About Give to Grow

The Problem:

We are a Christian organization founded on the belief that when fellow children of God are in need, empathy is simply not enough. When Christ taught about the kingdom of God, he also healed the sick, gave sight to the poor, and provided practical wisdom for dealing with daily life. We aspire to follow Christ’s example in demonstrating a love that involves action.

Although the Christian church is actively caring for hurting people, its focus has historically been on spiritual rather than physical needs. Even as churches have moved towards ministries that address material problems, they have traditionally done so with a “handout” mentality—giving away goods or services, but failing to address long-term needs by empowering people to provide for themselves.

Give to Grow seeks to close the gap between the spiritual and the physical by addressing some of the everyday needs in a spiritually supportive environment.

Our Solution:

We partner with local churches by helping them add financial services to their ministries, which allows them to better address physical needs alongside of spiritual ones. We do this by developing church-based microcredit programs to provide loans to small-business owners. By offering compassionate financial solutions rather than charity, we encourage our borrowers to take ownership of their own lives and businesses. Instead of facilitating dependency on our resources, we hope to build up local capacity, allowing our borrowers to grow their businesses and their income so that they can stand on their own. Our partner churches provide structure and spiritual support to our programs, giving our borrowers a safe place of prayer and encouragement.

History:

Give to Grow was founded and incorporated in the state of Alaska in 2007 and over that year established a Board of Directors whose members reside in Anchorage, AK and Seattle, WA. The organization was supported early on by the missions board of Faith Christian Church of Anchorage, which continues to provide support and encouragement. In 2008, two Give to Grow directors travelled to Jasaan, Philippines to take the initial steps in setting up a pilot loan program. The Jasaan program was officially launched in the Spring of 2008.

Our tax exempt status (PDF) was approved by the IRS on March 30, 2009. Click here to read our bylaws.