Outreach Committee Grant Guidelines - St. John's Teaching Note for July 24, 2016

St. John’s Teaching Notes

The Outreach Committee

As we make our gift today to the 13 organizations receiving grants from St. John’s, you might be curious how we came to chose these groups, and what was our criteria for making grant decisions.

Having been charged by the vestry to compile a process and procedure, the outreach committee studied how other parishes processed grant requests for outreach giving, and adopted those procedures that we found helpful and expedient.

After several meetings we came up with the following criteria:

1) Does not have to be faith based.

2) No political agenda will be funded.

3) Any donations must be to registered non-profits, with a current Form 990.  (This federal form, filed yearly, details their finances, board of directors and top executives, along with their wages and current audited financial statements.)

4) They should have a brief description of their program(s) and those served.

5) The application should be made to fund a particular project or program.

6) General categories for giving include:

· Poverty, homeless, children, pregnancy help, refugees and mercy/justice ministries.

· Local common good organizations, urban restoration, urban farming/gardening, education, job training.

· Creation care and environmental groups.

· Local arts and music organizations specifically those concerned with beauty, restoration, and historical preservation.

· Disaster relief help.

7) Must be located in the city of Detroit.

8) The organization should allow/encourage  members of St. John’s to participate as volunteers, and recognize St. John’s in their donor mailing end-of-year report.

Our next cycle of applications will begin in the spring.  Please contact Cathy Morgan for more information about the program.