At HOPE International, we’re fervent believers that the body of Christ is stronger when we work together. We’re on a mission to fight poverty in all its forms, and we’re deeply aware of how much we need the donors, churches, field partners, and nonprofit partners to have impact in the lives of those we serve.

And yet, we’re all aware that working together can be incredibly challenging. There’s an African proverb that says, “If you want to go fast, go alone; if you want to go far, go together.” It’s true that it can be simpler to forge a path alone—but we believe that partnership can be so incredibly worthwhile.

Here’s why we’re committed to Christ-centered collaboration.

Collaboration creates better results. As Proverbs 27:17 says, “As iron sharpens iron, so one person sharpens another.” We believe this is true for organizations as well, and we see how sharing our experience and knowledge has allowed us to serve other nonprofits—HOPE staff have had hundreds of interactions with other organizations to discuss mutual learnings, and we’ve had countless others access our publicly available resources library. We’ve also benefited greatly from the openhandedness of others (like a nonprofit that shared a training tool to better serve low-literacy men and women).
Collaboration develops friendships rather than competitors. When we seek to enter a new country or region, we start with the question: Is someone already doing Christ-centered economic development work in this area? If so, we don’t want to duplicate the work they are already doing. Rather, we come alongside them with technical support, funding, and more. It’s been amazing to see the relationships this has created over the years—we’ve recently loved developing friendships with the staff of our newest partner, Diaconía in Paraguay.
Collaboration creates unity in a world of great division. In the nonprofit sphere, it’s easy to see other nonprofits as competitors for funding or followers. But we’ve seen how beautiful it can be to join hands with other nonprofits, like the partnership we entered with Compassion International in 2018.
Collaboration engages all of us in deeper Kingdom pursuit. Partnership reminds us that we’re all working together toward the same goal: advancing God’s Kingdom. In the U.S. and around the world, we want to empower the Church to live out its calling—and that’s not something we can do alone.

We’re so grateful for the incredible network of Christ followers we have the privilege to partner with around the world—we’re deeply aware of how much stronger we are together.

If you’re interested in learning more about this topic, I’d recommend checking out Rooting for Rivals, a book I co-authored with HOPE’s president and CEO, Peter Greer.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Chris Horst is the chief advancement officer at HOPE International, where he employs his passion for advancing initiatives at the intersection of faith and work. Chris serves on the boards of the Denver Institute for Faith & Work and the Mile High WorkShop. He loves to write, having been published in The Denver Post and Christianity Today and co-authored Mission Drift, Entrepreneurship for Human Flourishing, and Rooting for Rivals with Peter Greer. Chris and his wife, Alli, have four human children of whom they are even prouder than their lawn—Desmond, Abe, June, and Mack.