Eric Saunders is the Executive Director of New Hope Ministries, a Christian social service agency serving approximately 30,000 people each year across Adams, Cumberland, and York counties in central Pennsylvania. Under his nearly 20 years of leadership, New Hope Ministries has expanded from three to nine locations and has received accolades such as the Central Penn Business Journal’s Nonprofit Innovation Award for Eric’s leadership and innovation. Eric holds a master’s degree in social work from Indiana University and serves on several state and nonprofit boards.
Here’s a glimpse of what you’ll learn:
- [02:18] How Eric Saunders’ faith shaped his lifelong passion for service
- [05:36] The powerful influence of Eric’s father on his generosity
- [08:30] How New Hope Ministries unites communities to fight poverty
- [19:20] Creative ways businesses and churches can make a true impact
- [27:36] What truly inspires people to give year after year
- [35:34] The simple message that defines New Hope Ministries: give hope
In this episode:
Generosity is often thought of as an act of giving, but can it be something even deeper, something that transforms both the giver and the receiver? Does the true power of generosity lie not just in the act, but in the way it shapes lives, communities, and the future?
For Eric Saunders, a social services leader, generosity is more than just charity; it’s a life-changing force that can shift the trajectory of both the giver and the receiver. “Generosity isn’t just about giving what you can spare,” he explains, “It’s about understanding the need and meeting people where they are, with compassion and humility.” Eric believes that when we give with true compassion, we don’t just change the lives of others — we change our own, creating a ripple effect that can transform entire communities.
In this episode of You Can’t Take it With You, host Jim Dunlop is joined by Eric Saunders, Executive Director of New Hope Ministries, to discuss how intentional generosity can create lasting change. They explore the importance of meeting immediate needs while empowering long-term solutions, how churches and businesses can work together to address poverty, and the profound impact small acts of generosity can have.
Resources mentioned in this episode:
- Jim Dunlop on LinkedIn
- Advent Partners
- Eric Saunders on LinkedIn
- New Hope Ministries: Website | Facebook
- “Mission, Microfinance, and Impact: A Guide to Sustainable Generosity With Peter Greer” on You Can’t Take it With You
- “How Personal Experiences Shape Philanthropic Impact With Jim Langley” on You Can’t Take it With You
- “Not All of Me Will Die: Leaving an Impact Beyond Wealth With Phil Cubeta” on You Can’t Take it With You
- When Helping Hurts: How to Alleviate Poverty Without Hurting the Poor . . . and Yourself by Steve Corbett and Brian Fikkert
- Toxic Charity: How Churches and Charities Hurt Those They Help, And How to Reverse It by Robert D. Lupton
Quotable Moments
- “You have to start at people’s point of need. Once their bellies are filled, then we can talk.”
- “True compassion is, you know, the Scripture says, look not only to your own interest, but also to the interest of others.”
- “Generosity isn’t just about giving what you can spare. It’s about understanding the need and meeting people where they are.”
- “I want to be a blessing in somebody else’s life, but then to say, I will walk with you.”
- “Every little bit helps, and you’re going to help impact somebody’s life in such an amazing way.”
Action Steps
- Prioritize meeting immediate needs first: Addressing basic necessities like food and shelter ensures that individuals are in a position to seek long-term solutions.
- Foster partnerships with local businesses: Encouraging companies to volunteer and contribute can expand the reach and resources of community-focused initiatives.
- Encourage individualized support for those in need: Understanding the unique circumstances of each person can lead to more tailored, effective solutions for overcoming poverty.
- Lead with empathy in every interaction: Approaching those seeking help with kindness and without judgment fosters trust and empowerment.
- Invest in long-term community engagement: Building sustainable relationships with donors, volunteers, and organizations creates a foundation for lasting, meaningful change.
Sponsor for this episode:
This episode is brought to you by Advent Partners — a financial planning partner dedicated to helping you make informed decisions that simplify your financial journey.
Our seasoned team of professionals is committed to guiding you toward your financial goals. We offer tailored solutions based on your specific needs, from standalone financial planning to integrated financial management.
Whether you are planning for the future, investing for growth, or navigating financial hurdles, Advent Partners is here to provide insights, recommendations, and a clear financial roadmap.
To learn more about Advent Partners and how we can guide your financial success, visit AdventPartnersFP.com.
