Pilot fund-raising project proposed for ’02 budget
By John H. Adams, The Layman Online, February 22, 2001
LOUISVILLE, Ky. – Faced with continuing declines in membership and shrinking support for mission programs by presbyteries and congregations, the General Assembly Council may authorize a pilot fund-raising effort among presbyteries and synods.
The 30-month program with a proposed annual budget of $720,000 won an endorsement Feb. 20 from the council’s Mission Support Services Committee. The full council will consider the proposal before it adjourns Feb. 24. It also must receive final approval by the boards of the Presbyterian Foundation and the Presbyterian Loan and Investment Program, which would help finance the program.
Kathy Lueckert, deputy executive director of the General Assembly Council, presented the proposal to the committee. It calls for a program manager at a total cost of $150,000, including benefits, housing and office, and four regional fund-raisers at $110,000 each, also to include benefits, housing and office expenses.
Lueckert said two evaluations would be made to determine the success of the program: after 18 months and at 30 months.
She was asked whether that was enough time to make a reasonable judgment about the effectiveness of the program. Probably not, she said, indicating that the planners did not want to take a long-term gamble.
Louis Jacobo of Phoenix expressed concern that “this seems like trying to draw more water from the same well.” He suggested that the fund-raising program might be accompanied by evangelism to bring new members – and new donors – into the church.
Lueckert said that idea has been considered, adding that the proposal was being further developed. Planners hope to include the program in the 2002 budget.
George Inadomi of South Pasadena, Calif., was not concerned that the well might run dry. “I think there are many assets in our church that we don’t tap,” he said.
The committee endorsed the proposal by voice vote without dissent.
For the record, the official name of the proposal is “Integrated Financial Stewardship Initiative.” Its purpose is to “enhance and improve the General Assembly’s support of congregation and middle governing body stewardship programs.”
The fund-raisers, called stewardship officers, would:
- Motivate individual members to make gifts and purchase investments in support of the denomination’s mission.
- Encourage sessions and Presbyterians to forward gifts and make investments in support of the denomination’s mission.
- Establish links to other groups within the denomination– such as the Presbyterian Foundation and the Presbyterian Loan and Investment Program – to create “a seamless network of stewardship providers.”
The fund-raisers would be evaluated on the basis of the growth in per-member giving, the number of contacts they made and the number and quality of educational events initiated in their regions.