State of Our Movement
State of Our Movement
by Scott Nordstrom
January 29, 2024
I wanted to update you as to how we finished 2023 and share our plans for moving forward.
I am often asked about how a certain fundraiser went or how the children are doing in a certain location. While we do try to communicate this information regularly, I understand that much can get lost in emails or information posted to our website.
I want to encourage you to stay tuned to what is transpiring within the movement and you can do this in three easy ways: 1) Monitor our Blog for updates at GO! Blog, 2) Keep up-to-date with pictures and news from the field at the GO! Facebook page, and 3) Watch for our emails that come from mail@networkforgood.com and be sure to set your email so this communication doesn’t end up in your spam or junk folder. We sincerely attempt to minimize emails sent and keep this communication very focused on relevant ministry business.
Back to the State of our Movement…
The State of our Movement is strong. We raised more funding in 2023 than any time in our ministry with 224 Funding Partners that provided a total of $384,076 during the year. In the field, we impacted a record number of children with 16,196 impacted in December, which was made possible by the hard work of thirteen Field Partners who facilitated work in sixteen distinct Mission Projects in six countries.
We enter 2024 with plans to impact a growing number of children across all four of our initiatives. The biggest challenge in this regard will be to navigate the next twelve months with less than two months of reserves on hand at any one time, meaning that we will have little room for error. We will need to constantly balance this growth with available resources. I believe that we are up to the challenge.
Child in Punjab, Pakistan, receiving food aid from our team.
One of the other areas that I want to share with you is while we are growing our resources, there is always more need in the field than we can meet. In addition, other than two other non-profits and one church in 2023, our resources are driven by individuals -one person at a time. We maintain our grass-roots effort to serve orphan children and have gathered 221 individuals with a like-hearted commitment to bless orphan children.
To maintain this grass-roots strategy and grow the ministry, we need to either add people just like you to the movement, we need our current Funding Partners to increase the resources they provide, or some combination thereof. Today, this is the only way our math works to grow. Unless we acquire funding in some other way, which is far more expensive and requires much more lead time, the only option is to lean into engaging people that have a heart for serving orphan children.
As a movement we spent less than 17% of the total funds raised for our administrative and fundraising costs in 2023. We have long been committed to distributing our resources to the field to impact children in need. In fact, since the inception of our ministry, we have spent less than 14% of our total resources on our administrative and fundraising costs.
So what can you do to move us forward:
Plan to join us for our 2024 Gala on September 29th and bring your friends -more information coming.
Set-up a monthly gift and you can allocate your funds to one of our four initiatives if you like.
Consider a one-time gift.
If you are already a Funding Partner, consider telling a friend or family member about the wonderful work that you are accomplishing through Global Orphan Relief!
Pray for this ministry. Pray for wise decision making and that the children receive all that they need and more!
Consider how you might advance the cause of orphan children through serving in some way.
Deploy to the Field as part of our 2024 Journey of Faith Team that will visit Zambia this coming October.
Reach out to us directly with any inquiry regarding your involvement in advancing this mission to orphan children at Contact — Global Orphan Relief
Our detailed financials will be released sometime in February so check back to our blog in the coming weeks, but I can share this with you today:
And our growth over the last five years:
One of the questions asked by the board recently was whether we want to serve and impact more children. Simply doing more, raising more, serving more, or impacting more doesn’t make it the right thing for our ministry. While I agree, there are several things to consider when answering this question.
Yes, there are always going to be more orphan children in need. This is not a reason that we should desire to serve more or decide to do so.
Another thought… if we can continue to effectively impact children should we not aspire to do more in the Kingdom? Based on our current cost structure, access to more children in need, the strength of our Field Partners, and scale of our GO! Ambassador Network, I would have to say, “More Lord, send us!” The conclusion to this analysis for me is that Global Orphan Relief continues to be one of the best places to invest Kingdom resources to impact orphan children, their families, and the communities in which they live! We offer a great return-on-investment for any Funding Partner.
One other thing that I considered -just this morning I pondered gathering additional resources for the mission and my resistance to doing so. What of the uncertainty in 2024 for you and me? We all have been dealing with heightened political tension, shifting cultural norms, wars, and rumors of war around the world. This disruption has been going on at least four years now with no end in sight it seems… While I agree that things have not been comfortable or certain for some time now, things for us should be different. We are citizens of heavenly places with our sights on the eternal, however, admittedly, it is easy to get distracted by so much around us.
In my response to considering our uncertainty… I wondered what an orphan child would think about all that is going on in our world… this made me pause, because for an orphan child, he or she has most definitely suffered abandonment, maybe abuse, and certainly they have experienced scarcity like we will never know. Their entire existence has been mired in uncertainty, so I don’t believe our uncertainty is something that should cause us to pull back.
So, what of 2024 for our movement? We will continue to increase the number of children we serve across all four of our initiatives if resources are available.
In our Care Initiatives, we expect to serve additional children through our current Field Partner relationships which will aid an additional 151 orphan children this year.
In our Church Mobilization Initiative which has been instrumental in our growth since 2022, we will launch Ethiopia, Nepal, and Uganda, which will contribute to an additional 8,542 children impacted based on the care provided from our GO! Ambassador Network.
I can tell you; I am expectant of an extremely impactful year of Kingdom work this year, that will bless more than 20,000 children over the next twelve months. Think about that… it is nearly unbelievable to consider that we will potentially impact more than 20,000 this year. I can’t wait to see what God accomplishes through us in 2024!
Scott with Pastor Ajay & Minister Isaiah in Asia.
Global Orphan Relief (GO) has been serving orphaned children since 2005. We have accomplished this work through local partners in each country that provides oversight and distribution of care. As December, we impacted 16,196 orphan children in six countries -in Asia (unnamed country), Ethiopia, Kenya, Pakistan, South Sudan, and Zambia within our Home-based Care, Scholarship, Nutrition, and Church Mobilization Initiatives.
Scott with Children at House of Faith in Zambia.
Scott Nordstrom who leads GO! today and has done so since our launch in 2005. Scott has been instrumental in deploying 174 volunteers on 29 teams to the mission field, and has personally served in DR Congo, India, Kenya, Mexico, Nepal, South Sudan, and Zambia. Scott is a published author and speaks in the United States, as well as, internationally regarding child welfare and matters of faith, hope, and love.
You may send support or other correspondence to Global Orphan Relief, 16352 Prairie Farm Cir, Parker, CO 80134 or you may also give electronically to support orphan children at Global Orphan Relief.
Movement of FAITH | Voice of HOPE | Act of LOVE