HELPING THOSE MOST IMPACTED BY COVID-19
Through our Disaster Relief Collaborative Fund, we are now making focused grants to support organizations that are on the ground helping those hit hard by COVID-19, particularly those communities experiencing food insecurity, housing/shelter, and providing emergency financial assistance.
To receive a matching gift through Thrivent.com, please select InFaith Community Foundation. Your gift will then be directed to our Disaster Relief Fund.
Together with donors, InFaith Community Foundation addresses a number of pressing and unmet needs facing our shared community. Over time, donors gave directly to InFaith to impact ever-changing community needs. The issues addressed are inspired by donor interests and informed through our relationship with the community. InFaith identifies key issues and develops initiatives to achieve effective, positive and lasting change.
Make A Gift
To make a gift to one of our Collaborative Funds visit infaithfound.org/make-gift or request an inter-fund grant from your donor advised fund. Please specify an InFaith Field of Interest Fund for Disaster Relief, Health, Human Services or Education.
Current Foundation Initiatives
Ending Family Violence
Aims to end an enduring epidemic of domestic violence and child abuse with resources, education and awareness through congregations.
Creation Care/Environmental
Takes a faith-based approach to building awareness and lasting change for God’s creation.
Disaster Response
Helps people worldwide grow food, improve health and build livelihoods where needs are the greatest. Currently, our disaster relief fund is focused on helping those hit hardest by COVID-19.
InFaith celebrates ten years of support and over $1,000,000 of investments to end family violence. In partnership with Faith Trust, The Safe & Healthy Churches initiative 
equips parish-based teams of church and lay leaders to respond to domestic violence and sexual abuse by providing tools and resources on how to adequately address the religious issues of domestic violence and child abuse through in-person trainings and webinars. Over 200,000 individuals have been impacted in the ten-year history of the program through the trainings, webinars and overall initiative.
- Since its pilot in 2010, the program has been successfully executed in six U.S. cities, training 470 people and 140 churches, as well as delivered 50 webinars.
- Over 71% of participants state their church is now actively working to address domestic violence and child abuse.
- After attending the training, 93% report it has raised their awareness of the prevalence of domestic violence and child abuse, and the importance of a faith-community response.
In 2019, InFaith provided Sojourners a $25,000 grant to support the Women and Girls Leading on Faith Initiative. This effort is building a movement of people of faith dedicated to advancing the leadership of women and girls worldwide. Sojourners staff are educating seminaries and faith leaders on domestic and sexual violence, and striving to close the gender gap in church leadership.
More information on Safe and Healthy Churches Training Opportunities
InFaith’s Creation Care Initiative works to build capacity, help churches reduce their energy footprint, promote leadership and engage InFaith donors around the concern of creation care. InFaith staff and donors often reflect on outcomes from each initiative and explore possibilities for continued impact. From these discussions related to the Creation Care Initiative, the concept of water as a guiding focus within the initiative arose.
Access to clean water is a basic and essential right, yet is increasingly compromised by droughts, pollution, rising tides, flooding and 
other natural disasters. The Creation Care initiative with a focus on water begins its work with three grantee partners, including Creation Justice Ministries (CJM), Minneapolis Area Synod of the ELCA (MAS) and Ecumenical Water Network of the World Council of Churches (EWN of WCC). Read more about this initative here.
During this time of uncertainty, we are called to come together and respond to what might be possible. There will be multiple phases and needs in this crisis – medical response, support for vulnerable communities, and providing for those who will suffer most. Grants from our Disaster Relief Collaborative Fund will focus on recovery from the COVID-19 pandemic - economic and food security, support for those with health vulnerabilities, and medical stability. As grants are disbursed, we will share stories with you to ensure that you know we are aiming for the greatest quality, and you see our shared impact.
InFaith Field of Interest Grants
Disaster response
Provides immediate relief to communities and victims of disasters
Lutheran Social Services of Puerto Rico provides reconstructive support to areas of Puerto Rico affected by Hurricane Maria in 2017. Along with construction and direct disaster relief, vulnerable populations receive recovery aid and education to help prepare and address any future natural disasters.
Significant funding and support for Puerto Rico is needed to continue creating a recovery plan, secure resources, provide emotional and spiritual care for survivors and leaders, and continue rebuilding.
Learn about InFaith and Thrivent's collaboration to provide disaster relief and how you can contribute to InFaith's Disaster Relief Fund by calling InFaith at 800-365-4172. A 2019 grant of $47,000 to the InFaith Disaster Response Fund and generous gifts from InFaith donors helped make this possible.
Health services
Supports services designed to improve the health & well-being of individuals and families
Flowering Tree Permaculture Institute (FTPI) is a tribal oriented non-profit interested in the restoration and health of tribal communities. The mission of FTPI is to nurture healthy communities through practices based on indigenous ways of knowing.