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Episode Transcript
Intro: 00:00
Welcome to the You Can’t Take it With You show, where we feature stories around generosity designed to inspire and encourage others to do meaningful things in their communities. Now, here’s your host, Jim Dunlop.
Jim Dunlop: 00:17
Hi, Jim Dunlop here, a wealth advisor and host of the show, where I sit down with people who get it when it comes to generosity. I’m excited to have guests who can give us stories on generosity to not only inspire our listeners, but to give practical ideas on ways we can give. Today’s guest is Eric Saunders. Past guests include Peter Greer, Jim Langley, and Phil Cubeta.
But before we get to Eric, I want to share with you that this episode is brought to you by Advent Partners Ready for good. Advent is a financial planning team dedicated to helping you make informed decisions that simplify your financial journey. At Advent Partners, we’re ready for good. Our bold, ten year vision is to help clients donate $100 million to to transform lives through generosity and planning. United by generosity, relationships, excellence, authenticity, and fun, we empower meaningful lives and lasting community impact. To learn more about Advent Partners and how we can guide your financial success, visit readyforgood.com.
Now let’s talk about Eric. Eric Saunders is the Executive Director of New Hope Ministries, a Christian social service agency that helps 30,000 people each year across Adams, Cumberland and York counties in central Pennsylvania. He’s passionate about tackling issues like hunger, homelessness and unemployment, and loves working where ministry and human services come together. Eric holds a master’s in social work from Indiana University and serves on several state and nonprofit boards, earning recognition for his leadership and innovation and receiving the Central Penn Business Journal’s Nonprofit Innovation Award for leadership. Eric, it is really great to have you here today.
Eric Saunders: 02:03
Jim, I’m excited to be here. It’s one of my favorite topics to talk about generosity.
Jim Dunlop: 02:08
Yeah. Well, before we jump into that, could you take a moment and share a little bit of an autobiography and introduce yourself to our listeners?
Eric Saunders: 02:18
Yeah, I have been serving in my role at New Hope Ministries for 19 years now. So I’m working on my 20th year, and I, I can’t believe you know how I’ve grown and how the organization has grown and how the community has changed during those two decades. And so I’m a senior nonprofit leader who’s been doing this work, you know, for all my career now. And I just probably, you know, as passionate or more passionate about human needs as I’ve always been. When I was a young person, I began to explore my personal faith as a Christian and what that meant and how I could live out, you know, being a human being.
What? What gives life meaning and realizing that I don’t have all the answers. It led me to wanting to do a religious education. So I went to a Bible college, and I was convinced I was going to be a missionary. I grew up in a family that went to church and practiced generosity.
And as young people do, I kind of bounced around looking for purpose and meaning, and I fell into a job that was intended to just be a summer job, working with teens and families who were going through really intense struggles. And that spoke to me in a, in a way that kind of nothing else had done to that point is that I have value as a person, inasmuch as I’m able to make a difference in the lives of others, and their experiences change me in profound ways. And so I think even though that’s a story of service, I think it has a lot of lessons for the topic of generosity. So what started as a summer job? Working in the wilderness with, you know, teens and trying to get them to think differently about their lives forced me to think differently about my life, and I ended up in a 13 year career, followed by what I’ve been doing at New Hope.
But basically that led me to social work education. Faith remained really important, you know, in my value system and has informed the work that I do. But I guess, you know, when I started this process as a young single, I didn’t know where I was headed. Now I’ve got a large family of five kids and, You know, one of them’s in college studying to become a social worker herself. And I’m just.
I’m tickled pink where God has brought me on this journey, and I don’t know where he’s taken me next. So that’s kind of the fun part is there’s still a lot of work to be done, and God’s still working on me.
Jim Dunlop: 05:14
Well, I love that idea that you still remain open to where God may lead you next. That’s. Yeah. That’s great. Well, this is a show about generosity, and you’ve hinted at it a little bit in your autobiography.
Can you tell me what drives your own personal generosity? Or more specifically, what’s your generosity origin story?
Eric Saunders: 05:36
Yeah, I have tried to practice generosity throughout my adult life. And when you work in human services, there aren’t always tremendous amounts of resources. And and again, from a I love the biblical story of the widow’s mite. But you know, she gave out of her need. Not not out of her wealth.
So anybody can practice generosity. But the earliest stories that I really have strong memory of would be my father. My father was a physician, and he had this magnetism about him, that any homeless person was immediately attracted to him and would come up to him no matter where he went. People just.
