Scott Sabin
Since 1993, Scott has played a significant role in the progress and growth of our organization. Scott leads a wonderful team of committed individuals and partners along with our amazing colleagues around the world. Scott is overjoyed when he sees our partners blossom and become the leaders of this mission. Scott attributes the success of our organization to perseverance and willingness to ask hard questions about effectiveness and impact.
Through journal articles, public speaking, and his book, “Tending to Eden”, Scott has become an advocate for reforestation as a key component of sustainable community development around the world. Prior to working for Plant With Purpose, he served for seven years in the Navy. Scott received his Bachelor of Science in Political Science from Oregon State University, as well as a Master of Arts in International Relations from University of San Diego. Outside of work, Scott enjoys sailing and spending time with his family. He also believes that everything can be better expressed through a song lyric.
All, DR Congo, Haiti, Mexico
Vision Trips: Bringing our Work from Head to Heart
The sense of unity in one of my first mission trips was amazing. In the evening our group would gather with our
host families and church members in a tiny Costa Rican village. We would share experiences from the day, learn
worship songs in Spanish and become acutely aware of all that we had in common. That connection and
fellowship, over 30 years ago, was life changing and became one of the key events which led me to work with
Plant With Purpose.
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About Our Work, Malawi
Plant With Purpose in the Warm Heart of Africa
The launch of our newest program expands partnership and hope to the people of Malawi At the beginning of 2024, Plant With Purpose opened its ninth country program in Malawi. While it is the newest of our partners, the work in Malawi is positioned well to apply the lessons learned from our global network. To […]
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blog, Dominican Republic, Haiti
The environmental connection between Haiti and the Dominican Republic
In May of 2004, an extraordinary rain drenched the mountains of Haiti, in a place I had never heard of before, called Fonds Verrettes. We are used to the hurricanes: Georges, Ivan, Gustave, Ike, Sandy, Matthew; but the storm that brought this rain didn’t even have a name. Over the course of a week, almost […]
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Burundi, Environmental Restoration, Meditations
Environmental Restoration Honors God
Methode Ntibandye is our Environmental Coordinator in Burundi. For over two decades he has been applying is deep ecological knowledge to help rural farmers maintain resilience in the face of climate change and food insecurity. He recently shared some insight into how his work is an outpouring of his faith and how environmental restoration honors […]
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Meditations, Mexico
A Forest Grows...
Because of the limitations posed by the pandemic and my focus on our work elsewhere, it has been five years since I have visited Mexico, which made my recent trip very emotional, and life-giving. In 1994, accompanied by our Dominican director, Eldon Garcia, as well as our most influential donors and board members, Don and […]
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About Our Work, blog, Burundi, Dominican Republic, DR Congo, Ethiopia, Haiti, Mexico, Our Response, Tanzania, Thailand
In the voices of our partners
One of the more complex nuances of working across different countries and cultures is storytelling and communication. When done poorly, organizations run several risks: from dehumanizing the people they seek to help to diminishing the role local actors play in advancing progress. In this post, CEO Scott Sabin shares how to allow our partners to […]
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Meditations
Abundance is a repeated theme throughout Scripture and Creation
Lately, I have been sharing my thoughts on abundance with our team and supporters. We are recently emerging from a busy fundraising season. We've seen abundance in the form of generosity, both in support of our program and in our program. When people enter a mentality of abundance, they also discover they have far more […]
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About Our Work, All, Meditations, Tanzania
A Message from our CEO, Scott Sabin
Dear friends, There are so many things to be thankful for this year, and your unwavering support is one of them. It has made a huge and lasting difference in the lives of hundreds of thousands of people in eight different countries. I can often get lost in the numbers—the number of countries we work […]
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About Our Work
Plant With Purpose... what's in a name?
This month, we celebrate our 12th anniversary of being Plant With Purpose. While the unveiling of our new name in 2010 was a rebrand, it also helped clarify the impact we would seek to have in our partnering communities over the next few years. Here, our CEO Scott Sabin reflects on the decision-making process behind […]
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About Our Work
Why Spiritual Renewal?
Plant With Purpose’s mission encompasses a threefold approach. The three spheres of environmental restoration, economic empowerment, and spiritual renewal are integrated, leading to transformational change. While we believe strongly in the relationship between these areas, they each have unique nuances, especially the area of spiritual renewal. It is less tangible than environmental restoration, and it […]
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All, Updates
Remembering our friend, Peter Illyn
A reflection from our CEO Scott Sabin On December 11th , the Church lost a pioneer, a prophet and someone whose voice should have been much more widely heard. I first met Peter Illyn in 1996, at a conference convened by the Christian Environmental Council in Chattanooga. Of all the people I met that week, […]
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COVID-19
Finding Surprising Blessings in the COVID-19 Pandemic (an update from Scott Sabin)
An update from CEO Scott Sabin Yes, 2020 has and continues to be a challenging year but it’s also been an amazing and surprising year in many ways. Jesus has been at work in the communities that we serve around the world. The passage that keeps coming to mind is John 1:5, “The light shines […]
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