In this Issue:

• • Navigating the Intersection of Faith & Giving in 2025
  • Staff Spotlight: Erica Dollhopf, Associate Director of Research
  • Apply Today: ECRF Scholarship
  • Share Your Questions with Us

By David P. King, Ph.D., Karen Lake Buttrey Director and Associate Professor, Philanthropic Studies

Over more than two decades, Lake Institute on Faith & Giving has remained focused on exploring the dynamic relationship between faith and giving. Working at this intersection requires us to attend to the long-standing religious practices as well as the theological traditions that have shaped faith-inspired generosity. At the same, we are even more mindful of the significant changes in the overall trends for religious and giving practices. With respect for the traditions that continue to ground this conversation, we are also mindful of the present and future questions that shape and are reshaping the ways in which we explore both faith and generosity. As we move into 2025, we are eager to continue to play our unique role in this conversation, but we will need your help!

Exploring Research

Embedded within the Lilly Family School of Philanthropy, Lake has sought to serve as a trusted source of research on these issues with a focus on translating what we know to practitioner audiences. Whether it is data on congregations’ economic practices or a focus on the motivations of faith-based donors, our questions are often shaped by what our partners are asking. We are focused on how this research might shaped the work of a pastor leading a congregation, an advisor working with a family foundation, or a fundraiser seeking support for her faith-based nonprofit. We are excited to share in the coming months new findings on the many ways that faith predicts the giving and volunteering of individuals. Knowing data on congregational practices is also limited, we are excited to field a second wave of our National Study of Congregations Economic Practices (NSCEP) study this spring.

We are tremendously excited about the arrival of Erica Dollhopf, who has joined us as Lake’s first Associate Director of Research. Alongside her experience and expertise, she also deepens the many connections with partners that Lake is eager to continue to work with on these questions. We cannot do this work alone and are dependent on these partners as well as our larger community who are leading and equipping leaders on these topics.

Question: What are the questions that you’re asking in your contexts where our research might help?

Connecting Through Conversation

In addition to research, Lake seeks to be a convener, hosting conversations at the intersections of faith and giving. These topics are rarely simple conversations, and these big topics deserve the space necessary to explore together across religious traditions, distinct sectors, and particular perspectives. This past year we hosted a small gathering helping to discern the state of the field of faith and giving and some of the big questions that need addressing in the days ahead. We are eager to continue to pick up these topics more into this new year.

From our earliest years, we have sought to host conversations through our Thomas H. Lake lecture, and our 2025 lecturer, Dr. Willie Jennings, should be no exception. We hope you will join us in person or online. We also regularly partner with the School of Philanthropy to bring in a rich array of speakers considering how philanthropy is addressing topics such as,  public policy, diversity, and higher education, including an upcoming event with M.J. Murdock Charitable Trust CEO, Romanita Hairston.

Beyond these individual signature events, however, we hope that we can also continue sustained conversations on these pressing topics. Jennings’ lecture is just such an example as it ties into our second symposium on Philanthropy and Black Church. We have shared our expanding resources on this topic previously, and we are excited to see them continue to grow and lead to sustained engagement. Building bridges across the natural silos that can develop across any field is part of our work at Lake. We are stronger together, and we hope we can play our role as a catalyst in these connections.

Question: What are the connections or partnerships that you see the need to develop? What are the conversations at the intersection of faith/giving that you’re most eager to have in 2025?

Innovative Resources

As we maintain a focus on the past and present in our work, we also feel that Lake is positioned with the responsibility to help look toward these questions into the future. We are consistently updating our core courses, ECRF and CGC, to meet the current and future needs of participants. At the same time, we have begun to pilot short courses to address the questions that our constituents so often ask us. Having conducted a course on legacy giving last year, we are set to launch a course on faith-based capital campaigns later in January. At the same time over this past year, we have expanded the variety of faith communities with which we work as well as the types of resources we have developed. We are eager to continue adapting our work to fit the unique contexts and needs of our constituents.

What are the best models of teaching and learning that you have seen across this field? As we are seeing trends toward new funding models, questions of how best to utilize or repurpose physical space for faith communities, and the role that faith communities play in our local communities, we see many opportunities to bring together these themes across disciplines, sectors, and communities to address these pressing questions.

Question: What are the future questions that are emerging for you?

Rooted in our core work at the intersection of faith and giving, we are excited to continue to play a key role as we explore, connect, and innovate around these topics. And we need your help–let us know what are the questions that you have and ways in which we can continue to support and build the field around this conversation. We invite you to share your thoughts with us on LinkedIn.