By design, the models that the Chalmers Center develops for churches to use are technically very simple and do not require large budgets to implement. This approach prevents the church from becoming dependent on outside technical support and donor funds even as it tries to help poor people without making them dependent on the church. As a result, the Chalmers Center prepares the church to have a sustainable, long-term impact on its community. In contrast, most poverty-alleviation efforts are highly dependent on outside technical experts and funds. When the donor money dries up, the experts and program funds leave the community, and the ministries end.

For example, one of Chalmers’ most innovative strategies is for churches to promote “user-owned and user-managed savings and credit associations” in Africa, Asia, and Latin America. That is a mouthful. Basically, we help churches to help poor people to start and manage what amounts to very simple credit unions. The poor save their own money and lend this money to one another. By design, these groups are very simple to operate, and they do not require donor funds for either operations or loan capital. Once poor people are trained to run these groups, they can do so on their own. In fact, once the initial savings and credit association gains some experience, it will typically train other groups to start their own savings and credit associations. Some have referred to this process as “viral, self-replication!”

A recent issue of Chalmers’ electronic newsletter, Mandate, includes an article that demonstrates this type of sustainability. An organization with which Chalmers has a relationship received grant money from the U.S. government to train churches to form these savings and credit associations. The grant money ended, but the savings and credit groups did not!  Refer to the article "A Participatory Party in Mozambique" found in Issue #2 of the 2008 edition of Mandate.