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Our Stones of Remembrance As we reflect back, like the children of Israel, God has given us "stones of remembrance" over the last 10 years: STONE #1 - PURPOSE On February 16, 2001, God gave a vision of equipping churches and ministry leaders to move beyond their walls to become the salt and light in our local communities. Before the 9/11 tragedy, less than 20 people had registered for our first training scheduled for late September 2011. But God rewarded our obedience as we proceeded in holding the event despite the prevailing thought about the public's fear of traveling after the terrorist attacks. More than 125 faith and community leaders were impacted through their participation in the event and God even foretold our purpose would go beyond Dallas to equip leaders throughout the nations. STONE #2 - PIONEERING In 2003, FPI was selected to serve in Texas' FIRST White House for Faith and Community-Based Initiatives grant as the Foundation for Community Empowerment's capacity building partner. FPI designed and implemented the 3-year program called Building Capacity Building Communities. The program equipped over 125 organizations in low-income communities throughout the city of Dallas with intensive training/coaching and assisted in distributing over $1.3MM in sub-grants to Dallas faith-based, grassroots organizations. As a result of this program, the organizations have since increased their net worth in excess of $10 million. STONE #3 - PLATFORM (International) In 2006, Dr. Tony Evans introduced the National Church Adopt-A-School Initiative (NCAASI)--modeled after his church's successful Project TurnoAround program around church-school partnerships. FPI equipped and partnered with Dr. Evans and his national ministry, The Urban Alternative, to implement the NCAASI program, as well as provide technical assistance to churches across the country as they implemented the program in their communities. Today, the NCAASI program has trained over 1,300 leaders in the U.S., Guam, Haiti, Mexico, and Bahamas. STONE #4 - PARTNERSHIPS From 2006 through 2010, FPI participated in formal collaborations with Dallas Leadership Foundation executing grants from the Department of Health and Human Services and Department of Justice to train and equip faith- and community-based leaders serving low-income communities throughout the city of Dallas. One of the programs was a 3-year project called Communities Empowering Youth. The participating leaders strengthened their organizations and their service delivery in the areas of operational effectiveness, financial sustainability, human capital development and strategic collaborations. As well, they increased their funding to nearly $890K, the number of youth in Dallas served to nearly 7,400 and affected a multimillion dollar ROI on the original $1 million grant award. STONE #5 - PACE SETTER Recognizing the need of churches and faith-based organizations to increase their financial accountability and better understand the legal and ethical implications of their actions, in 2007, FPI joined forces with accounting firms, Sommerville & Associates, P.C., Ratliff & Associates, P.C. and legal firm, Weycer, Kaplan, Pulaski, and Zuber, P.C., to annually host the Ultimate Financial and Legal Conference. This event hails participants from across the U.S.-as far as Seattle on the West Coast and Washington, D.C. on the East Coast. Nearly 600 leaders have been served since the inception of this program and 2011 will mark the 5th year for the conference. STONE #6- PROGRESS Because of FPI's impact with North Texas faith-based organizations, our reach extended to Missouri through a partnership with the Nonprofit Services Consortium of St. Louis, MO. FPI designed and presented a customized program on building a fundable, faith-based organization and trained over 100 organizations across the state. STONE #7-PERFORMANCE STANDARDS FOR THE SECTOR After a successful pilot program, May 2009 - January 2010, FPI held its first full 9-month Master Nonprofit Consultant Certificate Program to train consultants to effectively and ethically use their expertise and experiences to assist nonprofit organizations in achieving their missions. As well, participants learned the basics of professional coaching and completed a comprehensive business plan for their own consulting business. After completing the course, one of the consultants went on to garner sales of over $200,000 in less than one year. STONE #8- PROMOTING THE POWER OF FAITH Also in 2009, FPI introduced the IGNITE Greater WorksTM Gathering, designed to celebrate, equip and inform the community of the most effective faith-based, best-practice program models in Dallas, as well as to "ignite" a greater passion for community outreach and development among churches, nonprofits, funders and individuals. The inaugural event was held in collaboration with the Dallas Justice Revival sponsored by Sojourners. Over 250 people participated and 10 Dallas ministries were recognized and awarded for their work and for creating best-practice program models with measurable community impact in the areas of affordable housing, positive youth development, formerly incarcerated re-entry, poverty/homelessness, community collaboration and more. More than 25 collaborations between faith-based and community organizations occurred as a result this initiative. STONE 9 - PEOPLE God uses people to fulfill His purpose and He has been faithful in bringing to the Institute the right people at the right time-including the founding Board of Directors, current Board, volunteers, consultant network, past and present staff, and family members. STONE #10-PROVIDENCE In 2011, God continues to fulfill His purpose through FPI. In September 2001, it was confirmed that this vision would go to the nations. Providentially, on February 25-26, 2011, FPI will experience the unfolding of this confirmation as we provide two intensive training seminars to faith leaders on the island of Bermuda (click here to see the article in the Bermuda Sun Times, "Centre on Philanthropy offers faith-based workshops." http://bermudasun.bm/main.asp?Search=1&ArticleID=50628&SectionID=42&SubSectionID=573&S=1) Last but not least... STONE #11-PRAYER In the New Living Translation, James 5:16b reads, "The earnest prayer of a righteous person has great power and produces wonderful results." Such has been the case for us throughout our first 10 years as FPI's leaders and even many of you have consistently prayed for the success of this organization and those we serve. Today, and in the future, we will continue to look to God-thanking Him for His care over the last 10 years and praying for His guidance to propel FPI to the next level He has prepared! |
