CFG Writers
Personal articles from the CFG writers to provide perspective, humor, and hope.
Simplify your life in 2012. Okay, let's go for it. Let's work on cutting out some of our noise. Here's a few ideas:
1. Go through your closet and donate everything you've not worn in the past 6 months.
2. Unsubscribe from every email newsletter/bulletin that you've not read in the past month.
3. Go through your house, your storage unit, closets, garage, and clean it out. Donate everything you've just let sit there. If it's got dust, donate it!
4. Simplify by deepening. Reconnect with a few old friends. Start a real conversation with them. Maybe even do the unthinkable and...
posted @ Tuesday, January 31, 2012 9:34 AM |
It takes time and effort to find grantmakers that are truly good prospects, but the results can be worth the research efforts you expend. Keep your expectations realistic. Foundations and other grantmakers will not likely meet even a majority of your financial needs. Individual donations still account for the great majority of the funds given to nonprofit organizations. Currently, foundations and corporations combined only provide about 17 percent of philanthropic gifts, and only a portion of this is given for Christian projects. However, these funds can make all the difference for your project!
Do not focus all your efforts on one...
posted @ Monday, October 24, 2011 12:51 PM |
A frequently asked question by non-profits about grant writing is can you pay a grant writer a percentage of the grant? In the for-profit marketplace, people are frequently paid on commission. It’s a standard mode of operation for sales executives to be paid a base salary, plus commission. In other words, they are paid a percentage of what they bring in. In the non-profit arena, some consider this practice to be unethical. Donor trust is vitally important. To earn and keep that trust, every aspect of the non-profit activity must be absolutely ethical. Nowhere is ethical behavior more essential, nor...
posted @ Wednesday, May 11, 2011 7:39 PM |
By this time of January, the holiday glow is off, but with it comes time to reflect on what just occurred.
At Christmas, we take time as a family to sit down and make monetary gifts as a family. Typically, we make allocations according to age—the older ones get more to give away. (We may be ending that practice soon given what I witnessed among my younger boys.)
Let me say that children, my own included, amaze me. Their capacity to think and feel is far richer than I credit them. So here’s our scenario: we are sitting around the living room talking about where we want...
posted @ Tuesday, January 25, 2011 9:48 AM |
What color is generosity?
We just completed our 9th Annual Passion Awards. For more, visit www.celebrateministrykc.com. The Passion Awards is like the Academy Awards of ministry where we award grants to ministry but also make a few individual awards as well.
As our staff gathered after the awards, we reflected upon the best part of the evening. Everyone agreed that it was the individual award that we made for the Servant Leader of the Year. That award went to Jim Browne of Jim Browne Productions. Let me explain.
Jim came to us seven years ago. I’m not sure what connection brought him to us. However, we need...
posted @ Monday, November 08, 2010 7:32 AM |
After serving on the mission field for 15 years in Peru, Rudy thought it was time to retire and go be with the grandchildren. But God had different plans. After leading a missions trip to another part of Peru—Cusco, Peru—Rudy sensed God’s calling once again.
This time the calling just didn’t make sense, however. He was old, and a bit tired. He didn’t have the time or energy to make the impact he thought needed to happen. But the call was irrevocable. So Rudy left retirement and the grandchildren for Cusco, Peru.
I met Rudy in the Fall of 2000 when he was trying to...
posted @ Thursday, October 07, 2010 12:49 PM |
In 1960, Rudy Johnson, his wife and 3 young children headed to Peru to plant a church. The work was hard, and they were not joined by any co laborers for nearly 7 years.
But the church grew through persistence and faithfulness. In fact, the church planted more than 40 more churches. It’s been estimated that this church has now influenced 128 million people.
