We don’t serve a God of scarcity.
Nonprofit partnerships are one of the most underused strategies in ministry, and the reason is almost always fear. In a recent episode of The Ministry Growth Show, we talked with David Sudarma from Cru and Christy Johnson from Athletes in Action, and Christy said something that has stayed with me: “Partnership is the future of ministry.” That idea deserves a closer look. (This is the third piece in a three-part series; you can read Part 1 on user-centered marketing and Part 2 on connecting donors to changed lives.)
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The Scarcity Mindset That Keeps Ministries Apart
Historically, ministries have kept their distance from one another, and I would argue the core reason is a fear of sharing donor funds. Few organizations would say it out loud, but the scarcity mindset is real: “We can’t partner with that organization, we might lose our donors to them.” There are exceptions, and you can find ministries that have partnered well throughout history, but it has never been the norm, especially in the parachurch space.
That instinct is understandable. It is also holding the mission back. So let me make the case for why nonprofit partnerships are worth the risk, starting with the size of the problems we are up against.
Why the Problems Demand a Better Strategy
The first reason to take partnership seriously is that the problems are not shrinking. Depending on the source, poverty projections are stagnating, global modern slavery is projected to rise, the clean water crisis is worsening, and global homelessness is expected to grow over the next two decades. There is modest hope on hunger, but often at the cost of rising water demand, so even that is not a clean win.
And underneath every one of those issues is the deeper one: humanity’s separation from God. We can and should pull people out of real and terrible evils, but if we only rescue someone into a different kind of bondage, we have missed the point. The brokenness of the world is an opportunity to make disciples, and the approaches we have used so far are not keeping pace. There has to be a better way to fight injustice and share Christ, and Christy is arguing that partnership is a big part of it.
None of this means we despair, and none of it means we wait passively for Christ’s return. “So then, as we have opportunity, let us do good to everyone, and especially to those who are of the household of faith” (Galatians 6:10, ESV). We are invited into the redemption of the world. The question is how to do it well.
Why Nonprofit Partnerships Work: We Don’t Serve a God of Scarcity
The second reason to pursue nonprofit partnerships is theological: we do not serve a God of scarcity. Consider how many clean water organizations exist, or how many are fighting trafficking. What if a handful of the largest teamed up instead of competing? How much further could they move the mission? How much more eager would donors be to give when they saw organizations banding together rather than stepping on each other’s toes?
Now push the idea further. Ministries often start with a single focus, child sponsorship, say, and then add a water program, then an agriculture arm, then a justice initiative, until one organization is trying to do everything in a community. What if instead each organization did what it does best and invited others in? The sponsorship ministry stays focused on children, an agriculture ministry brings sustainable farming, a justice organization fights injustice, a water organization handles water, and a disciple-making organization shares the gospel, all serving the same community through relationships the first organization already built. (Assume, for the sake of argument, that each is culturally humble and committed to empowering the community rather than doing everything for it.) The results could be significant. The main thing standing in the way is the scarcity mindset.
The Body of Christ Was Built to Work Together
The strongest case for nonprofit partnerships is not strategic, it is scriptural. We are designed to function as one body: “For the body does not consist of one member but of many… The eye cannot say to the hand, ‘I have no need of you'” (1 Corinthians 12:14, 21, ESV). Those verses describe giftings inside the local church, but the same logic holds across the parachurch world. No single organization is the whole body.
We recently had Chris Horst, author of Rooting for Rivals, on the podcast, and one thing he said will stay with me for life:
“As parachurch ministries, it should be our desire to make the Bride look beautiful. God only has one plan for the redemption of humanity, and He doesn’t have a backup plan. So the role of the parachurch is to support the Bride and make her look beautiful.”
Focus on what you do best, partner with organizations that are good at what they do, and support the local church in all of it. That is the posture nonprofit partnerships require.
Two Nonprofit Partnerships That Prove It
I said earlier that this model is hard to find in practice. Here are two examples that show what is possible.
The first is Every Campus. It began when Cru and InterVarsity asked, “What would it look like to work together to reach every campus in the United States with gospel communities?” They had been prayer-walking and planting on many of the same campuses, duplicating the same work. Rather than keep competing, they combined efforts, and of nearly 5,000 campuses, they have now prayer-walked all but around 1,300. Today 35 ministries are partnering to finish the job.
The second is illumiNations, an alliance of Bible-translation organizations working to translate Scripture into every language on earth. As the story goes, it started when two translation organizations discovered they had pitched the same major donor, back to back, for the same region and language, and the donor lovingly told them to get on the same page. Before the alliance, the projection for translating the Bible into every language sat somewhere around the year 2130. Today illumiNations projects 2033. Working together instead of competing cut roughly a century off the timeline. That is the power of nonprofit partnerships taken seriously.
Frequently Asked Questions
Why are nonprofit partnerships important?
Because the problems are too large and too urgent for organizations to keep working in isolation. Partnerships let ministries focus on what they do best, reach more people through shared relationships, and steward donor trust well, all while reflecting the biblical picture of one body with many parts.
What keeps ministries from partnering?
Most often a scarcity mindset, the fear that partnering will cost them donors. In practice, donors tend to respond more generously to thoughtful collaboration than to rivalry, because it shows their gift is going further.
What does collaboration over competition look like in practice?
It looks like organizations staying in their lane and inviting others in, rather than one ministry trying to do everything. A child sponsorship ministry, a water organization, and a disciple-making organization can each serve the same community through their strengths instead of duplicating each other’s work.
What are real examples of nonprofit partnerships?
Every Campus unites 35 ministries to reach every U.S. college campus with gospel communities, and illumiNations aligns Bible-translation organizations to finish translating Scripture into every language by 2033, roughly a century ahead of earlier projections.
Is there biblical support for ministry partnership?
Yes. Scripture describes believers as one body with many members, each needing the others (1 Corinthians 12:14-27), and calls us to do good to everyone as we have opportunity (Galatians 6:10). The parachurch exists to support the local church, not to compete with it or with one another.
Questions to Start With
How could you partner with a ministry that does what you do? How could you partner with one that does something different? Are there ways to stay focused on your core calling and invite another ministry into your community to do what they do best? These are the questions worth wrestling with, together, as the body of Christ, for the glory of God’s name.
Getting clear on what your ministry does best is the first step toward healthy nonprofit partnerships, and it starts with your message. Reliant Creative helps ministries sharpen their marketing strategy and tell a focused story, so the right partners, and the right donors, can see exactly where you fit. If you want help finding that clarity, we would love to talk.
