Grace and peace to you!
We worship a generous God, One who knows our every need and is constantly drawing us to new ministry and relationships. The Southwest California Synod is blessed to hold a lot of financial assets and has the opportunity to share those assets through a variety of grants. We are opening our 2024 Mission and Ministry grant applications now, and will keep the grant applications open through August 22, 2024.
We have several funds from which grants are issued. I’d like to clarify those for you now.
The Mission and Ministry grants are distributed by the Endowment Committee, a group of leaders who are elected by the synod assembly. This fund comes from a general endowment (see synod constitution S15.40 and S15.41), with a limited amount available each year, generated from the interest earned on the fund. Because of the limited amount available, the grants tend to be limited to less than $10,000. These are the grants opening this week. These grants are usually given once a year.
Warner Trust grants are made available from a gift from the Warner Family, and are given for the creation or strengthening of educational programs, such as VBS or Sunday school. These grants are also opening this week. If your request fits the Warner Trust category, please apply for that. The endowment committee may also review an application for either of these grants and determine it is better suited for either Mission and Ministry or Warner Trust, and may move it to that category.
The Evangelism and Outreach Ministry Team (EOMT) works with funds from the First Lutheran Los Angeles Fund (FLLAF) a very large endowment created from a legacy gift given by this congregation upon its closure. Our constitution (S15.50 and S15.51) dictates that this fund is utilized as an endowment, from which we fund our strategic ministries and synodically authorized worshipping communities (SAWCs) previously known as new starts. The EOMT, a group of leaders appointed by synod council, works with the Director of Evangelical Mission (DEM) to propose spending, which is then ratified by the synod council. There is a limited amount of money for these grants, dictated by interest earned, and is shared by 12-15 ministries. The synod council has the ability to fund requests beyond the interest earned from FLLAF from building sales. That will be discussed below.
There is also a discretionary account from FLLAF, which funds seminary scholarships, institutions such as our camps and university, and bishop’s discretion for other needs. These grants are not open for general use – they are solely used for these purposes and are distributed by bishop’s discretion.
There is a third source for grants and new ministries, and that is proceeds from building sales. As you know, we have sold several buildings in the past few years. The distribution of these funds is also dictated by our constitution (S.15.52). 10% of these sales is sent as a tithe to the ELCA. I just received a letter this week from the ELCA treasurer thanking us for almost $200,000 in tithes sent this year from two sales. 8% is given to the synod as administrative fees for the distribution and maintenance of this fund. 1/3 of the remaining proceeds may be used for operations of the synod, and indeed, the synod assembly has approved using these funds to cover our budget deficits for the past several years. 2/3 of the remaining proceeds are to be used for new ministries and innovations. The synod council has used some of this money to approved funding additional SAWC and strategic ministry needs. I have asked our synod council to think through a more efficient way to distribute and promote these funds. Should the council decide to create a third granting vehicle, we will make sure all congregations are made aware of this resource.
The synod is hosting a Zoom webinar on applying for grants on Wednesday, August 14 at 7pm to support your questions about applying for grants. Please RSVP here if you wish to attend. A recording will also be made available.