OUR FOUNDING STORY

When the images of the great Ethiopian famine emerged in the mid-1980s, Donna Berber was shaken to her core. Donna attended Live Aid, the global concert that brought attention to the devastating famine that claimed millions of victims, which planted a seed that later inspired a vision that would change millions of lives. 

Years later, after the Berber family moved to Texas, the call within became too loud to ignore and Donna was compelled to take action. From that, A Glimmer of Hope was born in 2000 with the mission to improve lives in Ethiopia. A few months later, the Berbers found themselves in a position to do a great deal more than they had originally planned. Donna's husband, Philip, sold his Internet brokerage company, and the couple decided to invest a significant portion of the earnings into Glimmer.

Donna then took her first trip to Ethiopia to research how to effectively support the most vulnerable. Philip saw the impact on Donna and visited himself to hear more directly from Ethiopians. Donna and Philip began developing plans for a new way to deliver aid with more efficiency and transparency. At that time, many of the existing NGOs in Ethiopia were focused around the capital city of Addis Ababa, and little was being done to help those struggling in the rural areas. It was important to the Berbers to go where no one else was willing to go, to help the people with the greatest need.

Powered by Donna's vision and Philip's business acumen, Glimmer's new model for community development took shape. With an endowment to fund all operations, they established Glimmer with the promise that all donor funds would go directly to projects.