Our Vision
To become the most effective organization in creating lasting self reliance in the lives of LDS families and their communities in developing countries.

Our Mission
Enable people to become self reliant and improve their lives in developing counties.

For more information please contact:
Dan Gifford - Chairman
Tim Evans - Executive Operations Manager
Florencia Farr - Administrative Assistant

(801) 576-2635

Executive Committee
Chairman, , Dan Gifford
Treasurer, Brian Watts
Secretary, Fund Raising, Tony Allen
Neil Wall
Dean Curtis
Terry Raid

Board of Advisors
Hiram Alba
Alan Archibald
Ryan Bailey
Tom Bailey
Robert Wells
Duane Williams
Gary Maxwell
Rob Petterson
Eran Call
Scott Priest
Jonathan Reid
Allan Russell

Fundamental Assumptions:

• Latin American LDS membership of approximately 4 million is projected to increase to about 20 million in 20 to 25 years.
• Approximately half of Latin American members live in poverty and lack resources and infrastructure to pull themselves out of poverty.
• The number of LDS members living in poverty is projected to increase to approximately 10 million over the next two decades.

Key Objectives

• Develop local infrastructure and organizations that help create new jobs.
• Create and implement poverty reduction methods and programs that are measurable and replicable.
• Focus on areas where existing welfare and humanitarian efforts are limited.
• Make careful and effective use of CFH resources and monies.

Benefits

• Raise the standard of living not only of individuals and families, but entire communities.
• Increase the ability of individuals to make meaningful contributions in time and money to both their communities and the church.
  
  

How we got started


Central America has long been an area with extreme levels of poverty. However, in October 1999 Hurrican Mitch caused castatrophic levels of suffering and hardship. At its peak strength with winds over 180 miles per hour, Hurrican Mitch was the fourth strongest hurricane in the Atlantic Basin history and the strongest October Atlantic hurricane on record. In Northern Honduras, where the hurricane made landfall, unofficial reports indicate that over 30 inches of rain fell during the week along the coast and 50 inches in the interior of the country. Obviously this resulted in severe damage to communities and farms.

In addition to short term aid provided by the Church, a task force, headed by Dan Gifford, was assembled by the LDS Church Humanitarian Department to help the Church find long term solutions to alleviate the suffering and poverty among the expanding membership in Latin America. In its report back to the Humanitarian Department, the task force concluded that education, micro-credit and economic development programs could all potentially have significant impacts on relieving poverty.

However, since many of these programs fall outside the three-fold mission of the Church, the opportunity to engage in them needed to be pursued by non-Church organizations. CFH was established as an independent foundation to engage in these programs and to help members of the LDS Church in Latin America become more self-reliant and therefore facilitate their ability to receive the full blessings of the Gospel. While not related to the Church in any way, CFH has received encouragement and guidance from leaders in the Humanitarian Department, including guidance on where to locate CFH's first locations. CFH's started in September 2001 with a trip to Central America to determine CFH's first location. Since then CFH has expanded to three projects. It is today supported by an active Board of Directors, Executive Committee and volunteers.




Strategic Plans

As shown in the diagram below, there are four major areas that are included in the strategic plan for Cause for Hope. These areas represent four focus areas to continually improve the contribution that CFH makes to members of the church in Central America.

Foundation Work
Foundation work refers to those plans, programs, and activities that carry out the work of the foundation, e.g. helping members of the church to become self-reliant. Strategic plans in this area are concerned with strengthening and advancing the programs for helping people.

Organizational Performance
Organization performance focuses on the organizational structure, the people, and the business processes of the foundation. The strategic plan identifies ways to attract and involve more people, evaluate and improve the organizational structure , and improve the efficiency of the processes.

People Served
People served is important to identify the individuals and families that most need help to become self-reliant and how CFH can identify and help those people. The strategic plan is to continually identifying which locations and communities can best be served, and what are the most critical needs of those communities of members of the church.

Resource Optimization
Cause For Hope has very limited resources, and therefore must continually seek for ways to use those resources as effectively and efficiently as possible. This area of the strategic plan focuses on ways to increase the pool of resources, how to leverage those resources by partnering with other groups, and how to efficiently replicate the programs that have been developed.

Click on the following link to connect to the Powerpoint slides containing the details of the Strategic Plan.