DEVELOPMENT ASSOCIATES INTERNATIONAL
Committed to Servant Leadership
Learn how to support this organization
Programs and results
What we aim to solve
Why Do We Need Servant Leaders?
In the developing world, culture often dictates that leaders should be strong, powerful and controlling to be successful. We call it "big-boss" leadership. These leaders are taught to be more concerned about protecting their position than the people they lead and serve, whether in government, business, ministry or the church, which can lead to bigger issues of corruption, poverty and war.
When leaders learn the leadership style modeled after Jesus Christ, they choose to serve others from a place of spiritual connection and integrity, rather than power. The result is leaders who use their new knowledge and skills to improve the lives of those around them, multiplying the impact greatly.
Our programs
What are the organization's current programs, how do they measure success, and who do the programs serve?
Mentoring
DAI believes that leadership development is a lifelong process, which means that all leaders need to keep growing. One of the most effective ways of continuing to grow is both being mentored and mentoring others. Even the most seasoned and gifted leader needs a shepherd—someone to walk with them. In 80 countries, DAI develops mentoring relationships with indigenous leaders to encourage growth.
Consulting
Consulting allows ministries to receive specialized counsel and advice in critical areas from subject-matter experts. DAI offers specialized counsel in areas of leadership, strategic planning, organizational structure, finance, adult learning, research and evaluation in 80 countries across Africa, Asia, Europe, and Latin America.
Educating
DAI provides leaders with information they can use immediately in their ministries. Through interactive workshops facilitated by local leaders in 80 countries, DAI helps leaders develop their spiritual lives as well as leadership and management skills. DAI also offers a Master of Arts in Organizational Leadership in 18 countries in Africa, Asia and Latin America. DAI's MAOL degree is available in three languages. This program was designed in conjunction with leaders from around the world. Like DAI's workshops, the MAOL program focuses on building a leader's skill set, digging deeper into spiritual formation, and transforming them into effective and integrous servant leaders who are ready to meet the challenges that await them.
Connecting
DAI partners with leaders and their organizations to help them find ways to do their own ministry better and connect them with other ministries and resources. Through this connection, ministries in 80 countries are building great capacity to address the issues they face. DAI also partners with organizations like our own. Together, our ministries provide even further reaching leadership development.
Where we work
Awards
Gold Award 2014
Aurora Awards
Bronze Award 2014
TELLY Awards
Affiliations & memberships
Evangelical Council of Financial Accountability - Member 2022
External reviews

Photos
Videos
Our results
How does this organization measure their results? It's a hard question but an important one.
Evaluation documents
Download evaluation reportsNumber of participants attending course/session/workshop
This metric is no longer tracked.Totals By Year
Population(s) Served
Adolescents, Adults, Indigenous peoples
Related Program
Educating
Type of Metric
Output - describing our activities and reach
Direction of Success
Increasing
Context Notes
Number of people who participated in at least one of DAI's 14 leadership workshops. Learn more: https://daintl.org/programs/workshops/
Number of graduates enrolled in higher learning, university, or technical/vocational training
This metric is no longer tracked.Totals By Year
Population(s) Served
Adults, Indigenous peoples
Related Program
Educating
Type of Metric
Outcome - describing the effects on people or issues
Direction of Success
Increasing
Context Notes
Number of leaders actively enrolled in DAI's Master of Arts in Organizational Leadership program offered at 16 universities in 18 countries. Learn more: https://daintl.org/programs/maol/
Number of consulting projects completed
This metric is no longer tracked.Totals By Year
Population(s) Served
Adults, Indigenous peoples
Related Program
Consulting
Type of Metric
Output - describing our activities and reach
Direction of Success
Increasing
Context Notes
Number of organizations who benefited from consulting offered by DAI global staff. Learn more: https://daintl.org/programs/additional-services/
Number of one-on-one coaching sessions
This metric is no longer tracked.Totals By Year
Population(s) Served
Adults, Indigenous peoples
Related Program
Mentoring
Type of Metric
Output - describing our activities and reach
Direction of Success
Holding steady
Context Notes
Number of leaders receiving ongoing, one-on-one coaching and mentoring from a DAI staff member. Learn more: https://daintl.org/programs/additional-services/
Goals & Strategy
Reports and documents
Download strategic planLearn about the organization's key goals, strategies, capabilities, and progress.
Charting impact
Four powerful questions that require reflection about what really matters - results.
What is the organization aiming to accomplish?
Train 100,000 key leaders in 80 countries in effective and integrous leadership.
