Hovde’s Heart

After finding success in the private sector, Eric Hovde decided to use his resources to give back to the most vulnerable.

Eric and his brother Steve started the Hovde Foundation in 1998 to support finding a cure for Multiple Sclerosis through funding research. However, following an eye-opening trip to Romania and Kosovo in the 1990s, they expanded their focus to improving the lives of vulnerable children, by aiding organizations dedicated to supporting children who have been abandoned, enslaved, and sex-trafficked, ensuring they are happy, healthy, and prepared for a promising future.

To date, twelve Hovde Homes have been completed in Bolivia, Ghana, Guatemala, Honduras (x2), Kenya, Malawi, Mexico, Peru, Rwanda (x2), and Wisconsin. There is also one new home in progress in Costa Rica.

In addition to his work through the Hovde Foundation, Eric has expanded his giving through individual contributions and other foundations.

Impact of Foundations

Granted since inception

Grants award since inception

Nonprofit partners

Children supported annually by Hovde Home partners

Ghana

The Challenging Heights Hovde Home was constructed to serve as transitional housing and the initial point of safety for kids saved from human trafficking, and it was finished in the fall of 2011. They receive therapies and support from other survivors, and comprehensive rehabilitation. Over 300 children receive support from the Hovde Home annually. Working with local communities to safeguard the freedom of children who are at risk, Hovde Home staff members eventually aim to reintegrate children with their families and assist in rebuilding their lives together.

Rwanda

In 2009, U.S. college graduates formed Hope for Life Ministry after befriending street boys in Kigali, Rwanda, who were imprisoned simply for being homeless. They rented a small house to provide a safe haven for the boys, marking the birth of their organization. Partnering with the Hovde Foundation in 2011, they built the Hovde Home to offer permanent housing and holistic care to 32 children, including education and spiritual support. In 2022, Hovde Foundation funded the construction of a second boys’ home to provide care for an additional 32 boys to transition out of homelessness and poverty. Today, Hope for Life provide holistic, family-centered, and trauma-informed programs to empower children and reintegrate them with their families.

Costa Rica

Founded in partnership with Face of Justice, this Hovde Home will serve young women in Costa Rica who come from a variety of Central American countries. The girls range from 13-17 years old and have been victims of human trafficking and sexual exploitation. Estranged from their families, the new home will provide 24 girls with a safe place to live while they learn the skills needed to start a fresh life.

Malawi

Pothawira (meaning “Safe Haven” in Chichewa) is a rural community that includes a medical clinic, church, school and orphanage located near their home in Salima. Every day, around 200 individuals come to the clinic. The school serves about 300 kids in kindergarten through eighth grade during the week, and on the weekends it operates as a community church. There are also more than a hundred vulnerable and orphaned youngsters residing there.

Pothawira’s children’s homes offer comprehensive family-based care. Every family consists of a house mother and ten to twelve children of different ages who reside in duplexes. Five duplexes were initially built to accommodate 100 kids. Those figures shot up to 113 very rapidly.

Due to the overcrowding, the Hovde Foundation partnered with the Global Orphan Project in 2015 to build an additional duplex. The 6th duplex was completed in 2016, allowing for 120 children to call Pothawira home and receive the love and care they need to thrive.

Guatemala

Guadalupe Pos established the Asociación Escuela de la Calle (EDELAC), also known as the “Street School,” in 1995 to assist children who were homeless in Quetzaltenango, Guatemala’s central park. The children that come to EDELAC are victims of abuse, trafficking, and exploitation. They have been living in abject poverty and laboring on the streets to make ends meet. Kids frequently suffer from malnourishment, physical and mental illnesses, and fall behind academically because kids leave school early in order to make ends meet. In the end, EDELAC works with children through adolescence to succeed independently as adults by providing housing, food, medical and psychiatric treatment, a formal education, and addressing familial difficulties that brought the children to the street in the first place.