In this Issue:

• • Financing the Future of Neighborhoods Through Trusted (Anchor) Institutions: A Philanthropic and Institutional Perspective
  • Funding That Lasts: Supporting Congregations Beyond the Grant
  • Explore Stories to Inspire Your Ministry
  • Learn to Cultivate Generosity with ECRF

By Dr. Carlos W. Perkins, Associate Director for Engagement, Lake Institute on Faith & Giving

Across the nation, faith communities continue to serve as some of the most trusted and enduring institutions within neighborhoods. Long before conversations about food insecurity, trauma-informed care, or neighborhood revitalization entered mainstream policy discussions, congregations were already responding to community needs by feeding families, mentoring youth, comforting grieving neighbors, and providing spaces of hope and stability during times of crisis. Churches possess something many institutions struggle to cultivate: deep relational trust, multi-generational credibility, cultural fluency, and long-term rootedness within the communities they serve. 

Yet, many of the institutions most trusted by communities remain among the least structurally resourced. Congregations are often expected to address complex challenges such as housing instability, violence prevention, mental health, education inequities, and food insecurity while operating with limited administrative infrastructure, aging technology, insufficient staffing, and minimal access to long-term capacity-building support. Too often, philanthropy asks neighborhood institutions to produce transformational outcomes without adequately investing in the organizational systems necessary to sustain that work. 

This reality sits at the center of my work as Associate Director for Engagement at Lake Institute on Faith & Giving, Program Manager for the Indiana Conference of the African Methodist Episcopal Church Supporting Hoosier Churches Grant Initiative and senior pastor of the oldest Black church in the City of Indianapolis—Bethel Cathedral African Methodist Episcopal Church. Through the Supporting Hoosier Churches Initiative funded by the Lilly Endowment Inc., we seek to address a critical challenge facing African Methodist Episcopal congregations across Indiana: churches cannot sustain transformational ministry if the institutions themselves are struggling to survive. 

The initiative intentionally focused on strengthening leadership, infrastructure, financial systems, communications strategies, digital readiness, and long-term sustainability. Through extensive conversations with pastors, presiding elders, denominational leaders, and community stakeholders, recurring themes emerged. Many congregations possessed extraordinary vision and strong community relationships but lacked the organizational capacity to scale their work, access philanthropic opportunities, or sustain ministry beyond immediate program funding. The issue was not a lack of commitment—it was institutional capacity. 

One of the most important lessons from this work is that healthy ministry requires healthy institutions. Passion and calling matter deeply, but sustainability requires systems that support long-term impact. Congregations need leadership development pipelines, financial literacy, strategic planning, technological adaptation, coaching, and collaborative learning environments. They need the ability to collect data, communicate impact effectively, and develop diversified funding strategies capable of sustaining ministry beyond a single grant cycle. Capacity building helps move churches from survival mode toward sustainable transformation. 

This distinction between program funding and capacity building is increasingly important within philanthropy. Programs provide immediate services and respond to urgent needs, but programs without institutional strength often disappear once funding ends. Capacity building, however, strengthens the organization itself. It develops governance structures, operational systems, stewardship cultures, leadership continuity, financial accountability, and organizational resilience. Programs may touch lives temporarily, but strong institutions sustain transformation across generations. 

Philanthropy is also increasingly asking important questions about long-term systems-level change. Funders are looking beyond isolated activities toward initiatives that strengthen organizational health, increase collaboration, expand digital access, improve leadership capacity, and build sustainable community infrastructure. They are interested in whether congregations can serve as stronger civic partners and healthier anchor institutions capable of supporting broader neighborhood vitality. 

Equally important is the role of storytelling within philanthropy. Too many communities are described only through the language of deficiency and crisis. Similarly, congregations are sometimes viewed merely as struggling charities rather than as institutions possessing significant relational and cultural capital. We must tell more complete stories—stories rooted not only in need, but also in resilience, innovation, dignity, and possibility. Congregations are not simply service providers; they are community anchors that cultivate social trust, leadership development, civic engagement, and neighborhood stability. 

The future of neighborhood transformation depends upon strengthening trusted local institutions already embedded within the life of the community. Sustainable change cannot simply be imported from outside. Effective transformation emerges from local leadership, contextual understanding, and organizations that possess neighborhood memory and long-standing relationships. The institutions closest to the pain are often closest to the solutions. 

As philanthropy looks toward the future, the question is no longer simply whether we are funding programs. The deeper question is whether we are investing in the long-term capacity of trusted institutions to sustain transformational work for generations to come. Financing the future of neighborhoods begins by strengthening the institutions that never abandoned them in the first place.