By 1976, Rudy and his wife were ready to retire so they returned home to Miami, FL. There, he bought a house next to his son and his grandchildren. As a favor to his son, he agreed to lead a...
posted @ Monday, October 04, 2010 7:57 AM |
I had a cup of coffee with a friend of mine the other day. It had been awhile since I’d seen him. I knew from our email trail that the days preceding had been hard. Business challenges. But little did I realize how severe…
He was ready to take his life so that way his family could have the life insurance money. A real estate development had gone sour and left him holding the bag with mounds of debt. Their large house was emptying rapidly with the effects of Craig’s list sales. Even his kids had gotten into the act by selling Ipods, TVs, video games—anything that...
posted @ Tuesday, August 24, 2010 8:08 AM |
Read on for important announcements, fundraising resources, and Jessica's final summer post.
First off, we are completely excited to have released our new book "Grants for Christian Ministries and More!" You've seen a little information about it on the blog, but now we have a page up on our website where you can get more details. Whether you are an international ministry, a Christian school, a grant writer, development director, this book has the answers for you. We have been receiving phenomenal reviews from many elite groups all across the USA. Visit the webpage to see what people are saying!
Secondly, just a look...
posted @ Friday, August 13, 2010 3:23 PM |
Your ministry is needed, and your work is valued.
Often, we in the field of ministry go for long times without hearing words of encouragement or hope. This economy certainly has not provided any of that, yet I challenge you to take a moment of reflection. There is still cause for hope.
Because I help research private foundations, I have followed the giving trends. You might actually be surprised at what you find. Though there was an overall decrease in giving, many foundations sought innovative ways of giving and others even increased their giving. Grants for faith-based organizations and other organizations close...
posted @ Monday, June 14, 2010 9:51 AM |
There are fundraising solutions. We have resources. You are part of the answer.
Pause a moment. Think about those above statements.
It's easy to be discouraged by all that's going wrong in the world, and to be frustrated by the lack of results, answers, and resources. This isn't a sales pitch though. This is an invitation.
We need people with passion and resiliency. We want to hear your stories, and we want to tell your stories as well. In our culture today, we have often lost our sense of story. Let's remedy this. We can create a community that cares. The solutions, resources, and answers...
posted @ Thursday, May 27, 2010 9:50 AM |
I’m breaking from our normal blog postings today. While following social media is important (and I find it fascinating), and understanding the economy is a good thing, I’m going to give you a glimpse into the Christian Foundation Grants world.
I arrived at work a few minutes early today and claimed my second favorite parking spot (this spot stays shady until the afternoon sun has the audacity to move the shadows to the other side of the street). It was rather cloudy this morning, but it was a nice break from the metal-liquidizing humidity we’ve had recently.
Once inside the building,...
posted @ Tuesday, July 14, 2009 3:13 PM |
Summer is almost here! This means it is time to start up the blog again. It has been a busy time at Christian Foundation Grants, and we are excited to fill you in on all the latest happenings.
Summer time means even more foundation updates are being added to our database. We expect to get even closer to 5,000 foundations in our database. We make sure too that every single one of these foundations accept applications and has a history of giving to faith-based causes-- making us the most comprehensive Christian database available! All of the foundations we currently have...
posted @ Tuesday, May 26, 2009 9:51 AM
Congratulations! You have made it halfway through the first week of the new year! Everyone seems to be looking forward to 2009, or at least hoping things will be a whole lot better than 2008. There have been so many dismal headlines: Stock Market Plunges! Earthquakes in China! Housing Crisis! Economic Recession! Government Scandals!
Isn’t that just happy? No. Not really. So you are looking at your ministry, asking, “how on earth are we going to make it through?” Well, you have come to the right place! But this isn’t a sales pitch. We are here with the best cure for...
posted @ Wednesday, January 07, 2009 1:24 PM |
Summer is now in full swing. Life is busy yet not without fun. So what's going on at Christian Foundation Grants (CFG)? It's time for summer updates. We take pride in keeping our database filled with the most current information, such as sample grants and new foundations, in order to help you in your search for grants for your organization.
In our updates, one of the features we keep most current are "sample grants." Each of the foundations in our database files a Form 990 and we go through these 990's to determine what types of organizations they support. From there,...
posted @ Tuesday, June 24, 2008 12:00 AM |