Episcopal Press and News
PB's Fund Board Awards $1.3 Million in Grants, Revises Major Donor Program
Episcopal News Service. June 23, 1993 [93127]
Tracy Early, Freelance Writer in New York City
The board of directors of the Presiding Bishop's Fund for World Relief distributed more than $1.3 million in grants to projects around the globe and revised guidelines for soliciting funds from major donors at its semiannual meeting, June 8-10, in New York City.
During the meeting, news reports of a grisly massacre in Liberia shook the world, and members of the board grappled with how to respond to the news. Presiding Bishop Edmond L. Browning said that the Liberian crisis highlighted the ability of the fund to respond immediately to needs around the world. "This is one of the most important functions in the life of this church," he said. The board authorized the use of up to $50,000 in Liberia in response to specific requests.
The PB's Fund, Browning said, not only serves the recipients of its grants, but it also provides a ministry to contributors by showing them that they can do something to alleviate the world's suffering. Supporting the fund enables people to move beyond the prevalent sense of helplessness in the face of the overwhelming challenges of the world's need, he said.
The grants awarded by the board included $432,615 for relief, rehabilitation and development projects in the United States, and $878,983 for similar projects in other countries. The board chose to make fewer grants and give larger sums where it seemed that the fund might be able to make a significant difference.
Among the larger grants were $73,699 for electrical projects in Guatemala, $50,000 for the ongoing Palestinian relief program of the Diocese of Jerusalem and the Middle East, and $40,000 for St. Catherine's Episcopal Child Development Center in the Diocese of Florida.
Grants were awarded to AIDS-related projects in the dioceses of Uganda, Honduras, New York and East Carolina. A program in the Diocese of West Missouri that supports families at-risk for child abuse and neglect received a grant for $13,203. The board awarded a grant of $12,500 to a project in the Diocese of Eau Claire to help American Indian youth overcome alcohol and drug abuse.
The board awarded $22,800 for two projects in the dioceses of Louisiana and Western Louisiana for continuing relief from Hurricane Andrew. In addition, grants for $60,172 for relief efforts form Hurricane Iniki were awarded to the Diocese of Hawaii.
In parts of the world where the PB's Fund has no direct channels of its own, it provides support for the relief work of the World Council of Churches or Church World Service (CWS), the relief arm of the National Council of Churches. The board voted to give CWS funds that had been designated by contributors for Somalia, Armenia and the former Yugoslavia.
Members of the board participated in a reassessment of its "major donor" program aimed at developing a group of supporters who would give or raise $10,000 or more a year for the fund. The Society of the Anchor was created in 1992 to recognize these contributors. However, some people in the church have raised objections to this program, contending that it carried an elitist aura inconsistent with the mission of the Episcopal Church.
The Rev. Henry Parsley, Jr., from Charlotte, North Carolina, who chairs the appeals and communications committee, presented a statement summarizing its reflections on the issue. Parsley said that members of the church have asked that the major donors program "not seem to separate major donors from the others" and that "fund-raising events and materials not be elaborate." The committee recommended "that the Presiding Bishop's Fund continue a major donor effort by identifying special projects or focused areas of need" and that the presiding bishop offer recognition "in appropriate ways such as an annual dinner or an Anchor cross."
However, any national event -- such as Celebration '92, the one held in New York last spring -- would "involve not just major donors but the broader church." The board adopted the committee's recommendation, but Browning said that he still favored an effort to reach major donors if it was done in a modest way.
The board also adopted a subsequent motion by the Rev. Charles Dobbs of Corpus Christi, Texas, that the major donor program spotlight major projects rather than the major donors. The board also requested that Parsley's committee bring a revamped major donor program design to the next meeting in November.