When Lindsey Paulsen talks about her work at Opportunity International, the first thing she wants you to know isn’t the scale, the countries, or the technology. It’s the organization’s posture.
“Our entire model revolves around modeling the Good Samaritan,” she says. “We want to be that bridge between what your personal calling is and the clients we serve, so you can fulfill the convictions you have and the generosity you have to make that kind of lasting impact in the world.”
That sentence captures why Opportunity International has become such a meaningful partner to the Generous Life community over the past few years.
About Opportunity International
For more than 50 years, Opportunity International has walked alongside families living in extreme poverty, providing access to financial services, training, and support that help them build sustainable livelihoods.
Last year alone, they reached 16 million people across 28 low-income countries.
Their work is increasingly shaped by thoughtful use of technology. Their flagship innovation, Farmer AI, is an agronomy advisor that lives in farmers’ pockets, delivered via WhatsApp and built specifically for low-resource languages and low-connectivity environments. They currently serve 200,000 smallholder farmers through the tool and are working to reach 2 million in the coming years. Similar innovations are now expanding into education, equipping teachers and school proprietors in rural areas to deliver stronger learning outcomes.
The organization is faith-based, with roots that trace back to a mission trip in Colombia in the 1970s, when its founder glimpsed a model for sustainable, scalable impact rooted in dignity and partnership.
How the partnership started
The relationship between Generous Life and Opportunity International didn’t begin with a formal agreement. It began with a conversation.
A few years ago, Lindsey and Logan Gentry sat down to explore a simple question: what could real collaboration look like?
From that conversation, a partnership emerged that now includes shared events, joint trips, and ongoing introductions. Generous Life members have traveled with Opportunity International, hosted dinners in their homes, and built real friendships with the Opportunity team.
“I have made so many wonderful friendships with people in the Generous Life community,” Lindsey says. “They’ve added value and meaning to my life.”
Why this community matters to their work
Opportunity International focuses on the hardest-to-reach places in the world. They work in communities where people live on less than two dollars a day, and where few other organizations are willing to go.
That kind of work requires partners who are ready to engage at depth.
For Lindsey, the Generous Life community offers something rare: a group of people already moving toward generosity, already asking the right questions, already open to what might be possible.
“Having an audience that is primed to learn and explore how they can be impactful really helps enable us to do our work effectively and well, and find the right partners to come along this journey with us,” she says.
She points to one Generous Life member who signed up for Opportunity International’s Mount Kilimanjaro team climb. Between the training, the fundraising, and the summit itself, the experience shaped both the climb and everything that followed. After the climb, she visited the communities she’d been fundraising for. She met the women, saw the programs, and witnessed the difference her giving was making.
Moments like that are what this partnership is about.
What Lindsey hopes Generous Life members will know
For those curious about Opportunity International, Lindsey’s invitation is simple.
“I would love to have coffee or lunch, and hear where their heart is and the things they feel called to. I’d love to take them out to see the work in person, to sit in our clients’ homes, visit their businesses and schools, and see the lasting legacy they could be a part of.”
This is the kind of invitation Generous Life members have come to recognize. No pressure. No pitch. Just presence, honesty, and the chance to see something that might shape how you give for the rest of your life.
If you’d like to learn more about Opportunity International or explore how your generosity might connect with their work, reach out to our team. We’d be glad to make the introduction.