Home » Why we’re adjusting (down) our client numbers

Why we’re adjusting (down) our client numbers

By Chris Horst, Vice President of Development

If you attended a HOPE event in the fall, you likely heard us describe the 950,000 men and women HOPE and our partners serve around the world. Yet, when you read our 2017 annual report, you’ll see we report serving 838,000 people at the end of 2017. While we have adjusted our numbers substantially, we did not technically lose these clients. We made this change because we believe in reporting field data with the highest levels of integrity, even if it means reporting unfavorable news.

In late 2016, HOPE purchased a larger share of Urwego Bank in Rwanda, making HOPE the majority owner of Rwanda’s largest microfinance institution. With over 300,000 clients at the time of that share purchase, Urwego comprised a substantial percentage of the total number of clients the HOPE network serves around the world. However, over 120,000 of Urwego’s clients no longer qualify by our standards as “active clients,” though they did at the time of the share purchase. By HOPE’s standards, an active client has used HOPE’s lending, savings, or insurance products in the last 24 months.

The majority of these clients hold very small savings accounts—less than $2 in most cases—through a partnership Urwego built in 2015 with a large Rwandan mobile phone carrier. When individuals signed up for a mobile account, they were auto-enrolled in a savings account. Most of these accounts, though, have remained dormant, and HOPE made the decision in late 2017 to exclude these accountholders in our total client number. Moving forward, we will no longer include these clients in our reporting, and we have revised our 2015 and 2016 client numbers to reflect this downward adjustment.

We share this information to assure our supporters that while our numbers may look smaller, our mission has not changed. We remain committed to serving families living in poverty, and we desire to communicate with supporters as accurately and transparently as possible.Active Clients Served

Celebrate the remarkable men and women served in the HOPE International network and the work accomplished to invest in the dreams of families. Read our 2017 annual report!

Chris Horst

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Chris Horst is the chief advancement officer at HOPE International, where he employs his passion for advancing initiatives at the intersection of faith and work. Chris and his wife, Alli, have four children—Desmond, Abe, June, and Mack. Chris serves on the board of the Mile High WorkShop. He loves to write, having been published in The Denver Post and Christianity Today and co-authored Mission Drift, Rooting for Rivals, and The Gift of Disillusionment with Peter Greer. Christianity Today, WORLD Magazine, and the Evangelical Christian Publishers Association named Mission Drift a book of the year in 2015. Chris graduated with both a bachelor’s degree from Taylor University and an MBA from Bakke Graduate University.

2 responses to Why we’re adjusting (down) our client numbers

  1. Watha Kollmeyer May 23 2018 at 11:20 pm

    We had actually wondered about this. Thank you for your clear, specific explaination. Love the focus on integrity and love HOPE International.

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