Case Study: Every Tribe Every Nation

Let’s explore the success story of the Every Tribe Every Nation (ETEN) alliance in its mission to eliminate global “Bible Poverty.” In this article we will discover the key factors that have contributed to sustaining effective partnerships and alliances for over a decade, as ETEN’s visionary approach, commitment to measurable progress, diverse nonprofit collaboration, unique culture-building, shared leadership, sacrificial mentality, clear plans, and consistent communication have played pivotal roles in achieving its ambitious goals.

In mid-2010, a group of organisations began to coalesce around a significant vision: the elimination of global “Bible Poverty”. Many of the world’s major Bible translation agencies were beginning to set their own goals for significantly accelerating the pace of existing translation projects, with an eye toward seeing work begun in every remaining language yet to have a Bible of its own within a timeframe roughly ten times faster than existing projections. The emergence of digitized versions of the Bible available on an increasing array of websites and mobile phone apps also seemed to present a “Gutenberg Moment”, an inflection point of accessibility to God’s Word that seemed as equally significant as the 15th century invention of the printing press for creating broader global access to Scripture. Over the next few years, the Every Tribe Every Nation (ETEN) alliance launched a highly effective and continuously growing collection of organisations that has continued to effectively engage in its founding vision. Its work and collaborative partnership continues today.

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Digital Bible library

Here are some of the reasons that ETEN has been successful in sustaining a continuing partnership for more than a decade:

• A challenging, inspiring and aggressive partnering vision.
  ETEN alliance members fully embrace what Jim Collins, in his book Built to Last, calls a “Big Hairy Audacious Goal”: every tongue, tribe and nation will have access to God’s Word and its life-changing hope by 2033. Every ETEN partner recognises that such a goal is impossible without a focused, committed effort for multiple agencies to work together, even at times subordinating their individual goals to this larger vision.
  
• A commitment to measuring and celebrating concrete progress.
  ETEN has focused on two specific outcomes: beginning Scripture translation work at an accelerated pace, and the construction of a universally accessible “Digital Bible Library” where all translations can be available to any organisation seeking to distribute and support engagement in the Bible. Both of these objectives are highly measurable, both in terms of gaps and challenges to be overcome, and progress that is being made. These progress reviews are about more than ensuring accountability. They have been continuing affirmations that the partnership is really adding significant value, and that it warrants continuing commitment.
  
• A partnership drawing significant strength from many different types of nonprofit organisations.
  ETEN started as an idea shared between some of the world’s largest Bible translation agencies (like Wycliffe/SIL, the Seed Company, the American and United Bible Societies, Biblica), emerging leaders in digital Bible distribution (like YouVersion), and several significant corporate and foundation donors. All dedicated significant time, senior leadership, and financial resources to launching and sustaining the efforts needed to see the ETEN vision become reality.
  
• An orientation toward “clock building, not time telling”. 
  Another principle from Collins’ Built to Last, the ETEN partnership has focused its efforts not only on achieving specific objectives (“time telling”), but also on building a lasting, trust-based, resilient partnership (“clock building”). In effect, ETEN has moved beyond simply finding partners with some common goals and compatible values and culture, it has built a unique culture of its own. In its most intense formation stages, the Alliance met face-to-face on a monthly basis, worked out a deeply considered and detailed partnership agreement, and has continued to emphasise an unshakeable focus on its objectives, or “ends”, while retaining high flexibility in its supporting actions and “means”.
  
• Shared leadership.
  The ETEN alliance is governed by an executive committee comprised of senior leaders of its participating nonprofits, as well as from supporting for-profit organisations and participating philanthropic foundations. The executive committee has functioned well under the guidance of a trusted independent chairman, who has facilitated and moderated partnership gatherings since ETEN was launched. This, in combination with a well-defined partnership agreement, has allowed ETEN to operate without needing to legally incorporate the Alliance throughout its history.
  
• An “abundance”, even sacrificial, mentality.
  The aggressiveness of the ETEN vision has required very significant financial investment, changes to historical approaches to copyrights and printed vs. digital distribution, and significant resource commitments from all of its members. The corporate and foundation sponsors of the Alliance have been clear and careful in their commitment to nonprofit leadership of ETEN, including in how funding gets distributed, versus retaining control given their financial contributions.
  
• Clear plans and assignments.
  ETEN has historically organised its work around specific short-term objectives and the use of working groups, or teams, tasked with pursuing them. Members of these groups have been seconded by participating ministries, with team participants drawing appropriate skills and experience from across ETEN’s partner agencies. Working groups give regular reports to the executive committee on their progress, needs, and adaptations to existing plans.
  
• Regular connection and communication. 
  ETEN’s early and sustained pattern of monthly face-to-face meetings (members flying into a central airport for a half- to full-day of discussions), has been vital in establishing patterns and expectations for frequent communication. These meetings have been used for operational updates, review of data collection and research assignments, and agreement on partnership standards and new Alliance members. In addition to monthly gatherings, ETEN has also sponsored roughly annual events that have allowed deeper strategic discussions, and broader participation by staff from each partner, beyond just the Alliance executive committee.