Jim Dunlop: 06:29
Where did you grow up, Eric?
Eric Saunders: 06:30
Well, I moved around the country, but southwest Arizona. California. For college and then other places. But you could almost guarantee him. And I think part of it may have been my dad didn’t know the rule.
Don’t make eye contact, you know, because he acknowledged people. Sorry. I gotta, you know, put do not disturb on the phone so my, my dad would make eye contact, people would come up and he would always take time, no matter what he was doing, to stop and buy that person some lunch. You know, give him a helping hand. And it impressed me that this is what men do.
This is, you know, these are the values of my family. And and I think that’s informed my practice as well. And I’m, I’m one of those people that if I see somebody on the street, I don’t ask the question, what are they going to do with my gift? I ask the question, how can I be a blessing, you know, to that person? And so I’ll stop and talk.
I’ll pray, I’ll buy lunch, I’ll empty my wallet because, you know, yeah, they make might make a bad choice, but they might also eat today. And I can give them a word of encouragement in the process. And so funny that I ended up working in a field where I encounter homeless people on a regular basis and am able to help with housing and a whole bunch of other cool Solutions to try to move people towards, you know, stability. But I think it starts with what I saw as a young person.
Jim Dunlop: 08:02
Yeah.
Jim Dunlop: 08:02
It sounds like your dad was a pretty incredible human and acknowledged everybody where they were. And not enough people do that, unfortunately. True. So we talked about your you know, we talked about your dad and and your backstory. Now let’s talk about your work at New Hope Ministries.
What is the heart behind New Hope Ministries? And how do you describe the work that you and your team do in the community?
Eric Saunders: 08:30
Yeah, well, it’s hard to encapsulate four decades of New Hope’s work, but to go back to the early 1980s, when our country was going through a time of economic recession and a period of budget cuts for human services, suddenly the the rural communities of south central Pennsylvania began seeing an uptick uptick in the problems of hunger and poverty and the effects that go with it. And it was a group of local churches in the community of Dillsburg that came up with an idea that is not unique to our community. Many communities have done this where they said, well, why isn’t somebody doing something to help our neighbors? Because if you work in a church, that’s the first place that people turn and every church tries to do what they can, but they’ve got limited resources, sometimes limited knowledge. And so the idea was born.
What if we invited everybody in in the community to be part of an effort that would address the needs of those in poverty? And so it was Baptists and Lutherans and Methodists and Presbyterians, you know, and people of no faith at all, but who had conscience, you know, you know, and concern about, you know, the people in their community. And they said, we’re going to open a little office where we’re going to have a part time caseworker, and we’ll run a food pantry, and we’ll try to help people figure out solutions, you know, to their overwhelming problems. We’ll we’ll try to provide a couple bags of groceries. And it worked.
And in so many communities have replicated an effort like this. But interestingly, it was so successful that a couple years went by and the next community down the road that was Dover in York County, Pennsylvania, came and said, you know, we’ve got the same problems that you’re facing in Dillsburg. Would you consider opening a branch office in our community? And then Mechanicsburg up in Cumberland County, the the, the Council of Churches there said, gosh, we’re really far from the county seat and where most human services are typically located. Would would you open an office?
So that was that was what I encountered, you know, 20 years into the effort was three offices when I came 20 years ago. And today we have nine branch offices around three counties, and we’re getting ready to open office number ten in the new year, so we can talk more about that at some point if we got time. But it it each one of those has been a place where hope happens, where people come and something bad is going on. I don’t have food to eat. I’m being evicted from my home, it’s cold outside and I don’t have any heat.
I’m homeless and I don’t know where to turn. I’ve got medical expenses. I you know, the stories that that come out of people would break your heart if there wasn’t the opportunity to address those needs. And so we think, you know, kind of wrap up the introduction. It is multiple services happening with the support of an entire community, and it involves a couple of amazingly talented and dedicated, you know, employees and thousands of volunteers of people who want to give their time and to be able to either put food on shelves or answer phones or, you know, teach a budgeting class, etc..
And it’s been a wonderful story of community members wanting to make a difference.
Jim Dunlop: 12:25
You know, people show up at New Hope in a time of extreme need, and I’ll call it urgent or immediate need. Yeah. How do you balance that thought of, hey, I’m starving and I need food today. How do you balance helping the people with those immediate needs within the long term needs of how do I equip you so that you don’t have to keep showing up here? How do I get you from where you are today to a place of sustainability.
