There is a lot that has changed at HOPE since our founding in 1997. We’ve built our team. Added 15 more countries of service. Diversified our services. But our core beliefs have remained consistent. Charity is broken. Necessary for short-term relief, charity is like putting a Band-Aid on a broken bone. It doesn’t address...
Why We Need to Listen to the Poor: HOPE’s Untold Story
HOPE’s mission is to invest in the dreams of the poor. But it wasn’t always that way. Before HOPE’s founding, we overlooked the simplest part of providing a service—asking our customers what they wanted. “No More Handouts” HOPE was founded out of unsuccessful charity. Following the collapse of the Soviet Union, people in Ukraine...
Eight Levels of Charitable Giving
There are a lot of people talking about giving during this final week of the year, but my favorite “talk” on charity comes from the Jewish scholar Maimonides. He describes the “eight levels of charity” according to the Mishneh and articulates the uncomfortable truth that not all charity is equal in intent or impact....