Attack Poverty Church Partnership Strategy

The Attack Poverty | 2015-2017 Church Partnership Strategy | The top five strategies |

TABLE OF CONTENTS EXECTIVE SUMMARY

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INTROUCTION

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HISORY & IMPACT

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PRIMARY STRATEGIES

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VIRTUAL TOOLBOX OF IDEAS

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COLLABORATION OF RELATIONSHIPS

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CONSISTENT FUNDRAISING

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LEADERSHIP PROGRAM

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EFFECTIVE MARKETING

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OUTCOMES

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IMPLICATIONS

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APPENDIX

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Attack Poverty Church Partnership Strategy

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EXECUTIVE SUMMARY With a short three-year history of church engagement, the Attack Poverty staff and Board of Directors is seeking to strengthen our impact and engagement with the local church over the next several years. This dynamic document is the initial step towards that goal.

The staff, board, and local church leadership firmly believe that the following key strategies are the most effective way to build upon the organization’s core competencies around holistic community development.

Collectively, these church engagement strategies support and empower the church serving under-resourced communities.

Funding for this strategic growth will emerge from the development of a new fundraising platform that includes a 100% increase in church financial support.

Attack Poverty Church Partnership Strategy

This type of growth can only happen if we develop a clear collaboration of relationships; understanding that the work of Attack Poverty cannot reach it’s full potential without a strong partnership with the local church.

In order to make this growth feasible it will be necessary to implement a dynamic leadership development program, intent on multiplying ourselves and raising up indigenous leaders. An effective marketing plan will be created to promote the mission and resources of Attack Poverty. Additionally, a virtual toolbox of ideas will be designed to decentralize responsibility and authority, constructing an on-ramp for a transformational movement of churches engaging underresourced communities.

This ambitious plan is not void of risk, but we believe that this new phase for Attack Poverty that will bring incredible impact and experience of the kingdom of God in our time.

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INTRODUCTION The Attack Poverty | Church Partnership Summit | 2014 was an Appreciative Inquiry Summit held in Richmond, Texas on October 6th and 7th 2014 and was facilitated by Jonathan Wiles.

At this workshop, pastors and stakeholders gathered to engage in rich dialogue and make recommendations about the future of Attack Poverty. The recommendations made at this summit will have a direct and significant impact on our engagement with the local church, and will begin implementation in the fist quarter of 2015.

The Summit birthed five key strategies. Each key strategy contains a narrative description of the way forward for a major focus and is being further developed into full operational plans. This summary version of the strategic plan provides a broad view of the strategies and plans needed to make our shared vision a reality.

The purpose of this event was to engage our pastor friends in discerning God’s direction by creating a unifying vision and plan for the organization around the idea of how do we best help the Church mobilize herself and live out her mission.

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HISTORY & IMPACT Attack Poverty was born in 2011 as a global organization that serves locally breaking the cycle of generational poverty. In partnership with the local church, we adopt pockets of poverty, launch Friends Initiatives and make a long-term commitment to go deep and care about the things that community cares about.

Church Partners 40 30 20 10 0 2011

2012

2013

2014

Through these partnerships, we support and mobilize the church to live out her mission of being sent and reaching out to others, especially in the under resourced communities closest to her. In our short history we have grown from just 1 church partner to 43 church partners!

VISION Empower people to attack poverty in their life and community

MISSION Strengthen under-resourced communities through spiritual growth, education, revitalization and basic needs

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PRIMARY STRATEGIES Through out all of Attack Poverty’s programs and initiatives, we strive to strengthen under-resourced communities through empowering people to attack poverty in their life and community. Our mission to attack poverty is realized through dedication to long-term commitments that require mutual relationships and collaborative efforts with local organizations, churches, residents, and stakeholders committed to community transformation.

Attack Poverty will continue to uphold its mission to empower under-resourced communities while also committing to support the Church to mobilize herself and live out her mission through implementing a Virtual Toolbox of Ideas, establishing dynamic collaborations with spiritual stakeholders, supporting consistent fundraising, training future leaders, and effectively marketing Attack Poverty’s programs and mission.

