2005 Annual Christian Foundations Conference Endoresements

Whether you serve as the Executive Director, a board member or as staff on a foundation, this is your opportunity to learn from foundation leaders for the 21st Century. Those who attended this yer's conferece felt motivated, educated, trained and inspired by our conference speakers, who included Gordon MacDonald (author, speaker, teaching and pastor for over 40 years), Ron Blue (President: Chistian Financial Professionals; Rob Parker: (V.P. of Advancement, Crown Financial Ministries); Patrick Johnson: (V.P Churches & Professional Advisors), Generous Giving.

Endorsements:

"The '05 Christian Foundation Conference was an inspiring and well-worth-the-time experience.  The awesome synergy of all these servant leaders from across the country coming together, combined with excellent seminars and speakers, made the experience uplifting and meaningful.  Thanks for your efforts in putting together an excellent conference!"

Dear Dave:

As I sign up for the Christian Foundation Center Conference in September, I am reflecting back over the years I have attended this conference. My first year to attend was 1999. At that point I didn't know a Foundation from a Credit Union, but in hearing of the advantages, tools, and options for giving of a foundation I was intrigued.

Meeting the people involved and hearing what they were doing around the country convinced me that the Holy Spirit was behind this movement and that the Kingdom of God and the Gospel of Jesus Christ was being served in a significant way.

As I came to consider what the Foundation tools could do in my personal financial management a light bulb went on and I could see the exciting possibilities. I immediately opened a Giving Fund with the National Christian Foundation and quickly solved my estate tax problem and began to transfer ownership in our family business to our son. I saved over $50,000 in taxes that year and became an active promoter of the foundation project.

We were challenged to start a local Christian Community Foundation in Kansas City which 8 of us did in 2000. There has been overwhelming proof of the Lord's blessing as we have facilitated gifts of $100mm in less than 5 years and have more than 300 individuals, ministries, and companies who have partnered with us and opened a Giving Fund with the Servant Christian Community Foundation.

[The Christian Community Foundation tool is an incredible way to create a Culture of Generosity in a city. It is the primary instrument through personal networking, serving churches and ministries, and educational events, to open God's people's minds and hearts to realize that He has blessed them with resources for a purpose. The CCF framework provides a vehicle to facilitate giving of wealth held in assets which far exceed the value of the amount held in Donors' checking accounts.]

Each year our SCCF Staff and myself and other members of the Board have attended the CFC Conference and are always encouraged by the workshops, the teaching, and the reports from, and fellowship with, the other Foundation people from around the country. I feel like the Board is the stable platform and strong supporting group for each local organization and it would be very helpful for as many members as possible to attend the conference and be inspired and get ideas to use in their operation. I look forward to the conference in September and strongly encourage other CCF Board members to come and see what the Lord Jesus is doing among us.

I definitely liked the conference. I made good contacts with excellent ministries and found the networking very helpful. Plus the speakers were inspiring and gave excellent training.

The conference was overwhelmingly good with excellent content. I sucked up everything like a sponge.

Last September, 2005, I was fortunate to attend the Christian Foundation Center of America Conference in Atlanta, Georgia which brought together the directors and staff members from Christian foundations from around America and overseas for educational sessions and networking. Nationally known speakers such as Gordon MacDonald, Ron Blue, Ken Boa, Rob Parker, and Patrick Johnson provided quality general sessions on a variety of topics such as Spiritual Disciplines for Foundation Leaders to Leveraging Financial Professionals to Maximize Charitable Giving Dollars. In addition to the general sessions, additional breakout sessions were offered for participants to choose presentations of their interest. Along with these informative sessions were plenty of opportunities for meeting personnel from Christian foundations which provided times for supportive discussion about common issues facing the charitable world. In addition to these programs the Biblical teaching and devotional sessions led by Gordon MacDonald along with the worship and praise led by Tim Kauffman were also wonderful.

As a graduate student at Indiana University at Bloomington, the experience was valuable to me as one who aspires to work in the philanthropic and nonprofit sector in the years ahead. Being able to observe characteristics and participate in lively discussions with current field based professionals was valuable to me.

I have nothing but praise for the Christian Foundation Center of America Conference. The organization's leadership and the general membership involved with the program were encouraging and helpful during the conference which provided me with enthusiasm for the future by seeing the possibilities that exist in the Christian charitable world. I sensed God's leading for me to attend the program and I was blessed by it. I sincerely hope that you will come to the meeting next year.

God bless you,