Roy C. Jones, CFRE

Today, for the first time in nearly six months I saw HOPE in the faces of a board of directors who had been giving their lives… some literally to help an inner city ministry stay afloat.

Some cried, some praised God and some rolled up their sleeves and said, “let’s go to work.”  This rag tag bunch of visionaries had been doing everything within their physical means to keep afloat a ministry who help get drug addicts get off the stuff and off the streets through prayer, 12 step programs and job skills. 

When I explained our agency’s program and the investment we were making into their future the room grew silent… As I reviewed our results and outlined how over the next seven weeks how we would identify 7,000 donors who would give nearly $1.5 million over the next 5 years the rooms continence changed.  The questions they asked shift from one of dispare to one of HOPE.

They began to talk about recruiting from our new donor pool 5 to 7 new board member who would help them carry the load.  They began to talk about how a select number of major donors could possibly help with key programs that minister to the community.

A smile began to spread across the room and they were empowered with something that I had never so evident before… HOPE.  Hope that God was faithful.  Hope that the organization had a future.  Hope that the organization would leave a legacy.  A legacy for their children and grand children… that homelessness would not be tolerated, that homelessness would be confronted and ultimately ended… Homelessness ended on our watch!

H-O-P-E    What does it mean to you?  What does it mean to your not-for-profit organization?