The Life 2.0 Foundation: Celebrating Our Impact in 2024

Wow. It’s hard to believe that what started as one untied shoelace has blossomed into a mission far greater than we ever imagined—a fully-fledged foundation impacting lives on an international scale.

As Co-Founders of the Life 2.0 Foundation, we (Mark and Jill Savage) are so thrilled to share the incredible journey we’ve experienced this year and the exciting plans we have for the (very near!) future.

If you know us from our podcast, books, or courses, this article will give you an inside look into the heart of our Life 2.0 Foundation: why we started, what we do, and where we’re going.

And if you’re completely new to the world of JAM Savage ministries—welcome! We’re so glad you’re here and we thank you for taking the time to learn more about our mission.

Now, let’s take a closer look at the past, present, and future of the Life 2.0 Foundation:

What We Do

The Life 2.0 Foundation creates 2.0 lives and marriages.

When your life or marriage feels broken, it may feel like you only have two choices: to give up or continue struggling.

But we have witnessed firsthand the truth that powerful transformation is possible. So we’re here to show people that there’s a third option available—restoring what’s broken and making it whole again. Our organization was created to help others transform their lives for the better by giving them the hope, skills, and resources they need to not just survive, but thrive.

Our “Why”

If you were to ask us why we started the Life 2.0 Foundation, we’d smile and ask you to pull up a chair and sit a while—because the answer is best told through two short (real-life) stories:

#1: A Personal Story

In 2011, our marriage was devastated by Mark’s infidelity and choice to separate. But by 2012, through God’s grace and our willingness to take responsibility for the unhealthy dynamics of “Mark and Jill 1.0”, our marriage was restored, and we began to build “Mark and Jill 2.0”.

As we shared our story with friends and family who had walked through that dark season with us, we realized that others needed the same tools we had discovered. In 2015, we publicly shared our story for the first time. The response was overwhelming, and it became clear that God was calling us to minister to marriages more intentionally.

We’ve guided many couples since then, and over the years we started to notice that some of the people who were seeking our wisdom and tools could not always afford our courses or intensives. We knew we had to find a way to bridge this gap.

#2: A Chance Meeting

Jill was in Montgomery, Alabama, helping her mother get home from Florida, when she noticed her mother’s shoelaces had come loose. Looking around, she spotted a bench with a young man sitting quietly, so they stopped at the bench to tie the laces.

That man was Daniel, and he’d been sitting there for fifteen minutes, wondering why God had told him to not go in the coffee shop and instead wait on this bench.

The two women struck up a conversation with Daniel, and the moment Jill’s mother mentioned that Jill and her husband Mark were in marriage ministry, everything clicked.

For 3 years, Daniel and a friend of his, Pastor Zachariah, had been praying for help.

As the group walked to the coffee shop, Daniel explained that he was from Uganda, where pastors’ marriages were suffering. These leaders were meant to guide their communities, but instead, they were watching helplessly as their own families and churches crumbled.

They finally made it to the coffee shop, only to find out that the store was out of what Jill and her mother came for. Daniel smiled knowingly. “You’re not here for coffee,” he said. “You’re here because we’ve been praying.”

Hear this incredible story straight from Mark and Jill:

WATCH: Join Life 2.0 in Uganda

Jill, Mark, and Daniel stayed in touch, and after several phone calls, months of planning, and a whole lot of prayer, Mark and Jill were in Uganda, watching in awe as pastors and their wives filled a sea of white chairs under gathering tents, some having walked for three days to be there.

Although these two stories are very different, they share a common thread: everything we do is inspired by the truth that God is a God of second chances. He’s all about redeeming our pain for His purpose. As the hands and feet of Jesus in a lost and broken world, we can make a difference.

How We Create 2.0 Lives and Marriages

With God’s guidance and the support of our valued ministry partners, we change lives through coaching, education, and intentional good works. Our efforts focus on two main areas:

Creating 2.0 Marriages

We maintain a scholarship fund for those needing coaching or marriage intensives but lacking the financial resources.

When a marriage is in crisis, help needs to be accessible. When we started offering marriage coaching and our marriage intensives, we knew that people had to have financial skin in the game. Sometimes their resources are limited, however, and they need a hand.

Over the past five years, JAM Savage Ministries has helped 691 couples and individuals through coaching and intensives.

In 2024, the Life 2.0 Foundation helped 73 couples or individuals access the coaching they needed.

Here’s some of what our scholarship recipients had to say:

“Mark and Jill, we can’t thank you enough for the marriage coaching you’ve provided this year through your scholarship fund. You’ve made a difference in our family and our church. Please tell the people who support your ministry that they are making a real difference!” – Mike and Mary

You can find more details and testimonials in our 2024 Impact Report.

We also provide marriage coach training and education in Africa.

Our first boots on the ground efforts in Africa began in June 2023 with a three-day marriage conference along the Nile River in Jinja, Uganda. We met over 1,000 pastors and their wives, bringing hope and healing to marriages in 800+ churches across Uganda, Kenya, and Tanzania.

We also identified 35 couples who are now training to become marriage coaches in their own communities, multiplying the impact of the Marriage 2.0 message.

Creating 2.0 Lives

While in Africa, our hearts were broken as we witnessed the lives of so many widows, orphans, and special needs children who have been abandoned. We knew that healing marriages was just the beginning. God was calling us to bring hope to the vulnerable and the innocent affected by brokenness.

We currently partner with 3 ministries in Africa to give vulnerable children the opportunity to build a 2.0 life:

Grateful Children’s Home: This refuge provides care and hope to 23 vulnerable children in Uganda. With your support, we meet their daily needs and help them thrive.
Butiki Children’s Ministry: Offers safety, education, and a better future for 45 children in an orphanage and 123 kids in school. The Life 2.0 Foundation helps fund their critical work.
Promise International: This ministry supports special needs children and their families with medications, medical equipment, and resources. Our Amazon Mission Trip Lists help to bolster this organization with the supplies they need.

We’ll never forget the words one of these orphanage directors shared with us:

“Thank you doesn’t seem to be enough for the help your community provides. We have computers because of you. We have a new latrine because of you. We have land because of you. And we are building a new dormitory because of the Life 2.0 Foundation. Thank you, thank you, thank you!” – Kato Brian

Our 2024 Impact Report is the perfect place to learn more details about these organizations, see the specifics of what we provided for them in 2024, and find out what they need for this upcoming year.

Help Us Amplify Our Impact

We’re heading back to Uganda this January, and this time, the 2.0 opportunity is even bigger.

The Life 2.0 Foundation commits $70,000 for each trip to Africa. This support ensures the events are free, provides two hot meals daily for participants, covers comprehensive marriage coach training with manuals and meals, and sustains the good works we carry out in Uganda through the orphanages and Promise International.

If our mission speaks to your heart, would you consider supporting us with a gift of any amount that feels right to you? When you partner with the Life 2.0 Foundation, you can be sure your gift is fully used for ministry. We have no paid staff, our bookkeeper is a volunteer who believes in the mission, and 100% of your donation goes directly to impact those who need it.

Explore these resources to learn more about our past impact as well as the current needs we need your help to address during our upcoming Uganda trip:

As we reflect on this first year of the Life 2.0 Foundation, we are in awe of how God has worked through this ministry. Each marriage restored, each child cared for, each widow supported is a testimony of His faithfulness. This is a mission that is too big for us alone. But when we link arms with others who share this passion for restoration, we are able to make a lasting difference.

Will you give generously, knowing that every dollar helps create 2.0 lives and 2.0 marriages? Thank you for believing with us that together, we can make a difference.