Finding the Helpers, And Becoming Them
Over the course of the past month, our Communications Director (Breean McKinney) had the privilege of representing one of the nonprofits Idaho Partners for Good has been deeply honored to support: Hope House in Marsing, Idaho.
Nestled along the banks of the Snake River, Hope House provides a safe, loving home for children who have experienced unimaginable trauma, loss, and instability. It is a place rooted in healing—and true to its name, a place of hope.
That sense of hope can feel hard to come by lately.
In the news, in our social media feeds, and in everyday conversations, we are inundated with the opposite: despair, division, alarming statistics, scarcity, uncertainty. The result is often a quiet but heavy sense of isolation, overwhelm and helplessness.
At Idaho Partners for Good, we are in the business of hope—creating collaborative spaces where doers and givers work smarter, data is translated into action, resources are aligned, and meaningful outcomes are generated. Still, we’re human. Even with experience, evidence, and perspective, discouragement can creep in. And yet, we hold these realities in tension with something else we know to be true.
Fred Rogers once said: “When I was a boy and I would see scary things in the news, my mother would say to me, ‘Look for the helpers. You will always find people who are helping.’”
This holiday season, we didn’t just see the helpers. We felt them. We heard them. We stood shoulder-to-shoulder with them.
Through the Giving Machines initiative, Hope House—alongside Foster + Heart and many other nonprofits including CATCH, Faces of Hope, Boys & Girls Clubs of Canyon and Ada Counties, Idaho Diaper Bank, Camp Rainbow Gold, the Red Cross, and Lifting Hands International—was selected to receive community-funded support.
Giving Machines are bright red vending machines that allow people to “purchase” tangible acts of generosity: a warm meal, diapers, counseling, tutoring, medical equipment, even a goat. The machines are part of the Light the World campaign, with all operational costs covered by The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and powered by an extraordinary network of volunteers. Throughout December, these machines traveled across the Treasure Valley and Eastern Idaho, each move marked by a public ribbon cutting.
And that’s where something remarkable happened.
People from every walk of life—across faiths, ages, political perspectives, income levels, backgrounds, and stories—gathered together. They came eager to give, to connect, to care for one another. For a moment, it was almost hard to reconcile what we were witnessing with the broader turmoil playing out across our state, nation, and world.
Outside those gatherings: division, fear, scarcity. Inside them: generosity, unity, abundance.
That is the Idaho we love. That is the sector of humanity we choose to belong to.
The challenges ahead are real. We don’t minimize them. But we also refuse to ignore the equally real truth that good work is still happening, and happening best when we work together!
As we step into a new year, our call is simple and urgent: we need more opportunities for collaboration across sectors. Nonprofits cannot do this alone. Neither can philanthropy, government, faith communities, or business acting in silos.
If this season reminded us of anything, it’s that lasting change happens neighbor-to-neighbor.
We invite you to join us-builders, helpers, givers, and doers alike—as we strengthen connections, align resources, and unite across differences to meet what’s coming with courage, creativity, and collective action.
Because hope doesn’t just happen.
It’s built together.