How do you balance those dynamics?
Eric Saunders: 12:55
Well, you know, as a social scientist, I understand, you know, systems as a social scientist. I’m a social worker. I study, you know, the problems of poverty and human need and, you know, theory and and I understand that people’s problems didn’t just happen overnight. They had to have come from childhood experiences, mental health problems, you know, health problems. ET cetera.
ET cetera. ET cetera. But if you come to New Hope and you say, I haven’t eaten in three days, and I say, you know, you don’t have a high school education, have you ever thought about getting a GED? Which we do, by the way. It’s going to be an ineffective and frustrating conversation for both of us.
You have to start at people’s point of need. And, you know, to kind of spiritualize it. Jesus said, I was hungry. You gave me food, I was thirsty, you gave me drink. I was sick and in prison you visited me.
And they said, when did we see you doing all these things, Lord? And he said, inasmuch as you did it to the least of these, you did it unto me. It’s one of kind of our foundational, you know, philosophies, you know, that influences what we do and why we do what we do. But you have to start where people are at once. The bellies are filled.
Once people have a roof over their head, they’re going to be in a better place to be able to figure out, how did I get here and where am I going and what might I need. And so it’s not do I meet immediate needs or do I try to address root causes of, you know, poverty and and social problems? I’m trying to do both at the same time. And I’ve got a book that I’ve had for quite a while. It’s called When Helping Hurts.
And the idea is and it’s written by Steve Corbett and Brian Fikkert. I strongly recommend this one for anybody who’s doing any sort of human service work. And it’s and there’s a reality that sometimes we can do things out of kindness that end up becoming a trap for people. And I think it’s more than just dependency, but, you know, a different way to put it is where is the focus? Is the focus on the helper and the giver, or is the helper on the recipient and the person in need?
And if you’ve got a donor centered program and we see this at Christmas time. Oh, I want to adopt a family. Oh, I want to do good things. And I love that people want to do good things, but it says more about us sometimes as the helpers than it does about. And so, you know, to to give an illustration, we used to do adopt a family and people loved the program.
I’m going to go shopping and I’m going to buy everything on the wish list, and I’m going to, you know, wrap it up and really pretty packages. And so what it became is rich white people buying presents for low income kids, you know, from all backgrounds. And but imagine you’re that parent that you can’t provide for your child. And when we say we’ll accept unwrapped new toy donations throughout the holidays, and we set up a Santa’s workshop where parents can come in and choose a gift for their child so that under the Christmas tree, there’s a present that came from mom and dad, the people who loved them. Most of all, I think that that for me, that illustrates the difference of donor versus recipient centered, you know, care.
And it’s such a subtle difference of how you package sometime. But it says everything that we are not better than we are. We are blessed to be able to be a blessing in somebody else’s life. But then to say, gosh, I will give you food, but I won’t help you with an education or I won’t help you find a job. So I remain trapped in a cycle of hunger and dependency, rather than having the hope that with some hard work, please walk with me.
But I’ve got a journey that I need to complete if I’m ever going to have a hope of feeding myself and my family and, you know, being a part of that, but not dictating, this is what you must do to be worthy of our help. That’s a little toxic. There’s another book called Toxic Charity that sometimes comes across as a little bit harsh, but there’s some really good principles kind of embedded in that. So when I came, we were doing wonderful, compassionate care at New Hope, and I said, I love this, but my education and experience of helping kids transition to Into adulthood. You know, who have been in foster care most of their lives.
And, you know, I said, we’re not giving people the tools they need to succeed. I never wanted to take away from food or, you know, helping pay rent or, you know, providing heat. Those those are critical survival needs. But I said, we need to expand our reach to be able to do the other part of kind of laying the foundation for growth and change.
Jim Dunlop: 18:13
Yeah. Well, I really appreciate that perspective and that idea of not of the not being donor centered and thinking about it in those terms. I think that’s really helpful for me to hear in all of our listeners.
Eric Saunders: 18:29
And donors are so important. I don’t want to take it. We’re talking about generosity today. Donors have such a critical role to play. But if we can understand the motivation, why we give, you know, true compassion is, you know, the Scripture says, look not only to your own interest, but also to the interest of others.
I think that’s what I’m trying to encompass here.