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Virtual Toolbox of Ideas communities, forming relationships with community members, establishing a positive presence in the neighborhood, and initiating the foundation for long-term programs that address spiritual growth, education, revitalization and basic needs.

To gently push theoretical planning to practical application, Attack Poverty will create a Virtual Toolbox of Ideas. This toolbox will be a sustainable platform of accessible information for churches everywhere to use in their specific context to identify and define how to attack poverty. Most importantly, Attack Poverty realizes that poverty comes in all shapes and sizes; therefore, the Virtual Toolbox of Ideas will be customizable in order to most effectively implement the applicable components that catalyze community transformation in each unique context.

The Toolbox of Ideas will be implemented with the understanding that each “Friends Initiative” has grass-root origins that organically grow from the unique challenges and assets present in each community.

Therefore, this platform of ideas is to be used a conglomeration of ideas and successful programs, not as a step-by-step rigid outline for replicating existing “Friends Initiatives.”

The Virtual Toolbox of Ideas will include information pertaining to all aspects of Attack Poverty’s process of identifying under-resourced

The goal of the Virtual Toolbox is to remove the barriers and reservations of churches and organizations to initiate similar programs in their communities that attack poverty. By removing some of the challenges of forming a relationship with a community, more neighborhoods and individuals will be transformed.

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Collaborative Relationships The work of Attack Poverty cannot reach its full potential without collaborative relationships with other non-profits, churches, corporations, city leaders, stakeholders, and residents. Our hope in the redemptive power of Christ to transform brokenness and to restore hope and dignity urges forth our determination to create the long-lasting, collaborative relationships that reinforce the transformative work of God. Therefore, Attack Poverty will actively seek out and empower both stakeholders who have interest and concern in the community and persons of peace. A person of peace is someone from within the community who actively pursues justice and community transformation.

Attack Poverty Church Partnership Strategy

Transformation through collaborative relationships is most acutely seen when stakeholders and persons of peace partner together to accomplish the shared vision of empowering entire communities to attack both personal and generational poverty in accordance with God’s mission accomplished through the Church.

“Transform brokenness and restore hope… by creating long-lasting relationships” Our partners will be committed to the mission of Attack Poverty and the Church while new “Friends Initiatives” are launched and current programs are continued.

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Consistent Fundraising Consistent funding is essential to maintaining long-term programing and launching new “Friends Initiatives” to strengthen underresourced communities. Therefore, Attack Poverty will create a fundraising platform that will communicate current realities locally, highlight volunteer involvement, and support a consistent funding stream to sustain the work locally.

The results of the fundraising platform will include 100% increase in Church donations (from $250,000 to $500,000) and integrating local funding strategies throughout all Church partnerships by the end of

2015: *Increase Church donations to $500,000 *Integrate local funding strategies through all Church partnerships

Attack Poverty Church Partnership Strategy

2015, launching a national Poverty Sunday by 2016, and implementing a full scalable funding strategy by 2017.

Consistent financial support will allow Attack Poverty to continue the long-term commitment to current programming in established “Friends Initiatives” and also launch new “Friends Initiatives” to strengthen and empower under-resourced communities.

2016: *Luanch National Poverty Sunday

2017: *Full scale funding strategy implemented

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Leadership Program One of Attack Poverty’s keys to success is remaining dynamic by raising up leaders who desire to increase the capacity of individuals to make choices and transform those choices into desired outcomes. These leaders will be from both outside and from within the adopted community. We believe mentoring local leaders effectively empowers the community to see the assets within their community and to realize the power of their voice.

We also believe mentoring new leaders provides the community with a new point of view and new ideas.

“Empower the community to realize the power of their voice”

Attack Poverty Church Partnership Strategy

To sustainably continue to mentor such leaders, Attack Poverty will designate a Leadership Program Director, document the process of establishing successful “Friends Initiatives”, train and mentor future “Friends Initiatives” leaders, and develop support classes for current “Friends Initiative” leaders for continued learning and development.

