Why start another nonprofit?

There's A LOT of nonprofits out there... 1.5 million in the U.S. (and 10 million worldwide)!* So why did we start another one of those groups that go around asking people for money?

A naive start: The Upendo Academy

Our first endeavor as a nonprofit was to help the Upendo Academy in Kenya raise funds in the United States. Upendo wanted to raise $27,000 to replace their outhouses with toilets, add a computer lab, and purchase playground equipment. Naively, we thought that this $27,000 would be a baby step on the way to raising even more funds later that year for building a girls dormitory (some of the girls were getting attacked on their way to school).

All awesome goals! ... But a lot of them we didn't reach.

And we made several mistakes along the way: some that we are still fixing.

So why start One Village?

While we had failed in many ways, we learned some important lessons. Fundraising was hard, and it needed to be done differently.

We quickly found that today's world of fundraising involved much more than getting online, creating a couple social media posts asking for help, and then waiting for people with money to show up. Fundraising for small ministries is a job that requires A LOT of different skills. Skills we ask most missionaries and nonprofit directors to do on their own.

We run into ministries (large & small) on a consistent basis who are struggling to adapt to today's digital changes.

Understanding the new tools available, tackling the social media dilema & having access to graphics & website designers are becoming foundational needs for many in today’s world of ministry.

And many don't have the resources to tackle these issues. What they do have is awesome goals!

So we take what we’ve learned at One Village and make it available to Christian workers all over the world, so they can share their story online and get the support they need to accomplish the mission.

Because for me, if Jesus rose from the dead like it says in the Bible, then he's definitely powerful enough to fix some of the problems in our broken world.

So his story is worth sharing.

And that's why we started another nonprofit.

So what do you think about nonprofits? What has a nonprofit done that made you remember them? Comment below... (if there is a comment box 😅)

Look forward to hearing from you!