Ministries Take Spotlight in $50,000 'Giving of Life' Initiative
Christian ministries based in the United States can apply for a chance to receive up to $50,000 and share the group’s mission in a new grant initiative that includes the opportunity to garner votes online.
Founders of the “Giving of Life” web-based initiative plan to use social media and their previous promotional experience to give ministries with low to moderate budgets an opportunity to receive a “financial and promotional boost.”
To receive one of three grants of $10,000, $20,000, or $50,000, non-profit ministries qualify if they have an annual budget of $4 million or less.
Get Our Latest News for FREE
After ministries apply online at GivingofLife.com and are approved by project organizers, they are viewed and “ultimately voted on by site visitors.” The Top 10 finalists will then be reviewed by the Giving of Life grant committee. The top three winners will be chosen on Dec. 16 to receive the financial grants.
Dan Maclellan and Russell Courtney, founders of The SoulCare Project, and Kerry Bural, principal and founder of The Resonate Group, have partnered together on the grant project.
Organizers said they hope to primarily give ministries much needed exposure and offer a grant-giving process that is different from the norm.
“We believe that there are tens of thousands of ministries whose leaders are literally pouring their lives into other people and ‘giving life,’ yet without the same apparent visibility as others,” Bural told The Christian Post. “We want to affirm anyone who is pouring value into others and trying to make a difference in the Kingdom.”
In less than two months, the financial grant program has had 387 applications through its website and 109 have been approved for eligibility, Bural said.
“[Giving of Life] seems to veer from the models we normally see employed by grant-giving organizations who seem to focus on ROI, strategies, results, etc.,” he said. “The focus is intentionally about the heart behind the ministry. We are trying to focus on the motivations behind the ministry. Why do they do what they do? Is what they are doing focused on giving life to others? That's our emphasis.”
Bural said the types of ministries that “give life” are ministries that focus holistically on people's needs. “Not only their need for salvation and spiritual needs, but their physical and ‘soul care’ and discipleship needs, for example,” he added.
The grant program is currently funded by private groups and individuals, Bural said.
“It is our hope, that the initiative will garner additional donors and that we can see this grow over the next several years into a significant and robust fund,” Bural said.
Bural’s The Resonate Group is described on the website as “a strategic and creative brand development and advancement firm.”