Jim Dunlop: 18:52
Understood. So we talked about your start. You started by churches in in the Dillsburg community initially coming together and saying, we have these problems we keep confronting. Let’s let’s get together and solve them together. How can we think about churches and then more broadly, maybe businesses and then also down to the individual level, how can they get involved with New Hope Ministries or the work that you’re doing in meaningful ways?
Eric Saunders: 19:20
I appreciate that question. Let me preface my answer by saying, New Hope is an amazing organization that does wonderful work. We’re not perfect, but boy do we care. Really, really big. You know about our neighbors, but you may live in a community that’s not served by our organization, and I would encourage people find an organization that does the types of things that we do and get involved there, too.
So there’s lots of ways for people, churches, businesses to get involved. And I think how people are able to do that really depends upon where they’re coming from and what their capacity is right now. And so I’ve got a local grocery store that they they really care about getting their employees out into the communities. And so a couple times a year, a team shows up from its giant foods and, and, and we get a lot of a lot of businesses. But they they say they show up.
They say, what can we do to help? We’re here for three hours, put us to work. And they’re amazing because that’s what they do all day is they, you know, they handle product and you better have enough work for them. But they get the experience of getting out into the community, seeing how their donations are being used in, you know, by the people who are receiving the help. So service is a wonderful way to get involved, and I’ve had so many people who have come with a business group who said, I’ve had such a rewarding experience.
I want to bring my family back. I want to, you know, take it to a another level so that that’s one way to do it. Another is generosity that businesses can take advantage of tax credits through the state. We participate in the Educational Improvement Tax Credit, or EitC program and the Neighborhood Assistance Program tax credit, where you can you can make a gift to a qualified charity and they have to be approved, you know, by the state. But then you get to claim 75, you know, up to like 90% of that gift is a is a tax credit, you know, against your state taxes.
Well, it’s almost like free money at that point, you know. But if you’re already a business that does, you know, charitable giving and many do. What if you could make a gift that was five, you know, to ten times the size of what you might normally be able to contribute, and it didn’t cost you any more? So being smart about some of those giving opportunities, and I’d love to talk more about that. You can.
Jim Dunlop: 22:06
Oh, great. What a great strategy.
Eric Saunders: 22:08
No, it’s it’s a hard one to explain. And maybe it’s because I don’t have the financial background that you have. But once people get it, they say it’s a no brainer. Our churches were our starters and remain kind of our core contributors. And, you know, not only do they do food drives and do they send volunteers to support the work that we do, but we still fulfill that essential role of being a human service partner, that when someone comes to their door and says, I’m hungry, I’m homeless.
I’m. I have this need that they’ve got a solution already mapped out that they can come and say, hey, you know, we’ve got this person either from our congregation or the community. Can you help them? And that starts that process. You don’t have to come through a local church, but you know, you can better believe that when a church sends us somebody, we’re going to pay attention to that because they’re the ones who called us into being and supported us for decades.
So telling somebody where they can get help is just an incredibly important way to be involved in partnering with our organization. I have a couple of churches over the last few years that I’ve seen do something that I thought was just so inspiring. Many times churches have fundraising campaigns. And, you know, our our typical mantra is, you know, we want to be people’s favorite charity after they support their own local church. So start with your church, don’t you know?
Don’t let that be your tithe. You know, be a part of that fellowship where you get fed and you know that community of believers you belong to. But I hope we could be your second favorite charity. Charity. You know, we but I see I’ve seen churches say we need to raise a couple hundred thousand dollars for a new building project and then say, we’re going to tithe on that and support work in our community.
I thought we were supposed to tithe to the church. It’s been amazing to see churches try to live into that principle and saying, we’re going to show thanksgiving to God and support for our community. And this has been multiple times where we’ve seen, you know, receive five figure gifts from local churches that have helped with our food pantry improvements or putting in a new walk in refrigerator and freezer so we can handle food, you know, donations. And I thought, how wonderful. You know, they received a bequest, you know, from a long time parishioner.
And they turn around, turn around and say, we’re going to we’re going to share some of that blessing, you know, with a ministry that we partner with and support. And so there’s so many different ways. And I would love to have that conversation with a church, with a business, you know, with a community organization and say, how can we work together? According to what you guys value and are helping to accomplish?
Jim Dunlop: 25:17
Wow.
Jim Dunlop: 25:19
And powerful stories and ideas. So for listeners, whether individual person, a business owner, or even just taking back to their own congregation. Yeah. You’ve been coming. You’re coming up on 20 years at New Hope.
