In the Gospel of Matthew, Jesus said that our love for him is measured by our love for those in need. Neighborly exists to help you encounter Jesus where he said you’d find him — in the disguise of hungry, thirsty, sick, displaced, unclothed, and isolated people.

Our vision is to deinstitutionalize charity by helping you become friends with those at a disadvantage, thus, making poverty personal. It's to relationally reimagine charity - that those alleviating poverty would genuinely know those experiencing it. The vision is to stop calling our neighbors "the poor", but to call them by their names. This vision is fueled by a perpetual hope that another world is possible and is led by a bunch of idealist, ragtag, mischief-making, radicals, who are brave enough to not only see and love those in the margins, but to join them there. This vision is to do anything but "keep calm & carry on". The vision is to get angry with injustice & liberate those bound by it in the name of Jesus.

Friends don't let friends experience poverty. So, for us, friendship is the goal. We see the person, not just the problem. We make it personal because, when poverty gets a name, it's hard to ignore. Any and all poverty alleviation is a result of meaningful relationships. Another way of saying it is to say that our efficiency is a byproduct of intimacy. This is what we mean when we say we're "relationship-based".

Though this method slows us down, we believe this model faithfully mimics Jesus' incarnation and makes a sustainable impact in the lives of the people he loves. If friendship is the goal, downward-mobility is the method. The Apostle Paul says it best:

"In your relationships with one another, have the same mindset as Christ Jesus: Who, though he was God, did not consider equality with God something to be used to his own advantage; rather, he made himself nothing and became a servant in human likeness ... he humbled himself by becoming obedient to death on a cross." Phil 2:5-8