Where Our Giving Goes

Lenten Emphasis Offerings

Each year before Lent, the Board of Outreach selects a specific global ministry for us to learn about during weekend Lenten worship services. The Board also sets a giving goal for support for the ministry. Special envelopes for these offerings are provided. For many years, we have met or exceeded these goals! The ministries have included:

• The ELCA Young Adults in Global Mission program
• Casa Milagro (House of Miracles) educational center for girls in Guatemala
• ELCA Good Gifts projects providing personal care kits, medical supplies, micro-loans, children and wellness support, and water wells

We give our holiday offerings away!

Holidays include

• Ash Wednesday
• Wednesdays in Lent
• Maundy Thursday
• Good Friday
• Easter Sunday
• Thanksgiving
• Christmas Eve
• Christmas Day

Each year, the Board of Outreach decides what ministries our Holiday Offerings support. Ministries that have received our holiday offerings over the years include:

• ELCA Hunger Appeal
• Crossways Camping Ministries
• The Ecumenical Partnership for Housing

The Memorial Trust

you can make a donation to the Trust of any size or at any time or as part of your estate giving plan.  Whether your gift is part of your estate planning or a cash gift, please be sure to specifically designate the Memorial Trust.  Thank you!

Why Give to the Trust?

was established in 1968 at Kellogg Citizens National Bank to fund special projects of the congregation, not “operational” or “routine” expenses or benevolence. Over the years it has grown to more than $2,000,000 and has funded almost $1,000,000 in projects. In addition to funding some of the 2014 Sanctuary Renovation, the Trust was a low-cost loan source for the rest of the renovation costs. Recent projects reflect the variety of ways the Trust supports the congregation:

• Organ renovations and component replacement
• Gast Hall Roof
• Resurfacing the parking lot
• Vibrant Faith strategic planning
• Beyond Confirmation programing
• Kitchen renovations
• Sanctuary AV additions for streaming worship
• COVID expenses
• Food pantry relocation
• Boiler replacement (partial)
• Interview and relocation expenses for the Youth and Education Ministry Leader
• Parking lot sidewalk and lighting project

Historic Fund Transfer

In 2019, the Trust was transferred to the ELCA Ministry Growth Fund of the ELCA Foundation, joining $875,000,000 in investments of congregations, colleges, seminaries, camps, and synods. The size of the Fund increases the quarterly “dividends” the Fund pays to all of these parts of our national church. Another advantage of investing in the ELCA Ministry Growth Fund over an ordinary bank is that the Fund does not invest in gambling, tobacco, pornography, and private prisons and its investments in distilled alcohol, environmental harm, and military weapons are limited.

Giving to the Memorial Trust

If you appreciate this investment strategy, if you appreciate being part of an amazing income stream for the entire ELCA, and if you want to continue to make projects and programs possible at Grace, you can make a donation of any size to the Trust at any time or as part of your estate giving plan. Please designate the Memorial Trust specifically so that your gifts become a part of the tremendous financial resource for Grace and the ELCA that it has become.

The Mission Endowment Fund

The disbursements from the Mission Endowment Fund are 100% dedicated to various kinds of local and global ministries and charities.  You may make a donation of any size to the Mission Endowment Fund at any time or as part of your estate giving plan.  Whether your gift is part of your estate planning or a cash gift, please be sure to specifically designate your gift for the Mission Endowment.  Thank you!

The History of the Fund and the Kinds of Disbursements

At the request of several members of Grace, a new fund was established in 2009 to support mission and ministry projects. Also invested in the ELCA’s socially responsible, $875,000,000 Ministry Growth Fund, Grace’s Mission Endowment Fund has grown to over $200,000 and is distributed annually in the following increments:

• 10-35% for outreach into the community and our synod, including, but not limited to, grants to ELCA seminaries, colleges or students attending such institutions, social service agencies, institutions and agencies to which this congregation relates, and to special programs designed for those persons in our community who are in spiritual and/or economic need.
• 10-35% for missions of the ELCA, nationally and worldwide, including, but not limited to, grants to the ELCA in America for new congregation development, professional leadership, educational ministries, global mission, ecumenism, evangelism, social ministries, disaster response and capital financing.
• 0-35% for the development of any special outreach ministry of Grace. (Outreach defined as ministry directed toward people outside of the congregation.}
• 0-25% for any one or all of the above designated areas in any proportion as determined by the Mission Endowment Committee, or for causes and programs which at the discretion of the Committee are deemed consistent with the purpose of the Fund in enhancing the missional outreach of the congregation.

Most Recent Disbursements

NeighborWorks/Bridges Program, Green Bay – to assist with programming costs associated with preparation of high school juniors and seniors for employment in the construction trades.  Learn more…

Lutheran World Relief:  purchase of health kit supplies – to assist people who lack the resources to provide basic necessities for life.

Crossways Camping Ministries –  to assist with maintaining staff and facilities in the midst of financial difficulty as a result of COVID

Casa Alba Melanie – a center that provides education, links to community services, legal information and other resources to our Spanish speaking neighbors

Brown County Jail Ministries – provides religious and spiritual programming for inmates, supports the Brown County Jail staff and provides Bible and book resources.

Sleep in Heavenly Peace – local non-profit organization serving children in need through the construction of beds and the provision of new mattresses and bedding.

Giving Memorial Gifts at Grace

Upon the death of loved ones, families often designate a ministry or project at Grace to support with memorial gifts (Radio Fund, Camper/Mission Trip Scholarships, Altar Cloths, etc.) If you would like help identifying ministries or projects at Grace in need of funding, please contact one of the pastors.  Some families can’t decide on a specific purpose for memorial gifts or are content to have the Council decide how best to use those gifts. Council has decided that undesignated memorials will be shared in the same manner as undesignated bequests.

Undesignated Bequests

Sometimes people leave money to Grace in their wills, but do not specify what ministry or project they wanted their gift to support. In this case, their gifts are put to good use:

• 37.5% of undesignated bequests go to Capital Improvements.
• 37.5% goes to the General Fund Reserve Fund which can be used to cover temporary cash flow shortfalls.
• 25% goes to the Mission Endowment Fund. Learn more about the Mission Endowment Fund.