You’ve seen growth in giving to your organization during that time. How has your own giving grown. And what do you think continues to inspire people to give?
Eric Saunders: 25:46
How is my own grit giving grown and what inspires people to give? When I was that young single person I. I worked for in the nonprofit world. I knew the importance of financial support to be able to work, that we do the work that we did. And I knew how painful it was when there were good programs and youth we wanted to serve back in the day, and we didn’t have the financial resources to do it.
And so I said, I want to be I mean, it feels hypocritical to, you know, want the support and not be willing to give it. So I’ve always given to the organizations where I serve, but I, you know, my my tears would be I want to give to support my local church. I want to I want to give to support the organization that feeds me. I believe in disaster giving so that when there’s a national, you know, catastrophe or an international catastrophe in in my heart is touched by the plight of other people, I want to give to that. Now, we need to be careful that we’re making responsible, giving choices.
But there are a lot of great, you know, charities that do that kind of work. And then there are other causes, you know, that I’ve wanted to support. I’ve got I’ve always had a real passion for international, you know, missions and, you know, services overseas. And and so even, you know, I create I create a family budget where a portion of what I make, you know, and my wife makes, you know, goes into how do we support the causes and values that we believe in. In the second part of the question you said was.
Jim Dunlop: 27:31
How?
Jim Dunlop: 27:31
How do you think? What do you think continues to inspire people to give?
Eric Saunders: 27:36
Yeah. So in some ways, the work that we do at New Hope Ministries should be the easiest, you know, cause to raise support for. I feed hungry kids. I help people who are homeless. I, you know, and I can just talk compassion.
There’s no manipulation, you know? But if you believe that people shouldn’t go hungry and people shouldn’t be sleeping on park benches, you know, there’s a place where that, you know, that work is being done here, close to home. And I think, you know, there’s been a lot of recognition. We do it really well. And so we’re an obvious choice.
But the message tends to be a similar message year after year after year. And you know, there’s only so many ways that you can say, please support New Hope Ministries so that we can make sure people don’t go hungry. Well, I thought I gave you money last year so that people didn’t go hungry. I said, yeah, but they’re still hungry. And and so I, I realized very early on in this work that I couldn’t convince somebody to share my values.
I mean, I can tell good stories and I’ve got a, you know, I’ve got a ton of them. But if you don’t believe that we have a responsibility to care for our neighbors, then this this is a cause that’s probably not going to resonate. Jesus said, you know it this way. He said, the poor you will always have with you. I don’t I don’t think that was a denunciation of giving to the poor.
I think it just the opposite is that there is always an opportunity to practice generosity, to make a difference in the lives of others and until the end of time. And I believe that Jesus, you know, is coming back one day, you know, and he’s going to set things right. But until he does, there’s going to be work to do. And I think those who practice generosity and those who have compassion need to know this is an ongoing burden. And rather than saying, I’m going to solve this problem once and for all times so that we never have hungry and homeless and, you know, poor people again.
I have an opportunity to dedicate my life to showing, you know, love for my neighbors. And it’s not ultimately my responsibility. I only have to do my part. And so my part is to be kind. My part is to be generous.
And when I want to throw up my hands in frustration with the with the cares and evils of the world, there are ways that I can be a part of that. And it’s the. It’s the widow’s mite. You know, she she gave what she had. Did it change the, you know, everything?
No, but it sure changed her. And keeping that, you know, if we want to have a donor centric perspective, it’s what is giving doing to change me and make me a better person.
Jim Dunlop: 30:31
Well, I, I really appreciate I appreciate all these ideas and perspectives. If you could inspire listeners to take one even small action today, what would that be?
Eric Saunders: 30:46
I recently and I came today with with some of my major donor stories of people who had given just fantastic gifts, but instead I want to focus on somebody I ran into a couple weeks ago when we were holding a food drive at the local Walmart, and we were standing at the door and saying, hey, would you would you buy something today for your local food pantry? And some people said, I don’t want to help those people. They need to get a job. And I’m like, alright, God bless you. You have a great day.
And other people said, you know, I’m I’m not working right now. I got I got furloughed and I could really use the help. And we said, well let me tell you where you can come. You know, we, we would be honored to help you. But but there was a gentleman and I didn’t see him go in, but when he came out, he had a cart full of groceries.
And he walked up to me and he handed me A single can of soup. Just one. And I don’t know what his means were. It could have been that that was sacrificed for him to do that. And I want to honor that.
