The Madison Christian Giving Fund has begun its annual fundraising campaign with the goal of raising $150,000 to donate to Madison-area ministries next year. The goal was announced at a dinner at the Radisson Hotel last week, where participants heard reports from representatives of five ministry outreaches that were supported this year.
A total of $220,000 has been raised and distributed over the past three years since the Madison Giving Fund began, according to fund chairman Scott Haumersen. “We are trying to increase the capacity for giving in Madison,” he said. The fund has sponsored four workshops this year to help local nonprofit organizations with information on business planning, marketing, and similiar topics.
“The faith based programs we fund are traditionally blocked from regular sources of support because they are helping people in the name of Jesus,” Haumersen said.
Marcio Sierra, the senior pastor of Madison’s Lighthouse Church, said that his church donated to the fund even though the church’s Christian school applied for a grant and received $3,000 for a technology upgrade. “We gave because we wanted to be a part of this, to bless Christian organizations that are doing things that we cannot do,” he said.
Speaking to a gathering of about 150 people, including evangelicals, Catholics, and Mainline Protestants, Sierra said God has plans for Madison that are too big for one church or one organization to accomplish. “God needs all of us to work together to see real change come to Madison,” he said. “It’s time for the church of God to start working together.”
Noting the power of unity described in the story of the Tower of Babel, “nothing they plan to do will be impossible to them,” Sierra said, “If we start working together Madison will notice that the church is doing something…that Jesus is the answer.”
Jesus Lunch, one of the programs funded for 2016, drew media scrutiny earlier this year when critics objected to free lunches being shared with students in a park next to Middleton High School. The lunches have resumed with the new school year, so far without any additional controversy. Simple sack lunches, packed by volunteers, now cost about $1700/week.
Melissa Helbach, one of the mothers who began the lunches, described an incident where eight members of the Middleton High School football team survived, without a scratch, a crash that totalled three cars. “It was a miracle that nobody died; nobody was injured,” she said. The resulting conversations resulted in an invitation to talk about spiritual matters with students over the sack lunches once per week. She said their first Jesus lunch drew about 40 students, 450 students showed up when the program resumed September 6th.
Other programs highlighted at the kickoff dinner included:
- Shelter from the Storm, which provides shelter, training, and mentoring for single moms and their children in Sun Prairie.
- Trail to Success, a colloboration between Chavez Elementary school, Redeemer City Church, and Joining Forces for Families (a Dane County Social Work Agency).
- Lilada’s Living Room, a safe place for female survivors of sexual abuse.
- CareNet of Dane County, which provides compassionate care to men and women facing a pregnancy decision.
The Madison Christian Giving Fund was initiated by the Madison Generosity Council, which is affiliated with the National Christian Foundation Wisconsin.
Another report from Madison 365 on the Madison Christian Giving Fund.