Raise your hand if you knew that Children’s HopeChest’s headquarters is based out of a barn…
It’s true!
From inside this bright red building at the base of the Rocky Mountains, the Colorado headquarter team of 21 people work to connect communities in North America, with communities overseas that have a high population of orphaned and impoverished children — ultimately impacting over 34,000 individuals worldwide. Weekly, the voices of our staff and leaders in Uganda, Ethiopia, Eswatini, Kenya, Russia, Moldova, and Guatemala can be heard reverberating through the Barn’s open floor plan. Today, on Colorado Gives Day, we are celebrating the quirky and wonderful structure that we get to call headquarters.
In many ways, the Barn’s physical structure reflects the values of our organization.
The nearly wall-to-ceiling windows allow light to pour in all day long. From these windows we get to observe storms rolling in over the mountainside, miniature donkeys playing at a farm down the street, and deer grazing in the small meadow by our parking lot.
These windows also mean that everything we do inside is transparent to those who are outside. HopeChest is passionately committed to be good stewards of your financial gifts. We faithfully and prayerfully invest every dollar entrusted to us for the transformation of lives around the world. To increase our transparency, we are members in good standing of the ECFA, a Platinum-Level GuideStar Participant, and have a “Certified Transparent” rating from Excellence in Giving.
Because of our mountainside location in Colorado, we also get a stunning, panoramic view of the Rocky Mountains. This is a daily reminder of the beauty that we get to be witnesses to at HopeChest.
Although international development work has its challenges – as all nonprofit work does – we are reminded daily of the beauty of the work that the Lord allows us to partake in. Over the course of the year, we receive hundreds of stories of hope (this year, perhaps even a thousand!) through monthly reports that are written by our in-country staff. These stories are also reminders of the challenges that the individuals we serve have overcome through the support of our partners and CarePoint programming. Both the landscape and the countless stories of transformation are breaths of fresh air that energize us to continue the steadfast work.
At the center of the Barn is a full kitchen. It is not rare for someone to be roasting a tray of potatoes and brussel sprouts; stirring the traditional Guatemalan tea of cinnamon, pineapple, and hibiscus flowers (jamaica) on the stove; setting out an Ethiopian feast of injera, shiro, misir wot, sega wot, and tibs; or even baking a pumpkin pie from scratch here in the kitchen. Community is built over shared meals and preparing food in a common space.
At the core of Children’s HopeChest, is the value of community and relationships. We believe that true, two-way relationships will change the world. HopeChest equips vulnerable children, their families, and communities to escape the cycle of poverty. But we don’t do this alone. Our work hinges on partnerships that come alongside the vision of local leaders to develop and nurture a community.
HopeChest is proud to occupy space in the Barn in Colorado. This Colorado Gives Day we are celebrating a whole day, which was created to unite all Coloradans in the common goal of strengthening the state’s nonprofits by giving to their favorite organizations online. It’s more than just a day. It’s a movement that inspires and unites thousands of donors to support Colorado nonprofits. But the exciting part is, that you don’t have to be a Coloradan to make a meaningful donation!
We hope that you will consider giving a gift to support the work that we do out of the Barn in Colorado to empower impoverished children, their families, and their entire communities to break free from the cycle of poverty.
You can make a meaningful donation at: coloradogives.org/ChildrensHopeChest
