[1] Plant With Purpose uses a transformational development approach that brings together environmental restoration, economic empowerment, and spiritual renewal.

According to Woodard, food aid alone would not solve long-term problems caused by deforestation and desperate farming practices that depleted the soil.

In response, Woodard developed Floresta to meet the environmental, economic, and spiritual needs of rural communities in the Dominican Republic.

Members of these rural communities often have limited access to financial services like savings and credit, and struggle to procure adequate resources.

This makes them extremely vulnerable to external shocks, such as natural disasters, family emergencies, poor crop yields, and civil unrest.

[11] Without an established safety net, external shocks can cause rural families to fall deeper into a cycle of poverty.

When left with few options to generate needed income, rural farmers often cut trees to create more farmland or to use or sell as fuelwood.

Plant With Purpose employs a three-part approach for transformational community development that addresses environmental restoration, economic empowerment, and spiritual renewal.

[14][15] The overarching strategy is to provide training and tools that equip rural communities to develop and utilize their own talents and resources to reverse the effects of poverty.

Plant With Purpose uses the Village Savings and Loan Associations (VSLA) model, created by CARE, to provide a sustainable form of microfinance that allows participants to build capital.

Plant With Purpose also uses a formal program[18] designed to mobilize congregations to be agents of change in their communities by finding solutions to existing needs using local resources.

Plant With Purpose's Theology of Work curriculum in Burundi is also taught in local mosques and helps facilitate reconciliation in communities.

[21] Plant with Purpose is serving over 800 families in 90 communities in Ethiopia; focuses on protecting ancient church forests in the Amhara region.

In 2010, Plant With Purpose's Executive Director, Scott Sabin, published Tending to Eden: Environmental Stewardship for God's People.