The Hope Project (Epic Church)
Once a year Epic Church raises a single offering and distributes it across partners it already knows — church plants, a girls’ school in Ghana, an orphan home in Eswatini, persecuted pastors in North India, and a dozen organisations working in San Francisco’s Tenderloin and SoMa. Relationships come first: partners are chosen because people from the church serve with them.
United States · Australia · England · Eswatini · Ghana · Guatemala · India · Japan · Thailand · Vietnam
We read the ministry’s own pages and accreditations. We have not found published numbers we can divide, so no cost per outcome is shown.
We cannot tell you what $100 buys here
The Hope Project (Epic Church) has not published a spending figure and an outcome count that can be divided into each other. Any number we printed would be invented, so there is none. The specific documents we looked for are listed further down.
What the ministry advertises
“The Hope Project is our annual initiative that funds Epic’s strategic partners in San Francisco and across the globe.”
“This year, our goal is to raise $600,000 to fund our current partners.”
Why this is the church’s work
This is the Antioch pattern: a local congregation prays, sets money aside, and sends it to work it knows by name. The New Testament’s fundraising is churches supporting churches, with named people carrying the gift.
“While they were worshiping the Lord and fasting, the Holy Spirit said, “Set apart for me Barnabas and Saul for the work to which I have called them.” Then after fasting and praying they laid their hands on them and sent them off.”
Acts 13:2–3
“For they gave according to their means, as I can testify, and beyond their means, of their own accord, begging us earnestly for the favor of taking part in the relief of the saints.”
2 Corinthians 8:3–4
“Only, they asked us to remember the poor.”
Galatians 2:10
Our reservations
- Giving to a fund means delegating your diligence to Epic. That is a reasonable thing to do if you know the church, and an unexamined leap if you do not.
- We have not seen Epic’s written criteria for adding or dropping a partner, and no breakdown of how much of the $600,000 goal reaches partners rather than covering the campaign.
A judgement about the work, not a measurement of its results. We do not score souls.
Why a dollar goes further here
Income per person in Ghana is about 34× below the United States.
Every partner is already operating and locally led, so the gift creates no new organisation and no new overhead — it buys more of something already running. The catch is the mirror image: 23 partners across ten countries, from Eswatini to the Tenderloin, cannot share a cost per outcome. Roughly half the roster is in San Francisco, where a dollar buys the least of anywhere on this site, and Epic chose that deliberately.
What creates the leverage
- Rides an existing network — Delivery runs through churches, schools or clinics that already exist and are already staffed, so the gift is not paying to build the channel.
- Local workers, not sent staff — The work is done by believers who already live there. No relocation, no expatriate salary, no home-country cost of living to cover.
- Low local cost base — Wages, rent, fuel and materials are priced to the local economy, so the same work costs a fraction of what it costs in a high-income country.
The cost base, country by country
| Country | Income per person | Below United States |
|---|---|---|
| Ghana | $2,630 | 34× |
| India | $2,760 | 32× |
| Eswatini | $3,730 | 24× |
| Vietnam | $4,970 | 18× |
| Guatemala | $6,360 | 14× |
| Thailand | $7,690 | 12× |
| Japan | $38,340 | 2.3× |
| England | $54,550 | 1.6× |
| Australia | $64,120 | 1.4× |
| United States | $88,810 | — |
GNI per capita, Atlas method, current US dollars · World Bank · read 2026-09-19
This is a cost-of-living ratio, not a measure of how well the ministry spends. It tells you what a local wage or a bag of cement costs, and nothing about whether the work is any good — the rest of this page is for that.
Desk review
8 of 15
- Gospel centrality
- A church offering directed at gospel work: church plants, discipleship networks and persecuted pastors sit alongside the mercy ministries.
- Is the gospel named and central, rather than implied by the ministry’s history?
- Local leadership
- Every partner is a local organisation led by people in that place, and the church sends teams to serve with them rather than running the work itself.
- Is the work led and staffed by believers from the place it serves?
