Charity Redefined

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Charity Re​defined FAQs

What is the purpose of the film?

To challenge the conventional ideas of charity and development by highlighting a model built on empowering women, maintaining dignity, and partnering with local leaders solving local problems using local solutions. The film redefines how to combat poverty in the developing world—not through handouts or funder-led initiatives, rather local leader ownership, empowerment, and sustainability.

Short answer: No. The real issue isn’t equipment. It’s ownership. For example, when outside NGOs provide things that local leaders didn’t ask for, can’t maintain, or don’t have the capacity to sustain. However, when local leaders identify the problem and design the solution, they build it in a way that fits their culture, resources, and capacity. They know how to maintain it, adapt it, and grow it. They also have dignity and agency in the process.

In Charity Redefined, the bread‑making project is a perfect example. The women asked for something simple and within their control: more bread pans so they could increase production using the method they already knew and were practiced at. An outside organization, with good intentions, donated a commercial oven as well. While the oven allowed them to produce more bread in the short term, it also introduced a long‑term problem:

  • The oven wasn’t part of their plan
  • They weren’t trained to maintain or repair it
  • Replacement parts and technicians aren’t accessible or affordable
  • They had no reason to budget for its upkeep because it wasn’t their idea

 

So, when the oven eventually breaks down as all machines do, like the project leader said, “well, that’s the end of the project.” Not because the women lack motivation or skill, but because the solution wasn’t theirs. They won’t return to baking over a fire because it’s too labor‑intensive and won’t meet demand. Their income disappears, not due to failure, but due to a mismatch between the solution and the community’s capacity to sustain it.

Toxic charity happens when good intentions are paired with poor strategy. It is usually rooted in a misunderstanding of people’s actual needs or with the assumption that funders know best. It often looks like this: Funder-led initiatives imposing outside solutions; Handouts targeting short-term need while undermining long-term growth; and programs that cultivate dependency rather than empowerment.

For more information about this topic, Robert Lupton wrote a book entitled “Toxic Charity” in 2012.

At its best, charity is not about giving things away, it’s about investing in people and communities so they can thrive long after a funder is gone.

Healthy charity:

  • Starts with listening, not prescribing
  • Centers on local leadership, because people closest to the problem are closest to the solution
  • Builds long-term relationships instead of one‑off interventions
  • Prioritizes dignity, ensuring people are partners, not recipients
  • Stewards resources responsibly, directing funds where they are intended to go and where they will have the greatest sustainable impact

 

This is the model SowHope uses: local leaders invent, initiate, and implement their own projects. The nonprofit’s role is to come alongside them, not to direct their work, but to support it.

When local leaders design and run the projects, the solutions are culturally grounded, lending toward sustainability—with success continuing long after the funding ends. The community gains ownership and dignity. This builds trust through relationship, not transaction.

Individuals don’t usually direct charity themselves, they choose organizations whose values and strategies they trust and believe it. So, the personal question becomes:

Who is doing charity in a way that aligns with my values?

Healthy personal giving generally looks like:

  • Supporting organizations that empower rather than rescue
  • Choosing nonprofits that partner with local leaders
  • Looking for transparency and good stewardship — is the money going to the people
  • Asking whether the work leads to long-term transformation, not just short-term relief

Relief and rescue are necessary and will always be necessary. But long-term, locally-owned, sustainable solutions are the best ways to combat poverty.

  • Sponsor, host, and/or volunteer at a screening
    • SowHope will screen the film at theaters, churches, schools, civic clubs, other community spaces, or even for small groups
  • Do you have experience in marketing? Reach out!
  • Support the film as SowHope continues working on it and screening it around the country
    • Be a screening sponsor or simply make a donation
  • Spread the word
    • Share your experience with your friends, family, and networks in and beyond your community. And post about it on social media!

The film is still being edited and refined. For now, SowHope is planning on using private screenings around the US to test and promote the film. These locations are listed on the Charity Redefined website. SowHope is exploring the option of taking the finished product to premiere at film festivals or streaming services.

Make a donation to support the creation and impact of Charity Redefined. Your gift helps the film cross the finish line and bring it to more audiences.

For more information about SowHope and to donate, visit www.sowhope.org.

SowHope FAQs

What is SowHope?

SowHope is a multinational, charitable, nonprofit organization targeting impoverished women in the developing world. The mission is to inspire women around the world by promoting wellness, education, and economic opportunities. SowHope’s vision is a world where women are free to access opportunities which allow them to be inspired, pursue their dreams, and achieve their potential.

With a unique strategy of partnering with local leaders solving local problems using local solutions, SowHope has directly impacted over 150,000 women by funding measurable, time-limited, and outcome-based projects in twenty-six countries.

SowHope is one of the only global organizations focusing exclusively on the holistic needs of women living in extreme poverty.

Mary Dailey Brown, Co-Founder and CEO of SowHope, began her career far from the nonprofit world. Raised on an Illinois dairy farm and trained in photography and psychology, she went on to serve as a White House Photographer for Presidents Jimmy Carter and Ronald Reagan. Watching the Carters treat every person with dignity shaped her lifelong belief in the value of each individual.

Years later, while directing missions work and traveling through developing countries, Mary saw a pattern she couldn’t ignore: women were doing the hardest labor yet had the fewest opportunities. Local leaders confirmed this reality and told her it was unlikely to change. When she couldn’t find a global organization focused on the holistic care of women, she and her husband, Doug, founded one with the help of a lot of friends.

In 2006, they founded SowHope with a simple, scalable idea: partner with local leaders who understand local needs, and fund the projects they design. SowHope exists to inspire women around the world by promoting wellness, education, and economic opportunities, an approach that strengthens families and communities from the ground up. Two decades later, it remains one of the only multinational organizations dedicated solely to empowering women in this way.

