It is with great pleasure that we announce the recipients of InFaith’s 2019 President’s Grant. We invite you to read a message from Chris Andersen, InFaith’s President & Executive Director.

May your holiday season be joyful as you celebrate the abundance, blessings and opportunity around us. We are humbled and grateful to be part of your charitable giving journey. 

Gary and Joyce Kallsen integrated charitable giving into their financial strategy years ago. Together with their children, they’ve made grants from their InFaith Community Foundation donor advised fund to support favorite charities and causes.

Year-end is a popular season for giving. By partnering with InFaith Community Foundation, you can maximize your year-end gifts. Whether you Give Now, Give Later or Give & Receive, you will set in motion a gift that will change lives now and for years to come. Consider these tips from InFaith’s experts on the benefits of value-based giving.

One of the initiatives that InFaith has committed to is creation care, which works to build capacity, help churches reduce their energy footprint, promote leadership and engage InFaith donors around the concern of creation care. With a focus on water, InFaith’s Creation Care Initiative is accomplished through one of InFaith’s grantee partners: The Ecumenical Water Network (EWN) of the World Council of Churches (WCC).

As part of its Disaster Relief Collaborative Fund, InFaith Community Foundation granted $100,000 to Lutheran Social Services (LSS) of Puerto Rico to aid recovery in the community. This was made possible thanks to the generosity of InFaith’s donors. LSS of Puerto Rico believes “when the dust settles, and the headlines change, we stay to provide ongoing assistance to those in need.”

Together with donors, InFaith Community Foundation addresses a number of pressing and unmet needs facing our shared community. One of the initiatives that InFaith has committed to is ending family violence through a partnership with FaithTrust Institute. FaithTrust Institute is an organization that provides faith communities and advocates with the tools and knowledge they need to address the faith and cultural issues related to abuse.

Keith Allen Hinrichsen, a native of La Mesa, Calif., was fully devoted to his family, students and church as a History professor at Cerritos College. After 37 years of teaching, his extended family supported him through his own diagnosis and return of prostate cancer. Upon his death, Keith directed InFaith to support a variety of charities, including programs that addressed the unmet needs of patients with Alzheimer’s through The Hinrichsen-Thorsen Family Health Fund at InFaith Community Foundation.

Rev. Margaret Suiter, a Lutheran pastor and refugee advocate, dedicated her life to the service of Latin communities in the United States and El Salvador. When she passed away from cancer at the age of 44, her mother Louise created The Margaret Neusom Suiter Memorial Fund at InFaith Community Foundation in her daughter’s memory.

In recognition of Chris Andersen’s 25 years as president and executive director of InFaith Community Foundation, the Board has renamed InFaith’s WomenLead Scholarship to The Chris Andersen WomenLead Scholarship. Andersen, who has led InFaith’s growth to more than $1 billion in outright and deferred gifts and $30 million in annual grants, will retire at the end of this year.