About Us

HISTORY

Following the collapse of the Soviet Union in the early 1990s, Jeff Rutt—three-time winner of the NAHB America’s Best Builder award—traveled to Ukraine numerous times with his church, transporting containers of food, clothing, and medical supplies to the city of Zaporizhzhia. After several visits, their Ukrainian host, Pastor Petrenko, pulled Jeff aside and told him candidly that the shipments were not helping. Though people were accessing needed supplies, they had become dependent on their charity. Local businesses could not compete with the free handouts. Pastor Petrenko asked Jeff: “Isn’t there a way you can help us help ourselves?”

Emboldened by Pastor Petrenko’s challenge, Jeff founded HOPE International in 1997. Using profits from one of Jeff’s home sales, HOPE issued loans of about $500 each to 12 entrepreneurs, who then invested these loans in their businesses and repaid HOPE—with interest. The local staff in Ukraine called Jeff and said they had good news and bad news. The good news was that they had many men and women ready to take out loans to invest in their businesses. The bad news was that they were going to need a lot more funding.

Jeff began making calls to all of his trades, vendors, and business partners. “Instead of asking for a check, I asked them if they would donate their profit on a job,” he explains. With this model, the Homes for HOPE mission was born.

Officially incorporated as a separate 501(c)3 nonprofit organization in 2005, Homes for HOPE invites members of the building industry to empower fellow entrepreneurs in underserved communities through sustainable solutions to material and spiritual poverty. All donations given to Homes for HOPE go directly to the work of HOPE International, enabling families to break the cycle of generational poverty in all its forms.

Jeff shares, “This is a great way for people to help—these people are doing what they are talented at doing: running front-end loaders, putting up drywall, designing a structure, or choosing the right appliances. They’re able to help transform somebody’s life on the other side of the world by doing what they do for a living right here.”

While HOPE was originally founded to reach one Ukrainian community, Jeff’s dream for HOPE began to grow as the first entrepreneurs successfully built sustainable businesses, provided for their families, and repaid their funds with interest.

Today HOPE has invested in the dreams of over 2.5 million men and women around the world, serving them with opportunities for discipleship, biblically based training, a safe place to save, and loans.