Welcome to the New Spirit Endowment Fund!

Because we serve a generous Lord who has blessed us beyond measure, we want to reflect God’s generosity and bring practical help and hope to the world that God loves. One of the important ways we do that at New Spirit is through our Endowment Fund. This fund has been created to be a source of financial assistance to organizations and ministries that are busy doing God’s work in the world. Those of us who are part of the board that invests and administers these funds are excited to be part of this blessed work because we can see lives being changed and because we know that God loves a cheerful giver (2 Corinthians 9:7).

What we fund. The witness of Scripture, common sense, and our bylaws all suggest that there are a host of worthwhile ministries where our endowment proceeds might legitimately be distributed. For example, there is the whole area of “human needs” or “social ministry.” There’s also the whole sphere of “disciple-making” (new church starts, leadership development, Bible distribution, prison ministry, chaplaincy, etc.). Both spheres are crucial to the life and faithful witness of the church, and we are committed to funding both.

In order to achieve an approach that is in sync with the current strategy of our congregation and balances a number of legitimate areas of need, our Endowment Board has adopted the following approach.

We have created some key “focus areas” to fund.

• Focus Area #1. Human Needs (Tucson & Pima County)
• Focus Area #2. Human Needs (rest of AZ and beyond)
• Focus Area #3. Disciple-Making (local and beyond)

The grants that we award typically run between $1,000 and $10,000, but we are open to grant requests smaller or larger than that.

Who we fund. The Endowment Fund makes grants only to tax-exempt organizations with 501(c)(3) classifications from the Internal Revenue Service. Organizations may apply for funding once per calendar year. It does not support for-profit organizations or candidates for political office. The Fund will not consider requests for endowments, general fundraising, or deficit financing.

General guidelines for grant applications.

DOWNLOAD the New Spirit Endowment Grant Application Form HERE!

Each grant application must include the following elements:

• Focus Area you are applying for (see above)
• Description of your organization
• Mission Statement
• Need Statement
• Project Overview
• Action Plan and Timeline
• Project Outcomes
• Project Budget

If salary expenses are included in a grant request, please provide what percentage of the salary is dedicated to the program/project being funded.

Funding exceptions. Grant funds that will not be approved for funding:

• Any administrative costs
• New construction projects and costs

Timeline for Submissions and Decisions.  We award grants semi-annually, at our January and July board meetings. Grant award checks are normally mailed within a few weeks of our decision.

• The deadline for submitting a grant proposal for our January board meeting is December 15.
• The deadline for submitting a grant proposal for our July board meeting is June 15.

Questions? We’re happy to talk to you about any questions you may have about applying for an Endowment Fund grant. Call the church office at 520-296-2461 or click here to leave an email message with our Executive Assistant, who will forward your email to the Endowment Board.