In the developing world, women are often denied basic human rights, face armed and physical violence, are not allowed to be educated like men, and have higher health risks while doing most of the hard labor to support their families. Many women feel hopeless and have lost any sense of value or dignity.

SowHope works under the assumption that by providing women with essential opportunities they will improve not only their lives, but also the lives of their families, villages, and nations.

A partner is a local leader who SowHope had been referred to, built trust with, and invested in. Partners are from and within the communities that SowHope aims to support. The leaders themselves invent, initiate, and implement SowHope projects ensuring they are rooted in genuine need rather than outside agendas. This translates into ownership of the projects and long-term sustainability. Partners are not employees of SowHope nor are they paid salaries or wages. SowHope provides grants to these partners for projects they design that are outcome-based and time-limited with measurable results.

SowHope finds local leaders through trusted referrals. A potential partner must have a history of serving women with integrity, local insight, and a clear understanding of community needs. SowHope then visits the leader to confirm their work. Once a project begins, the relationship deepens through return visits that build trust, give encouragement, and ensures accountability.

When leaders (men or women) are already investing in women’s wellbeing, they’ve proven their commitment. They don’t need convincing. They don’t need to be persuaded that women matter. They’re already doing the work.

This matters because projects inevitably face challenges: weather disasters, political instability, unexpected delays, or crises no one could have predicted. Leaders who are already serving women will persevere. They will adapt, problem‑solve, and continue because their motivation is rooted in conviction, not funding.

SowHope focuses on the poorest areas in the world, but it doesn’t choose countries first; it chooses people. When a trusted referral introduces a leader who is already helping women in meaningful ways, a SowHope team travels to meet them, see their work, and listen to the women they serve. If the leader and the project align with SowHope’s mission and strategy, SowHope will consider funding.

SowHope conducts field visits to projects it funds to see the work firsthand. SowHope observes how people treat the leader. It also asks questions, listens deeply, and talks directly with not only the leaders, but the women who are being served. SowHope looks for:

  • Authentic, locally driven solutions
  • Evidence that the leader is already helping women
  • Integrity, follow-through, and reputation
  • A clear understanding of the local context and needs
  • A project that is sustainable, not dependent on outside agendas

As long as a project is active, SowHope requires regular reporting from the local and leaders and conducts field visits every 1-2 years to evaluate, verify, and encourage. This in‑person connection is essential to build trust and maintain accountability. It’s how SowHope ensures that projects are rooted in genuine need and led by people who know their communities best.

SowHope funds projects that promote wellness, education, and economic opportunities for women—the three pillars of the mission. Every project must be locally-designed, locally-led, and rooted in the real needs of women in that community.

Here are some examples of the kinds of projects SowHope supports:

Wellness

  • Access to medical care, maternal health care, obstetric fistula repair
  • Treatment for preventable blindness caused by cataracts or trachoma
  • Prevention of abuse, rape, and sex trafficking, counseling, and emotional healing
  • Recovery centers for victims of gender-related abuse
  • HIV / AIDS care and prevention
  • Clean water initiatives

 

Education

  • Literacy programs
  • Vocational training in organic farming, sewing, knitting, cosmetology, and animal husbandry, and much more
  • Workshops that help women understand their intrinsic value and rights and contribute to social development of their communities 

 

Economic Opportunities

  • Microfinance, business training, and entrepreneurship
  • Making and selling small wares (soap, baskets, jewelry, clothes, etc.)
  • Table banking and savings groups that help women build financial independence

Yes! Dignity and belonging are two of the most powerful outcomes of SowHope projects.

Dignity

When women receive direct opportunities instead of handouts, they own their own growth and success. They become independent rather than dependent. One of the worst examples of undignified charity is when children receive food and clothing as the mother helplessly watches. Although she is grateful, she feels guilty not being able to provide those supplies on her own.

Belonging

When women join a SowHope-funded program, they aren’t just learning a skill or receiving medical care, they’re becoming part of a group that offers belonging, encouragement, and emotional safety.

Many women have spent years feeling isolated, silenced, or ashamed because of their circumstances. Being welcomed into a group of women who understand their lived experiences can be transformative. Women experience emotional support and friendship, share understanding of challenges and trauma, receive encouragement from one another, and have a safe space to talk openly without judgment. The relationships formed in these groups often last long after the project ends and creates networks of support that strengthen entire communities.

Absolutely. Many women face trauma from violence, early marriage, exclusion from school or work, or medical conditions like obstetric fistula that lead to isolation and shame. In many areas, women who are raped or suffer from obstetric fistula are ostracized or even banished from their communities.

SowHope’s partners understand these realities because they live in the same communities. Projects for these women usually include safe spaces for women to share their stories, counseling and emotional support, community conversations that challenge stigma, and reintegration support for women returning to their villages.

Healing is not just physical. It is emotional, relational, and cultural. SowHope’s model honors all these layers.

Hope is not wishful thinking. It is not passive. It is actionable. It is a shift from “I don’t know if things will ever change” to “I know my situation can change and I’m taking steps toward it.”

Hope becomes real when a woman sees a path forward that she didn’t know existed. When she learns a skill, receives healing, joins a group, or discovers her own strength, hope moves from an idea to a lived experience. This is Hope in Action.

Hope is also contagious. It can be shared, given, multiplied, and passed on. When one woman finds hope, she often becomes a source of hope for her children, her family, her friends, and her community. This ripple effect is one of the most powerful outcomes of SowHope’s model.

When you sow hope, hope grows.