You know, the positive intentions. But it was such an impactful thing for me to think about what was going. And I didn’t interview him. I didn’t want to make him uncomfortable. I was just like, thanks for the soup, buddy.
One small act of generosity could have a profound impact, and I think about some of the people that come in and use our services. And imagine a single mom with a couple of young kids who’s able to put lunch on the table for her kids because of that one act of generosity. And maybe he’s listening today. Thank you. You know, if you are, it was a meaningful gift, and I’m grateful for it.
But I wonder what that did for him, that there was no judgment. You’re only giving me a can of soup. No. It was. Hey, you know, every little bit helps.
And we’re grateful that you, you know, that you wanted to do this today. I’d like to think that that felt good to him. That even. I mean, even he would if he was kind of crusty, miserly. I’m going to give him a can of soup to realize that he has the capacity, even in a small ways, to change somebody else’s life.
I hope that that would inspire him, that the next time he sees the food drive, that he says, I could do two cans of soup today, maybe I could reach a little bit further. And for all of us, I don’t want to ever tell somebody what is enough. I think that’s a choice that that we have to make for ourselves. But if you’re not a person who’s accustomed to thinking about the needs of others, and you could give a single can of soup, you’re going to help impact somebody’s life in such an amazing way, and you’re going to see how you’re in part of it. You’re part of an important work.
And if we can do a little bit and God inspires us, you know, to do a little bit more, and I do my little bit and you do your little bit, and the guy at the Walmart does his little bit that these problems that feel like they, they can’t be solved suddenly start getting solved and people start getting help and life start being changed. But I think it’s the people who are involved in the work whose lives changed the most to be quite, to be quite honest, and is the people who are on the front lines doing the work or being paid by our generous donors to do the work. We’re seeing our lives changed and we’re getting to hear these amazing stories. And and I want to share that with people and say, I wish you could meet the people who are receiving your help, and you can come in and volunteer with us, read the stories that we’re willing to share. And, you know, even if you’re you’ve got your own problems in life, you know, I’m dealing with illness.
I’ve got, you know, I’m not sure where my jobs. ET cetera. ET cetera. To realize that, you know, I can do something. And my life has purpose.
Jim Dunlop: 34:53
Absolutely. So I this is we could go all day, however, has just been so inspiring. And I just love the work that New Hope is doing. And I have one final question I want to ask. But before I ask it, I want to point our listeners to your website.
It’s nhm-pa.org. You can find New Hope on http://www.facebook.com/newhopeministriesinpa. You can find Eric on LinkedIn as well. So Eric, our last question today is if you could share some advice or wisdom on a billboard where you’d reach a lot of people, what would your message be?
Eric Saunders: 35:34
It’s funny that you asked the billboard question, because this is the one time of year when New Hope actually rent space on billboards, and we think really hard that I’ve got about two seconds for people to catch something, you know, from us. And we always we’ve tried to choose artwork over the last few years that our donors have produced for us. We do a Christmas card contest, and this year there’s a beautiful drawing of a country church that’s covered with snow. It’s just the most homelike setting. But there’s a two word phrase that we’ve used every year, probably for the last ten years, and it’s simply this give hope.
Jim Dunlop: 36:17
I love it. Yeah.
Eric Saunders: 36:19
Yeah. Our name is New Hope Ministries. That what people have lost is hope. Hope that life could be different. Hope you know that they’re going to be okay.
Hope that somebody else cares. And it a time of year when you know people are making their end of year, you know, decisions. I mean, and many people do that. I would hope that through your act of generosity that you would give hope to somebody else and then you would have hope for what is good in our community and be a part of something that’s making a difference in people’s lives. And so that’s that’s my billboard message, literally.
Jim Dunlop: 37:02
I love it, give hope. Well, I Eric, thank you so much for being with us today, and we look forward to seeing all the great work that New Hope can do.
Eric Saunders: 37:13
Well, I sure appreciate it. And I appreciate you giving me an opportunity to share what’s important to me today. God bless.
Outro: 37:21
Thanks for joining us to hear stories of generosity that remind us that you can’t take it with you. Visit our site canttakeitwithyou.com for more details on today’s episode and to subscribe to future shows.
Disclosure: 37:39
Neither today’s guests nor their company are affiliated with or endorsed by Thrivent Advisor Network. The views expressed in this presentation by the guest are their own and not necessarily those of Thrivent or its affiliates.
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