When Helping Hurts

How to Alleviate Poverty Without Hurting the Poor...and Yourself

By: Steve Corbett, Brian Fikkert

Narrated by: Brendan Hunter

With more than 450,000 copies in print, When Helping Hurts is a paradigm-forming contemporary classic on the subject of poverty alleviation.

Poverty is much more than simply a lack of material resources, and it takes much more than donations and handouts to solve it. When Helping Hurts shows how some alleviation efforts, failing to consider the complexities of poverty, have actually (and unintentionally) done more harm than good. But it looks ahead. It encourages us to see the dignity in everyone, to empower the materially poor, and to know that we are all uniquely needy - and that God in the gospel is reconciling all things to himself.

Focusing on both North American and Majority World contexts, When Helping Hurts provides proven strategies for effective poverty alleviation, catalyzing the idea that sustainable change comes not from the outside in, but from the inside out.

©2012 Steve Corbett and Brian Fikkert (P)2021 Steve Corbett and Brian Fikkert

Great content, solid principles, highly recommend

Quality content filled with principles that everyone should understand before attempting outreach to materially poor individuals or communities. The only thing this audible is lacking are pdf pages of handouts that would be helpful.

Relevant and Informative

A staple for anyone wanting to do missions before deciding to go. Most of the concepts if not the stories are translatable to any context.

A must read

For anyone working in poverty alleviation, missions, NGOs , this is required reading. Incredible depth provided by real life experience.

Give more, but to ministries helping long-term.

This book is obviously teaching us how and why we must be wiser in our efforts to help those in poverty. But let me save you some time, money, and effort: the simple solution is to give whatever you can, of your heart, money, time, knowledge, and efforts, to ministries that are using proven methods that can be expected to have sustained results.

The book is helpful if you want to build your expertise in this, but I found the book to be intimidating to the average church-goer (if I fall into that category). I owned the book for years and only now made it past the first chapter, and that only because I found myself in contact with a desperate person in the midst of a "majority world" famine.

It is a well-written and useful book, but I think its very existence creates a problem without providing a solution. For me, the title is putting to words a feeling so many of us have had, then increasing the burden. Allow me put the burden to words: "your giving is probably making things worse, and now you must become an expert in establishing ministries and relationships that you have no experience with or access to." Does anybody else see that? That's why I tried to distill the contents of this book for anyone who isn't sure they would benefit from reading it: just focus on ministries that are providing help that lasts.

And give more. The authors said it a few times, but somehow churchgoers aren't getting the message. We are not our own.

Good guidance for relationships, not just charitable giving.

Great breakdown of trying to be wise with charitable giving, and how important time and relationships are rather than just throwing money at things, which often hurts the money thrower and the money catcher. Puts more responsibility on churches and individuals, but also is more likely to being about long term Jesus focused improvements in health and safety and stability and joy.

Great questions, good answers, so-so narrator

Content is fantastic for challenging the entrenched top-down and materialistic philanthropy of most poverty-alleviation efforts, especially those directed by Westerners. The authors make an effort to provide practical solutions, to be constructive, not merely deconstructive. I am the director of a Christian international water science nonprofit and have spent 3 decades in ministry of diverse sorts. I heartily recommend this book.
The narrator inflected at odd points in sentences and was unfamiliar with Biblical names based on his novel pronunciations.

incredible

this book is life changing. slow start for me but sooooo worth it. must read.

changed my thinking

this book reframed my view on the poor and poverty. it taught me more about myself and my opportunities to help not hurt. I can apply the principles immediately in non profits I support and work with.

A Must Read

This book is very enlightening for anyone of faith who is contributing to any ministry!

A must read for those wanting to help the poor and see long-term restoration in communities

I like the complete overview of what it looks like to help the poor. This covers challenges, common mistakes, as well as poor plans and how it affects the community negatively rather than having a positive impact. I do wish it focused more on the leading of the Holy Spirit rather than ideas.