Mentor 700 key leaders through their personal development goals.
Consult with 400 organizations, helping them in team-building and organizational management.
Connect 250 organizations to needed resources and expertise.
What are the organization's key strategies for making this happen?
DAI works through local staff that know their culture, context and complex leadership issues well. We also do everything through relationship and listening first to the needs of the leaders we serve. This enables us to find creative and effective solutions to the challenges that leaderships face.
What are the organization's capabilities for doing this?
DAI offers leadership training, mentoring and consulting that addresses both the heart and the skills of leadership. By improving only the skills of leaders, you only enable unethical leaders to be more effective. We want to see the whole leader transformed in such a way that they transform their entire workforce and encompassing community. We want to see a shift in the culture of leadership.
What have they accomplished so far and what's next?
In 2021 alone, over 240,000 leaders benefited from DAI's personalized curriculum and programs. Over 27,000 of these were directly impacted in face-to-face leadership workshops and master's level classes. The last two years has also seen an explosion of locally initiated digital leadership and discipleship programs, as the pandemic has prompted our global staff to find new, creative ways of reaching the leaders they serve. In 2021, Over 213,000 local leaders were impacted through these channels.
In 2022, DAI anticipates training 100,000 key leaders in 80 countries in effective and integrous leadership. This includes equipping leaders through servant leadership workshops, online courses, DAI's Master's in Organizational Leadership program, one-on-one mentoring, specialized consulting services and digital leadership resources.
How we listen
Seeking feedback from people served makes programs more responsive and effective. Here’s how this organization is listening.
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How is your organization using feedback from the people you serve?
To make fundamental changes to our programs and/or operations, To inform the development of new programs/projects, To strengthen relationships with the people we serve, To understand people's needs and how we can help them achieve their goals
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Which of the following feedback practices does your organization routinely carry out?
We collect feedback from the people we serve at least annually, We take steps to get feedback from marginalized or under-represented people, We aim to collect feedback from as many people we serve as possible, We take steps to ensure people feel comfortable being honest with us, We engage the people who provide feedback in looking for ways we can improve in response, We act on the feedback we receive
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What challenges does the organization face when collecting feedback?
It is difficult to get the people we serve to respond to requests for feedback, We don’t have the right technology to collect and aggregate feedback efficiently, Staff find it hard to prioritize feedback collection and review due to lack of time
Financials
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Operations
The people, governance practices, and partners that make the organization tick.
Connect with nonprofit leaders
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- Analyze a variety of pre-calculated financial metrics
- Access beautifully interactive analysis and comparison tools
- Compare nonprofit financials to similar organizations
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Connect with nonprofit leaders
SubscribeBuild relationships with key people who manage and lead nonprofit organizations with GuideStar Pro. Try a low commitment monthly plan today.
- Analyze a variety of pre-calculated financial metrics
- Access beautifully interactive analysis and comparison tools
- Compare nonprofit financials to similar organizations
Want to see how you can enhance your nonprofit research and unlock more insights? Learn More about GuideStar Pro.
DEVELOPMENT ASSOCIATES INTERNATIONAL
Board of directorsas of 08/07/2023
Gretchen Hansen
Hansen Foundation
Term: 2021 - 2023
Jane Overstreet
Development Associates International
Gretchen Hansen
Hansen Foundation
Heather Larson
LiveGive
Frank Hankins
Fuller Theological Seminary
Jon Halverson
High Impact Markets Advisors
Taylor Haltom
Barnhart Crane and Rigging
Roberta Fields
AcAfee & Taft
James Couture
Securities Evaluation Service, Inc. - Retired
Board leadership practices
GuideStar worked with BoardSource, the national leader in nonprofit board leadership and governance, to create this section.
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Board orientation and education
Does the board conduct a formal orientation for new board members and require all board members to sign a written agreement regarding their roles, responsibilities, and expectations? No -
CEO oversight
Has the board conducted a formal, written assessment of the chief executive within the past year ? Yes -
Ethics and transparency
Have the board and senior staff reviewed the conflict-of-interest policy and completed and signed disclosure statements in the past year? Yes -
Board composition
Does the board ensure an inclusive board member recruitment process that results in diversity of thought and leadership? Yes -
Board performance
Has the board conducted a formal, written self-assessment of its performance within the past three years? Yes
Organizational demographics
Who works and leads organizations that serve our diverse communities? Candid partnered with CHANGE Philanthropy on this demographic section.
Leadership
The organization's leader identifies as: