Church Partnerships
When those in need ask for help of this nature most churches do not have adequate financial resources. We will help by providing the funding.
At the same time we want to encourage life style adjustments to avoid continued problems. We feel this effort is best handled by the local congregation. What a wonderful opportunity to minister to their own flock, and to do so with lay people rather than the paid staff.
Therefore we will create partnerships with local churches. We provide money. They provide confidentiality, oversight and mentoring.
Our responsibility:
- Provide clarity of eligibility
- Provide funding
The church’s responsibility:
- Identify qualifying families.
- Keep the process confidential.
- Complete a grant application.
- Indicate history of fiscal responsibility, including commitment to the church and its mission.
- Provide a plan of financial rehabilitation.
- Identify congregation members to “adopt” the family and provide continuing mentoring.
- Use programs such as Crown Ministries or Financial Peace university to establish sound financial management techniques.
- Report quarterly for one year and annually thereafter as requested as to progress.
- Encourage the family to “give back” to others in need.
Eligibility Criteria
- Must be Christian and an active member of a local church.
- Must have circumstances beyond their control that have contributed to financial problems.
- The award should be enough to eliminate a major portion of the financial stress so they can return to normalcy, even if in a reduced income situation.
- Must have exhibited financial responsibility over time, including a history of generosity within the church prior to the current difficulties.
- The funds will be given to the church for distribution. The church must agree to pay the funds directly to the area of concern rather than to the individuals. For example, the money should be sent directly to the credit card company.
We will identify local churches through which we will offer the grants. We will provide grant request forms for them to complete and submit to the grant review committee. We will not take recommendations from our membership directly to help avoid any taint on the grant award process and to avoid any “earmarking” or designations of gifts that would challenge the deductibility of the contributions.
Funding of Grants
Our hope is to eliminate the debt rather than just pay some of it off leaving a continued demand for monthly cash flow. The awards will be granted once per quarter and can be up to the full amount of the available funds in a single grant or multiple grants as possible.
Identifying families
The church should be familiar with the criteria so as to avoid creating unnecessary work for those who will not qualify. The staff at Freedom Source is available to help discuss situations with the local church to help in that assessment process.