Covenant World Relief & Development works through local partners around the world to reduce human suffering for the most vulnerable people and support healthy communities.
Covenant World Relief & Development Sunday
Each year churches across the denomination highlight the ministry of Covenant World Relief & Development on CWRD Sunday, typically the Sunday before Thanksgiving. This year, your church is invited to choose your own date! CWRD Sunday materials, including a video and bulletin insert, will be available for download after September 15.
Our Mission
The mission of Covenant World Relief & Development is to join God in loving, serving, and working in relationship together with the poor, oppressed, traumatized, and marginalized. The following values guide how we seek to carry out our mission and are particularly important in evaluating grant applications.
Representing the Kingdom
We seek to demonstrate the good news of Jesus Christ in word and deed. We believe the church is at its best when it holistically serves the most vulnerable—spiritually, physically, economically, intellectually, socially, and emotionally.
Working in Mutual Partnership
We partner with established local organizations, relying on their expertise, experience, and networks. We prioritize Covenant connected relationships.
Strengthening Local Communities
We affirm an asset-based relief and development model that prioritizes local resources—human, relational, material, and financial. The community and its leaders are equipped and empowered to carry out programs that are locally initiated and led. We work with, rather than for, the community.
Serving the Most Vulnerable
We love and serve the poor, the oppressed, the traumatized, and the marginalized. We do not prioritize or discriminate based on ethnicity, gender, religion, or age.
Transforming Individuals, Families, and Communities
We support comprehensive and sustainable development that leads to holistic transformation. We value the quality of impact more than the number of people impacted (depth over breadth).
Affirming Dignity
We believe that all people are made in God’s image and are worthy of being treated with dignity and respect.
Seeking Justice
We work to address the root causes of injustice through reconciliation, peacemaking, solidarity, and advocacy.
Disaster Response
Natural catastrophes leave families in crisis; war and violence turn neighbors against each other leaving vulnerable communities devastated. Join our partners in responding to their community's recovery and healing from catastrophes.
Refugee Response
We serve our refugee neighbors around the world who have had to leave their homes because of war, conflict, injustice, or natural disaster.
Clean Water Initiative
Through Project Blue, we help increase awareness of the need for clean water around the world and work to raise funds for global partners who are providing clean water and sanitation to more than 1 billion people without access.
Refugee Journey
The Refugee Journey is an opportunity for you and your church to experience what it is like to be forced from your home and become a refugee.
Our Stories
Covenant World Relief and Development Appoints New Director
Nils Clauson has been promoted to the position of director of Covenant World Relief and Development (CWRD).
The Intangible Work of Shalom
Discover how Covenant World Relief & Development partners with local experts to foster peace in conflict zones.
Goats Help Improve Resilience in India
Covenant World Relief and Development partners have created programs to empower farmers.
Covenanters Strive Toward Peace in the Middle East
Against the backdrop of escalating violence, many within the Evangelical Covenant Church are joining a global chorus of Christ-followers calling for peace in the Israeli/Palestinian conflict.
Congo Covenant Church President Duale Welcomed to Chicago
Rev. Theophile Duale Langba, president of the Covenant Church of Congo, visited the denominational offices and shared his gratitude for our long partnership in ministry.
Covenanters Working to Combat Hunger
For most people living a middle-class existence, hunger is a temporary condition—easily dispatched by a quick trip to the fridge, or if necessary, the grocery store. But for people in under-resourced communities, hunger is a burden that overshadows their everyday existence.