2024 Dynamic Dozen No. 3: Convoy of Hope

SBJ: What has been key to your recent growth?
Ethan Forhetz: When you do what we do around the world, there’s no shortage of need. Very early on, Convoy of Hope put into place the right foundation, and over the years that has allowed us to expand at a sustainable rate to facilitate future growth. We’re in year 30, we’ve had growth, we’ve expanded, and we’ve done our best to anticipate that growth and facilitate it in a way that’s sustainable. That takes intention and being conscious of it.

SBJ: What are your top issues when it comes to managing growth?
Forhetz: The biggest is maintaining the culture of Convoy of Hope. When you grow quickly, it’s easy for that to get lost. We work hard to teach people the culture of putting people first. Our goal is to make sure our mission is accomplished with excellence. We want to do things as top shelf as possible, so bringing in the right people who are motivated and have hearts to serve is important. We have an incredible team.

SBJ: Considering your current growth rate, how challenging is it to find staff?
Forhetz: We are blessed at Convoy to have no shortage of applicants anytime we have a job opening. Part of that is our great benefits package, and part is that there’s a segment of the population who want to be part of the solution, to do something to help make this world a better place.

SBJ: What has Convoy of Hope’s growth enabled the organization to do?
Forhetz: As we look around the world, the needs are great. Disasters are not slowing down. Because of our growth, Convoy of Hope can say yes to more things, to be able to help in more situations, to feed more than 570,000 children each day during the school day around the world. That’s because of the way the organization has strategically scaled up. We responded to a record number of 86 disasters globally last year. There are 52 weeks in a year, so that gives you a sense of how busy our team is. The growth has also put us on the map. Convoy of Hope is No. 35 on the Forbes List of 100 Largest U.S. Charities for 2023, which puts a spotlight on us and allows more people to be aware of what we do and help us do what we do, whether through advocating, donating or volunteering.

SBJ: Is Convoy of Hope’s fast growth sustainable?
Forhetz: We certainly believe it is. We’ve been strategic in the way we’ve grown to ensure it’s sustainable. When we start a children’s feeding program in a new area, we study, research and make sure it is sustainable, because the last thing we’d want to do is start one and then a few years later take it away. That would be horrific. There’s a lot on the line for us to be sustainable. We are conservative with the way we grow.

SBJ: What’s the worst business advice Convoy of Hope has received?
Forhetz: To leave Springfield. We have had offers to move to other places through the years but have chosen specifically to stay here. Being here in the heartland, we are able to quickly respond to all areas of the country. Beyond that, the people in Springfield and the Ozarks have gotten behind Convoy of Hope in a way that couldn’t be duplicated somewhere else. This is where our roots are.