What’ s Next
Partners’ Strategic Plan is guiding our Board and staff as we build our impact, finding creative new ways to help congregations and judicatories expand their circle of supporters and activate and sustain their buildings.
GOAL
Increase Congregational Capacity through Training and Consulting
As much as we love and value sacred places— including their architecture, artistry, history, and capacity for connection and service— we equally love and value the people who give so much of themselves to enliven and care for these buildings. Most of Partners’ activities involve helping congregants learn new ways to care for and use their sacred places, and we’ re always looking for ways to best serve the diverse array of people who benefit from America’ s sacred places.
Over the next year, Partners will be offering new forms of support to rural congregations, whose fundraising and space-sharing options, types of assets, and partners may differ from their urban peers. Two exciting initiatives taking shape in 2026 are:
• The Pennsylvania Faithful Fund— a Partners program supported by a grant from the National Park Service that will provide over $ 500,000 for capital projects, as well as training and support, to rural congregations in Pennsylvania.
• Holy Ground for Whole Communities— an innovative project of the Episcopal Diocese of the Great Lakes to help rural congregations in Michigan find new ways to use their land and buildings as sacred assets for the common good.
Roseville Presbyterian has been a community anchor in Newark, NJ, for over 170 years. As the congregation looks to the future, it is working with Partners to make the best use of its building and property to respond to the needs and opportunities within Newark. Photo: Dana Dabek
These programs build on Partners’ work over the last several years, supported by a number of generous foundations and individuals, to serve rural congregations in the Midwest, Appalachia, and elsewhere. Partners’ larger goal is to provide practical, impactful capacity-building support to any congregation in America, regardless of location or denomination.
“
The successful completion of the project reminded everyone that this historic building is not just our past— it’ s our future.”
The Rev. Randall Lucas, St. Stephen UMC, Mesquite, TX
Plainsong Farm & Ministry, in Rockford, MI, is a partner in the Holy Grounds for Whole Communities Project. While Partners brings experience in how congregations can maximize use of their buildings, Plainsong has shown how land can be used to cultivate faith and build connections between people and places. Photo: Karen DiLossi
6