We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Duaine Denton. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Duaine below.

Duaine , appreciate you joining us today. Can you talk to us about serving the underserved.

I currently reside in Bali Indonesia and while its a hotplace for the Influencers, travel enthusiasts, surfers and digital nomads there still remains a huge side of Bali and greater Indonesia that is not brought into the light. The minumum wage is around 6-7 US dollars a day. There are hundreds of thousands, if not millions of people living in the cycle of poverty who have 0 chance of escaping.

At Right Reasons Funding we partner with trustable, transparent, impact driven charities to help them fullfill their missions. We become their back office in a sense. Providing project managment, marketing, web development and most importantly fundraising. We create big charity events, connect charities with donors and maintain relations for further development and sustainability.

Since 2021 I have been able to build up a team of graphic designers, copy writers, web developers, sponsorship coordinators and do what most would say is impossible………. we have raised the funds to make all of these activities possible…

Opened the first non for profit profesional mental health facility in Indonesia currently impacting thousands. It is still in its infancy and needs additional support but it brings up undescribable emotions every week when I walk through the facility and its full of patients/beneficararies waiting to see a counselour or psychiatrists. The weekly support groups often reach full capacity and its showing how much this is needed and we have just scratched the surface.

Secured a second safe house for Bali Street Mum’s and their children. There are hundreds, if not thousands of mom’s forced into a viscious cycle of street begging from being unskilled, lacking documentation or other unforseen circumstances. They scoul the streets day and night with baby or child in tow for the search of a few Indonesian Rupiah. These mothers and their children are given a new life inside of the safe houses. The children receive educaiton while the mothers receive skills of sewing, glass cutting and English language development.

Uplifted hundreds of adolescent women out of the cycle of poverty. This is quite a vague term, so basically these are bright, motvated and skilled young women who graduate highschool with no chance of escaping the cycle of poverty. Without our support they are destined to a life stuck in the cycle of poverty. We bring them to Bali, give them 6 months intensive training in hospitality and tourism training, English language development and fair job placement within the corporate tourism sector. The program has done nearly 2000 girls since 2007, but the organization was dieing during the pandemic with Bali’s tourism sector collapsing. From 120 girls a year down to 20 and no where to turn, I (DJ Denton) jumped in a kayak and paddled from Sanur to Nusa Dua and created Row For R.O.L.E….. an event that has succesfully raised over 3.000.000.000 IDR since its establishment in 2022. Giving the organization the push to keep going, but thanks to a great team at the foundation they have not only kept going, they are growing.

We have also brought into Indonesia the first ever mental health first aid training course thanks to Shuffle and Strides Foundation. Through crazy sporting events of the 4×48 Mental Health Smasher and the 24 Hour Shuffle and Strides Lapathon this foundation has been able to educate thousands of local residents of the basic signs, symptoms and treatment options of mental health disorders.

We have cleaned tons of plastic out of the environment and feed nearly 1,000,000 meals to the needy during the pandemic through marathons, gala’s and other events…..

We dont “serve the underserved communities” ……… We live to help those less fortunate and make a difference in the crazy world we are living in.

Awesome – so before we get into the rest of our questions, can you briefly introduce yourself to our readers.

I am a farmer by background, a geologists by schooling background (non graduate) but am currently a profesional fundraiser and impact maker. To be where I am today, be doing what I am doing is truly a miracle as I struggled with alcoholism and addiction to the point of near death….. things have changed…

I was born on a small farm outside of Dodge City, Kansas where I grew up until the age of 9 and moved into Dodge City. It wasn’t much longer and I found my first love, some green herbs that made me feel good. I dablled off and on with this for awhile but got into other things that kids do for awhile like soccer, wrestling, nintendo and all the glory’s of being a youngster.

By the age of 14 I was a daily pot smoker, casual cocaine user and potentially already an alcoholic but managed to do decent grades in school and keep it all together. My family surrounding me fit in the same categories and it allowed for me to normalize such behaviours throughout the rest of my journey….. My father was a custom harvestor which meant that we traveled from Texas up to North Dakota spending a few weeks per location harvesting wheat, canola, corn and milo. This work allowed me to see the world but also to fund this lifestyle that is about to be explained…..

I went to college in San Diego where I found my second love surfing, bouncing from Community college to community college working at a company called TriCounty Drilling and funding my living and schooling. How I managed this Im not sure as I spent more time surfing then at school or work combined. This combined with my frequent visits to Tijuana for things not to be public, think I was lucky to make it out alive……. but it gets worse…… or better? Depending what your into I guess?