- Financial transparency
- The booklet names the partners and the $600,000 goal, and the page states more than $3 million given over 14 years. No split by partner, and no financial statement for the fund.
- Can an outsider find audited statements, a Form 990, and accreditation?
- Evidence of outcomes
- Narrative plus scattered counts — 400 children in after-school programs, 30,800 people reached through community outreach, 175 youth at Christmas, 50 girls in a dance ministry. Real, but not a reporting system.
- Does the ministry publish counts of what was delivered, defined clearly enough to check?
- Cost per outcome is computable
- No spending-per-partner figures published, so nothing can be divided.
- Are both a spending figure and an outcome count published, so cost per outcome can be divided out?
What we have not verified
- How the $600,000 is split across partners. The booklet describes each partner’s work but not the amount each receives.
- The "$3 million over 14 years" total is stated on the page and not broken out anywhere public.
- Most partners are small and carry no third-party accreditation. None of them publish a cost per outcome.
- Whether gifts from outside the congregation are welcome into this fund at all — the giving link is Epic’s general Pushpay page.
Worth knowing
- This is the closest working model to what this directory is trying to do: a curated, relational portfolio with real accountability through relationship rather than through documents.
- It is also the clearest illustration of the gap. Twenty-three partners, zero published unit costs — which is where a directory like this one earns its keep.
- Serving trips in 2026: Ghana in July, Guatemala in September, Vietnam and Eswatini in October.
Where the money goes (23 partners)
Heart for Africa · Eswatini
Orphan and vulnerable children’s home; Epic funds a worship ministry camp for musically gifted children.
Vida Real · Guatemala
Nationwide work to accelerate the end of poverty in Guatemala.
Lighthouse Church · Vietnam
Launching the Thu Duc church plant — equipment, biblical education and leadership support.
The Pearl House · Ghana
Protects, educates and disciples at-risk young women; Epic gave toward launching Pearl College.
Mustard Seed Network · Japan
Church-planting network across 12 cities; Epic hosts its pastoral vision retreat.
God For Nations · North India
Reaching unreached peoples; Epic funded a retreat for pastors facing persecution and imprisonment.
International Justice Mission · Thailand
Identified and supported nearly 500 victims of forced labour in scam compounds in Southeast Asia.
Saint Church · East London, England
Leadership training using creativity and innovation.
Streams Studio · England
Video content aimed at people who have drifted from faith.
Neighbourhood Church · Perth, Australia
New church plant; Epic’s support started weekly services.
City Impact · San Francisco
Fourteen service programs in the inner city for over 30 years.
Bessie Carmichael School · San Francisco
SoMa’s only public school, nearly 700 students; Epic supports its teachers.
Foster the City · Bay Area
Coalition of churches recruiting homes for every child in foster care.
Open Door Legal · San Francisco
Universal access to legal help; prevented hundreds of evictions into homelessness.
A Woman’s Place · San Francisco
The city’s only 24-hour residential program for women in crisis.
Because Justice Matters · Tenderloin
Dance, mentorship and safe community for women and girls.
Mobilize Love · San Francisco
City-wide outreach; 400 children in after-school programs and 30,800 people reached in 2025.
United Playaz · San Francisco
Violence prevention and youth development, 25 years in the city.
Old Skool Cafe · San Francisco
Restaurant job training and paid work for at-risk youth.
TL Connect (YWAM) · Tenderloin
Weekly visits to neighbours living in single-room occupancies.
Rise Prep · San Francisco
Education for an underserved community.
Olive Us Restored · San Francisco
Teaching and resources for women; Epic sponsors the 2026 Restored Retreat.
Convoy of Hope · Global
Food manufacturing and packaging centre opening 2026 to increase meals produced.
Sources
- The Hope Project page
Ministry website · Epic Church, San Francisco · read 2026-09-18
- 2026 Hope Project booklet
Annual report · Epic Church, San Francisco · read 2026-09-18
Partner descriptions and the $600,000 goal are in this booklet, linked from the Hope Project page.