As a congregation, we wanted to commemorate the anniversary of the pandemic as a call to action. We held a fundraising campaign and decided to share the money raised with community-centered organizations like St. Luke’s Penn Foundation who were on the frontlines throughout the pandemic. We believe mental health care and addiction support is vital to our health and well-being as individuals and as a community, and we resonate with St. Luke’s Penn Foundation’s Anabaptist Christian faith heritage. We’re grateful for organizations like St. Luke’s Penn Foundation that offer healing and hope outside of the walls of a traditional church building. We want to support their work.
We would encourage anyone who is interested in giving to consider fundraising as a group. We found a contagious spirit of joy fundraising as a congregation. Many of our contributions were small dollar amounts, which sends a positive message that any gift size, large or small, makes a difference when you come together as a group. It is exciting to know that our particular church community is helping our larger community meet immediate needs.
Additionally, we would encourage other groups to consider their donation strategy. For us, we found it both meaningful and powerful to commemorate the anniversary of the pandemic with a special fundraiser. The timing of our campaign also coincided with stimulus and tax refund checks. We encouraged everyone for whom stimulus and refund check monies were additional, non-emergency income to consider sharing a portion of these funds with our campaign. Maybe there are birthdays, anniversaries, or other special dates in your calendar that you can organize your donation strategy around!