its main donor base rather than older people with deeper pockets.

The organization completely reversed its methodology over time—from rebuilding existing schools entirely by itself and walking away, to starting brand-new schools in remote underserved areas with community labor and ongoing involvement—while holding constant its core commitment to education.

Building Tomorrow has three schools running, two under construction, and two more starting in January, on pace for ten built and open by 2010.

The initial fundraising effort aimed to raise $10,000 between Thanksgiving and Christmas but ended up raising $45,000, revealing untapped demand among young people for a tangible way to make a difference.

This will be the last podcast of 2008, returning January 5th 2009.