This programs will include both structured experiential training and in depth academic learning. Future leadership programs may also strongly suggest living within an adopted community to facilitate community involvement and foster relationships.

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Effective Marketing

Simply put, resources will not be used if no one knows the resources exist. Therefore, the objective of the Attack Poverty marketing strategy is that every local church recognizes Attack Poverty as the leading choice to mobilize their church as their community’s largest advocate for the under-resourced.

Presence at Conferences

In order to promote the mission and resources of Attack Poverty, a dedicated Marketing Director will be hired within 6 months, Attack Poverty’s presence at local and national conferences will increase, unique awareness campaigns will be developed, and personal stories of Christ’s transformative power worked through Attack Poverty will be shared on a monthly basis.

These effective marketing strategies will lead to increased partnerships and in turn more empower more individuals.

Unique Awareness Campaigns

Marketing Director Effective Marketing

Attack Poverty Church Partnership Strategy

Shared Personal Stories

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OUTCOMES

Expected Milestones & Incremental Costs YEAR ONE | 2015 Hire part-time Church Engagement Director 5 Interns in Leadership Program Develop Phase one of Marketing Strategy • Poverty Sunday • Toolbox Platform Church Giving increased 60% to $500,000 Increase current church partnership to 50% active [Active = volunteering, donating, advocating and hosting a Poverty Sunday] Gross Total: $165,000 Amount Budgeted for 2015: $85,000 New Cost: $80,000 YEAR TWO | 2016 Move Church Engagement Director to a full-time position 10-12 Interns in Leadership Program Toolbox Resources Completed Toolbox launched to churches in the greater Houston area Launch a National Poverty Sunday Increase active church partnerships by 10% [43 active churches] Gross Total: $185,000 Amount Budgeted for 2016: $135,000 New Cost: $50,000 YEAR THREE | 2017 15-20 Interns in Leadership Program National Poverty Sunday Campaigns Sustain 50 active church partners Add 25 new church partners Toolbox Resources App created Consistent national communication Development of a marketing team Gross Total: $295,000 Amount Budgeted for 2017: $185,000 New Cost: $110,000 New Job Positions Necessary for Strategy Implementation Church Engagement Director Marketing Director Intern Program Director

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IMPLICATIONS THE MOST FUNDAMENTAL and positive components of Attack Poverty’s organizational DNA will not change. We will continue investing in relationships, pointing people to God’s mission, mobilizing churches to be the catalyst, telling stories of transformation, and creating access to resources. We will maintain our focus on local community involvement, effective project management, contagious enthusiasm, long-term commitment and presence within communities, empowerment, and true collaboration.

These characteristics are our “positive core strengths” – our effective past and our bright future. We have no intention of letting them go, but rather using them as our solid foundation for continued growth.

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APPENDIX The key task of Appreciative Inquiry (AI) is to

Architecture, which are norms, values,

identify and leverage strengths. The steps

structures, systems, patterns of relationship,

include Discovery, Dream, Design and

and ways of doing things, that can bring the

Destiny.

dreams to life.

The purpose of the discovery phase is to search for, highlight and illuminate those factors that give life to an organization, the “best of what is” in any given situation.

The second phase is to dream about what could be. When the “best of what is” has been identified, the mind naturally begins to

The final phase, destiny, is an invitation to

search beyond this and envision new

construct the future through innovation and

possibilities.

action. AI establishes momentum on it’s own through people finding innovative ways to

The third phase is to design the future

move the organization closer to the ideal.

through dialogue. Once people’s hopes and

Because the ideals are grounded in realities,

dreams have been articulated, the task is to

there is confidence in the ability to make

design the organization’s social

change and create a bright future. The combination of ideals and realities cannot be emphasized enough because through this unique juxtaposition of visionary content to grounded examples of the extraordinary, AI opens the status quo to transformations in collective action.

Attack Poverty’s primary purpose of hosting an Appreciative Inquiry Summit was to explore how we can better engage the local church and cultivate strategies for continued growth and increased impact.

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