Care in Congregations®

Meet more needs by making the most of available resources

Does your congregation have more needs than you can address through the Care in Congregations® program? In most cases, the answer is probably yes. But did you know there are things you could do as coordinators to help make the most of the resources (dollars and volunteer time) available to you that will help you meet more needs? As you decide on potential activities that utilize your Care in Congregations funds, consider the following tips: Conduct activities that have the potential to involve many volunteers. Then thoroughly plan the activity and actively promote it. Try to attract as many attendees as possible by broadening the activity's appeal (e.g., expand a supper to include music by your church choir). Often, more people means more funds raised, which means more help provided. Consider activities that: - Tug at volunteers' heartstrings. - Offer many different volunteer roles. - Are fun and have broad appeal. Consider supplementing funds raised at a less than 1:1 ratio (e.g., supplement $1 of Care in Congregations funds for every $2 or $3 raised). This encourages congregational service teams to raise more funds on their own (more funds raised), and it allows Care in Congregations funds to be used for more activities. In this way, you are making the most of the funds available to you while maximizing the good that your volunteers do. [NOTE TO NEWSLETTER EDITOR: If your regional Lutheran Engagement Team provided specific or targeted ratios for chapters leaders and congregational coordinators to use for supplemental funding (e.g., supplement less than the 1:1 ratio), please edit the above paragraph to indicate those ratios. If you use a revised paragraph, we suggest you end the paragraph with the following sentence: "If you have questions about the direction and specific guidelines in your region, please contact our Manager of Lutheran Engagement, (name), at (phone number and/or e-mail address).] With a little forethought, congregational service teams can maximize the amount of funds they raise by conducting activities that don't have many expenses associated with them. Consider reducing expenses by asking for donations of items such as refreshments and door prizes. [Optional paragraph] Here is an example of an activity that helps maximize the resources available. A congregational service team of six or more Thrivent Financial households forms to conduct a car wash to benefit the youth group. They need $1,000, so they plan to raise about $500 and ask the congregational coordinators for a $1 for $1 match through the Care in Congregations® program. Because this is one of many requests for Care in Congregations funds, the congregational coordinators want to make sure the limited funds available are maximized. Therefore, they suggest that the service team plan a brat fry along with the car wash to attract more attendance, and also encourage the team to ask for donations of items (e.g., brats, napkins, condiments, wash rags, etc.) to keep expenses low. The coordinators also decide to supplement each $2 dollars raised with $1, up to $500 or to an amount that meets the $1,000 goal, whichever is less (e.g., if the team raises $600, it will receive $300 of supplemental funds; if it raises $700, it will receive only $300 of supplemental funds to reach its goal of $1,000). Every little bit counts, and you will be proud to see your efforts multiplied by maximizing the good we do!