Sacred Places Summer 2024 | Page 5

PRESIDENT ’ S NOTE

Articulating Value , Raising Funds

I encourage you to read the article in this issue on the pioneering work being done by the Berks County Community Foundation to inventory the many historic sacred places in Reading , a beautiful and old city in eastern Pennsylvania . Working with college students and Partners for Sacred Places , the foundation is assessing the importance , condition , and availability of space in dozens of older religious buildings across the city .

That project is culminating in a New Dollars / New Partners training program offered by Partners that will help five participating congregations articulate their value in the community , learn how to work with architects to plan repairs , assess the property assets they can offer to the community , and raise capital funds in new ways .

The program was pioneered 15 years ago , when it offered four full days of training and a wide range of publications and resources that were cutting edge in 2008 . New Dollars was our signature service for many years , and to this day its substance and interactive training approach has informed the training component of almost everything we do , ranging from the National Fund to our regional programs in the Upper Midwest and Appalachia .

New Dollars was also our first revenue-generating program , and it laid the foundation for our increasingly robust consulting work , through both capital campaigns and community engagement projects . It has provided intensive , hands-on support to many hundreds of congregations from Maine to California . And unlike our early Sacred Trusts conferences ( offered six times starting in 1988 ), which engaged with participants for two days only , New Dollars works with teams of congregational leaders over several months . The impact has proven to be more substantial , and longer lasting .

The churches in Reading are benefiting from a project we have undertaken over the last two years to update , supplement , and “ refresh ” every element of New Dollars . The project entails :

• Making many hard-copy publications available in virtual form . This will make it much easier to share information among congregations spread across a large region or the nation .

• Updating two classic “ core ” resources : the Complete Guide to Capital Campaigns and Your Sacred Place Is a Community Asset : A Tool Kit to Attract New Resources . The Guide was — and continues to be — the only book of its kind , with a focus on helping congregations plan and execute communitywide fundraising efforts .

• Updating all the PowerPoints and other presentation resources , in terms of both content and design .

• Undertaking new research on successful community wide capital campaigns so we can detail where funds have come from in each case .

• Offering the refreshed New Dollars program to two congregational cohorts . In addition to the group in Reading , we are also providing the training to congregations in the Northeast region , ranging from Maine to Pittsburgh to Washington , DC .

• Preparing to offer New Dollars to any congregation anywhere . We will no longer require a local sponsor to underwrite and recruit local congregations to participate . The program will truly have a national reach for the first time .

If you know a congregation that would be interested in participating in a future New Dollars cohort , let us know !

A . ROBERT JAEGER

STAFF

A . Robert Jaeger , President

Kevin Block , Director of Special Initiatives Brittany Carter , Director of Finance and Operations Daniel Cruz , Technical Assistance Coordinator ,

National Fund for Sacred Places Dana Dabek , Director of Transition Services Karen DiLossi , Director of Strategic Partnerships Bridget Fidler , Senior Director of Consulting Gianfranco Grande , Executive Vice President Emilie Haertsch , Senior Communications Manager Lily Hamilton , Associate Director , National Fund for Sacred Places Rachel Hildebrandt , Director , National Fund for Sacred Places Blair Horton , Project Coordinator Betsy Ivey , Director , Philadelphia Fund for

Black Sacred Places Sarah Lyn Jones , Associate Director of Community

Engagement Simon Kaufman , Director of Development Caroline Lauber , Consulting Associate Craig Nowlin , Chief Operating Officer Owen Robbins , Special Project and Design Associate Emily Sajdak , Senior Project Manager Rochelle Stackhouse , Senior Director of Programs Geraldine Wang , Senior Fellow , Strategic

Advancement Michael J . Crosbie , FAIA , Editorial Content Manager

BOARD OF DIRECTORS

Robin E . Whitehurst , FAIA , Chair

Ms . Barbara Abrajano The Rt . Rev . Jennifer Baskerville-Burrows Mrs . David B . Butler Mr . Mark Constantine Ms . Jennifer Correia Paul Edmondson , Esq . Mr . Marco Federico , Treasurer Lynn Hunt Gray , Esq ., Secretary Jorge L . Hernandez , AIA Mr . G . Edward Hughes Mr . Dave Kirwan Ms . Rosa Lowinger The Rev . Katherine Glaze Lyle Most Rev . Denis J . Madden Mr . Mark McDonald

1700 Sansom Street , 10th Floor Philadelphia , PA 19103 partners @ sacredplaces . org www . sacredplaces . org 215.567.3234

SACRED PLACES • SUMMER 2024 5