Over the last eighteen months this monthly space has been dedicated to answering the question of “What exactly does the Foundation do?”
The short answer is that it advances the gospel in partnership with our church and its mission and does so through its almost 40 funds that have varying degrees of governance and resources from which grants are made.
In order to more easily understand them, they are put in smaller groups of common mission. Those areas are intensive mission, internal mission, external mission, and missional generosity.
We have been looking deeply at the first group – intensive mission. Funds in this category support seminarians; pastoral residencies; youth residencies; music internships; leadership development for post college residents (Fellows); and eight scholarship programs. For the first twenty-one years of the Foundation, $3,023,000 was invested in this group. Each of those stories can be revisited at www.2pcfoundation.org within the News section.
Over the next several months we will turn to the funds that complement the internal mission of Second. While the church does not rely on the Foundation to support its ongoing operational budget, several funds in years past were established through the gifts of donors who had a passion to support specific internal ministries of the church. They include the church library; children’s ministry; family camp; recreation; children’s music program; and Second’s Conservatory. Since the inception of the Foundation twenty-two years ago, $330,641 has been granted from these funds.