Plant With Purpose
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Mission Statement
Plant With Purpose works at the nexus of poverty and environmental degradation to transform the lives and land of farming communities through environmental restoration, economic empowerment, and spiritual renewal. Founded in 1984, Plant With Purpose is a Christian nonprofit that catalyzes the talent and ingenuity of farming families to transform entire watersheds. Of people living in poverty worldwide, up to 83% live in rural areas (UNDP and OPHI 2022). Most struggle to grow enough food to feed their families and send their children to school. Plant With Purpose equips impoverished farming families to change their circumstances and land and to live with hope. We do this through sustainable agriculture training, land restoration, savings-and-loan groups, and local leadership development.
About This Cause
Plant With Purpose facilitates a holistic community development model that integrates economic empowerment, environmental restoration, and spiritual development through sustainable agriculture training, reforestation, savings groups called Village Saving and Loan Associations (VSLAs), local leadership development, and church mobilization. Plant With Purpose operates programs to serve rural farming families facing poverty in Burundi, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, the Dominican Republic, Ethiopia, Haiti, Malawi, Mexico, Tanzania, and Thailand. Overall, participating families see a 55% reduction in poverty. Economic empowerment is achieved through community-led Village Savings and Loan Associations (VSLAs) where groups of 15 to 30 members meet to save income, take out loans, and contribute to a social fund. Access to these rural financial services leads to improved livelihoods, increased education for children, and financial resilience. The groups also provide a forum for teaching sustainable agriculture techniques and for developing faith and a sense of community. VSLA groups rely on intensive training to create sustainability. In the first year, trained staff members work closely with groups. Facilitators then regularly perform quarterly monitoring and oversee the end-of-cycle audit. In the words of partnering farmer Felicite from Burundi, “Before, we were in extreme poverty and hopeless to have credit. As soon as I joined my savings group, everything changed." Plant With Purpose partners who have participated for three or more years are two and a half times more likely to be actively saving cash as nonparticipants (77% vs 29%). Participants have 3.3 times as much savings in reserve as nonparticipants. Environmental restoration is achieved through teaching sustainable agriculture techniques and through tree planting campaigns. A multi-year environmental core curriculum covers topics such as composting, agroforestry, Farmer Managed Natural Regeneration, and whole ecosystem health. Partnering farmers and schools plant millions of trees, including native species as well as non-native species that benefit the community (e.g. trees for fruit and fodder). Through the use of sustainable agricultural techniques, partnering farmers are able to increase farm yields by 37% and crop diversity by 31%, allowing families to eat healthier and improve their farms. Partnering farmer Anastazie from the DRC explains the impact of Plant With Purpose training, "Before receiving training, production was low, bringing in little income, but now we are beginning to see good results. Before, my children ate once a day, but now my house eats two meals a day.” In addition to increased farm yield, Plant With Purpose’s environmental restoration program is transforming the land. While most rural communities see vegetation decrease each year due to deforestation, participant communities see this trend reverse and vegetation increase over the course of several years. As tree cover increases, flora and fauna return, water supplies regulate, and carbon is sequestered from the air. Amidst a changing climate, these efforts to restore the environment have increased the resilience of rural farmers and the land they call home. Spiritual renewal is realized through leadership training and through church partnerships and mobilization. These efforts increase a strong commitment to community and reconciliation and have resulted in an increased sense of confidence, self-worth, and faith. Participating families are 28% more likely to agree with the statement, “I have the ability to improve my life.” 97% of participants agree that, “The work I do now is a good use of my talents.” Further, participants are 7% more likely to agree with the statement, “Members of my community work together to change things that are wrong in my community.” As a means to ensure effective programs, regular monitoring and evaluation activities are prioritized by both in-country staff and by North American staff members. Quarterly metrics and yearly strategic planning in each country ensure short-term success and allow for mid-year improvements as needed. Annually, field programs participate in a self-evaluation process, seeking feedback from participants on impacts and needed improvements. Larger, triennial impact evaluations measure success on outcomes through participatory workshops, analysis of Normalized Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI), quantitative household surveys, Difference-in-Differences, and other techniques. Plant With Purpose has also piloted a number of novel monitoring techniques and continues to pursue best-in-class practices in evidence-based development work. Plant With Purpose measures effectiveness against baseline indicators, and program staff can adjust activities based on determined strengths and weaknesses.