By teaching tribal communities and individuals how to live more sustainable, FTPI provides skills in traditional architecture, farming and agriculture, animal husbandry, and more. The main programs is centered around the Pueblo Food experience; a site for growing, harvesting and processing traditional tribal foods so that their communities can have access to foods that are healthy and more suitable for their bodies. A 2019 grant of $15,000 to the InFaith Health Services Fund and generous gifts from InFaith donors helped make this possible.
Education
Addresses issues and needs in the area of Christian education at all levels
Each year InFaith Community Foundation awards a scholarship to support a student member of a church with an organizational endowment at InFaith.
Human services
Works to improve the quality of life of individuals and families within the Christian community
Kids in Need of Defense (KIND) provides free legal representation to children who enter the U.S. immigration system alone. Since opening its doors, over 20,700 children have been referred to KIND for legal services. To meet this demand, KIND’s holistic model leverages local partnerships to recruit thousands of volunteer pro bono attorneys, connect child clients to much needed social services, and ensure that children returning to their home countries because of deportation or voluntary departure have access to critical reintegration support.
KIND is working with Asociación Pop No'J, a partner organization based in Guatemala, to provide psychosocial support to reunified separated families in Huehuetenango, a region with the highest child and family migration rates in Guatemala. KIND clients returning to Huehuetenango are referred to Asociación Pop No'J to work with the organization's team of psychologists, "tecnicos" (case managers), and legal advisor. A 2019 grant of $15,000 from the InFaith Health Services Fund and generous gifts from InFaith donors helped make this possible.
ELCA & related organizations
Supports urgent and unmet needs of the ELCA & its ministries
To celebrate the landmark decision made 10 years ago to allow publicly out, partnered LGBTQIA+ leaders to serve the church, Extraordinary Lutheran Ministries and ReconcilingWorks hosted an event at the ELCA Churchwide Assembly to explore and learn about the past 50 years of lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer, intersex, and asexual (LGBTQIA+) history in the life of the Lutheran church and the ELCA. The interactive space provided participants with a fuller image of the Body of Christ through the gifts and visions of LGBTQIA+ people. A 2019 grant of $10,000 from the InFaith ELCA & Related Organizations Fund and generous gifts from InFaith donors helped make this possible.
LCMS & related organizations
Supports urgent and unmet needs of the LCMS & its ministries
UpBring and Lutheran Social Services Disaster Response are continuing Project RENEW, to support residents of the Trinity Gardens neighborhood in Houston, an area hit hard by Hurricane Harvey in 2017. This project started in 2018 as a collaborative effort of the LCMS, National Housing Corporation, Lutheran Social Services Disaster Response, Living Water Community, and Church and Rebuilding Together Houston. Project RENEW provides a strategic response through rehab and repair services, community outreach and case management.
The 2019 grant supports a case manager and provides supervision and support of the position to provide disaster case management services for those impacted by Hurricane Harvey in the Trinity Houston Gardens community. The 2018 grant has successfully worked with 15 families over the course of the last year to assist with obtaining and coordinating services for repair and future grants will support remaining unmet needs. A 2019 grant of $43,000 from the InFaith LCMS & Related Organizations Fund and generous gifts from InFaith donors helped make this possible.
WELS & related organizations
Support urgent and unmet needs of the WELS and its ministries
InFaith is working with organizations and individuals to build up an endowed fund to support urgent and unmet needs of WELS and its ministries. Learn how you can join InFaith and a community of donors contributing to future the future of Interfaith and Ecumenical ministries by calling InFaith at 800-365-4172.
Ecumenical & interfaith organizations
Support urgent and unmet needs of interfaith ministries
Interfaith Action of Greater St. Paul launched Opportunity Saint Paul (OSP) in 2017, to offer systemic solutions to reduce poverty and create economic opportunities by partnering with community-based nonprofit organizations with proven track records of effectively addressing economic barriers.
They serve over 3,000 low-income community members annually through direct services, including:
- Food shelf, clothing, and school supplies.
- Emergency shelter for homeless families with children.
- Academic and cultural enrichment for American Indian youth.
- Referrals for emergencies, transportation, and basic needs.
- Healthy eating and diabetes education.
A 2019 grant of $5,000 from the InFaith Ecumenical & Interfaith Organizations Fund and generous gifts from InFaith donors helped make this possible. InFaith is working with organizations and individuals to build up an endowed fund to support urgent and unmet needs of ecumenical & interfaith organizations. Learn how you can join InFaith and a community of donors contributing to future the future of Interfaith and Ecumenical ministries by calling InFaith at 800-365-4172.