I found myself living down in a very small town in Costa Rica called Mal Pais or Santa Teressa. Here I would surf by day and well basically attempt to take my own life through copious amounts of alcohol and drugs on a daily basis…… I was burning though hard earned money year after year, doing exactly the samething and going nowhere but enjoying the process….. by this point I started having to visit hospital and seek pain relief from the various conditions I was causing myself……

Think it would of been around 2012 when the Australian dollar surpassed the US dollar in the global curreny value and it gave me the idea to try harvesting somwhere else, outside of the family and see more of the world. My dream was to surf Australia but I found very quickly that the cost of being a surf bum in Australia was out of longterm “holiday” material and that landed me in Bali Indonesia.

In Bali, people where everywhere, concrete on top of concrete and everybody was on Holiday. Very similar to Costa Rica but like “on steroids”…….. it was not only acceptable to drink from morning but encouraged. I guess you usually find what your looking for type thing……. Also drugs were available and new drugs………this took me places I said I would never go. But in the process I was in the right place and right time and meet a man that gave me a chance at starting a global foundation branch here in Indonesia. This was my third love, helping others……

Through the process I was able to build it from a 2 man team to a 24 person operation feeding 5,000 people a day that otherwise would have spent their only income on food and water. Inside of this I was lucky to find a purpose but my addiction had also taken control. I was drinking daily around the clock and somehow managing a team…… creating chaos and a wake of destruction would be an understatment…………

Finally in 2019 after multiple hospital visists, loss of relations including employer, now wife and basically the world I through in the white flag and asked for help. Through a recovery coach and plenty of outside help I have managed to find the person that always existed but didnt have the confidence to “be that person”

Today I have tools to treat my own mental health conditions, prayer, mediation, Crossfit, and a love for myself, family and others and what I am doing. Through my own recovery journey I have been able to change thousands of life’s and literally save others lifes……

Its an incredible journey and I know Im right where I need to be.

Can you tell us about what’s worked well for you in terms of growing your clientele?

I think a rare trait these days is honesty. Most people are going around listening to the bullshit factory inbetween their ears and accepting it as truth. To add to that, they spend countless hours scrolling social media and absorbing “fake peoples” lies as their truths and creating comparisons. Oh I would be happy if I had that……

I have been able to take a “birds eye” view at life, its short, its full of choices and how can I be “not only satisfied” with my choices but actually happy? The simplest answer is by helping those less fortunate. Now in doing that lets have some fun. In this process of really just being honest with myself and creating realistic goals I have been able impact thousands of lifes……

One turning point for me was when I got the self confidence to leave what most people would desire “security – longterm employment, health insurance etc” as I was able to again, get “honest”………….. In this being honest, I looked at what was happening, I was trading my life for another person’s dream. I was suffering from ill mental health due to the other person’s lack of well being and unrealistic demands on the organization and I decided (after consulting with people i trust) to create my own company/non for profit aiding those less fortunate.

These days honesty is a key principle in what I do….. I tell people from the begining how I see it, how I work and what I can do etc. A No bullshit approach…… but the honesty i talk about is not only this.

The hard battle for me, coming from ill mental health background of addiction and alcoholism has been getting honest with myself. I was able to tell myself nothing was wrong when seizure like symptoms from alcohol withdrawns, dry heaves and etc existed for years……….. this ability to lie to myself is something I think most people have to some degree, but my example is “wild” for most……

Get honest with yourself on what you want, get honest on how you can get there and get started. If you miss a goal or milestone get honest about why, nothing comes easily, takes work and dedication. Get honest about your failures, get honest about your success and do the best you can for you and great things will follow….

We’d love to hear about how you met your business partner.

My Co Founder is my wife. She is from Russia and we meet surfing on the white sandy beaches of Kuta. She supported me all through my darkest days and somehow put up with the chaos I caused in her life and everyone who knew us during those times lifes.

We have 2 little boys; Dino Jack Denton (Dj again ;) and Denver James Denton who are our world. Besides being the best mother ever, she is the one who keeps all of this happening.

They say behind any good man is a strong women and for me that is the truth.

I was born into a farming family and work was family, family was work and it worked for us in harvesting millions of acres of crops. It should be able to work for us to impact millions of life’s which is the goal…..

Contact Info:

• Website: rightreasons.net
• Instagram: rightreasonsfunding
• Facebook: Duaine J Denton
• Linkedin: Duaine J Denton
• Other: To get involved and make a difference you can reach me directly on Whatsapp at +62 821 4561 1119