Nonprofits are now eligible to apply for up to $100,000 in federal funding for energy-efficient building upgrades through the Building Upgrades Inspiring Local Transformation (BUILT Nonprofits) program. This is the best grant opportunity we’ve seen so far for churches who need to upgrade their HVAC systems!

Cesie Delve Scheuermann of Inspiring Generosity and Julia Frisbie of Faith Foundation Northwest teamed up to teach an interactive class rich with real-world examples from our own episcopal area. 

If you could not make it or would like to watch it again, the recording is available now on demand at the following link: Click here to access this recording.

Faith Foundation Northwest is thrilled to announce a new mini-grant program, through which faith communities in Alaska, Idaho, Oregon, and Washington are eligible to apply for $1,000-$3,000 of unrestricted funding to help them carry out their missions. Applications are due September 30, 2024.

We often get asked which type of pledge campaign we recommend. There are a lot of options, and one size doesn’t fit all. The D-I-Y approach costs the least money but requires a huge investment of time and energy to be successful. Buying a book and following the program requires the least time and energy. Hiring an outside consultant comes with the highest price tag, but can produce excellent results if leadership devotes significant time and energy to following the recommendations. Read on our top resource picks for each of these three types of pledge campaigns.

Faith Foundation Northwest is excited to announce its upcoming 2024 Summer Board Retreat, set to take place at Lazy F, a UMC Camp in Ellensburg, WA, from August 7-9. The retreat promises a blend of productive meetings, enriching sessions, and engaging activities, in the theme of the Summer Olympics for board members, staff, families, and friends.

Faith Foundation Northwest has been selected by the Washington State Department of Commerce to receive a $519,300 grant through the Home Electrification and Appliance Rebates Program. This funding will allow several dozen Washington churches to install heat pumps in their parsonages at no cost.

To qualify, the gross family income of parsonage occupants must be at or below the 2024 Area Median Income as defined by the Department of Housing and Urban development. Funding will be prioritized to benefit households with the lowest income and/or most vulnerable populations, along with those located in communities that are disproportionately impacted by climate change. 

The “soft landing” scenario in the U.S. is now looking more like “no landing” scenario, meaning cooler inflation with no major slowdown in the economy. During the quarter, the forecast for Fed cuts again shifted lower, from three cuts and 75 basis points (bps) forecast in April to just one cut and 25 bps expected, reflecting growing confidence in the no landing scenario. U.S. equities remain near all-time highs, with the S&P 500 up 15.3% year to date.

Proxy voting isn’t usually as dramatic as the shareholder meetings depicted in shows like “Succession,” but it’s still a key part of our job as investors. From voting on human rights-related issues with the maker of Oreos to advocating for shareholder voice at Facebook’s parent company, this blog highlights what Wespath voted on this year—and explains why proxy voting is important.

Church trustees: take note as funding from the Inflation Reduction Act trickles down through state and local governments. Here at the Foundation, we’ve sorted through dozens of Oregon grant programs, and identified four that we think churches will be eligible for. If any of the following projects are on your wishlist, keep the associated grant on your meeting agendas in the coming months. First up: EV charging stations for church parking lots— apply ASAP before funding runs out!

At the beginning of 2023, many investors expected an imminent U.S. economic slowdown, or even a recession, and a series of Fed rate cuts to go along with it. Fifteen months later, we are seeing substantial economic downturns in several countries, from the U.K. and Ireland to Japan and Germany. But the U.S. remains notably strong. Instead of a hard or soft landing, we’ve had no landing… yet.

Most of the money that Faith Foundation Northwest manages is owned not by the Foundation itself, but by conferences, agencies, camps, and congregations who choose to invest with the Foundation. Each of these bodies has the authority to set its own asset allocations within the Foundation’s family of portfolios. But a small portion of the Foundation’s 90M in assets under management belongs to the Foundation itself, and these monies are being moved into Fossil Free Portfolios this month.

For Marvin and Sandy Thompson, Camp Magruder held a special place in their hearts. It was the place where they experienced faith in Christ, new friendships, and leadership development.

Here are some reminders about how to get to our statement portal, what you will find there, and how to update who is able to log in and view fund information for your organization.

December is one of the busiest seasons for church leaders, so it’s easy to put fundraising on the back burner. But the truth is, if you’re not making a year-end-appeal, you’re leaving money on the table.

• The U.S. economy remains resilient; recession worries pushed to 2024; growth and employment beating expectations

• Inflation hits 3.7% year over year in August, up from 3.0% in June

• U.S. equities down 3.3% for the quarter, up 13% year to date

• Global equities down 4.1% on the quarter, up 7% year to date

• U.S. yields higher in Q3; bonds down 3.2% on the quarter and -1.2% year to date

John Wesley's legacy is marked by his teachings on social justice, compassion, and the vital role of actively expressing one's faith through acts of kindness, charity, and service to others. This philosophy urges individuals to consistently seek opportunities to create a positive impact in the world. The instructions to ‘Do no harm, do good and stay in love with God’ provide a simple-but-helpful perspective to guide that action!

Here at Wespath, I see clear connections between these rules and the work we do on behalf of our participants and institutional investors. For example, we are always called to empower our mission of ‘caring for those who serve’ and upholding our core values of Mutual Respect, Teamwork, Integrity, Stewardship, Customer Satisfaction and Spirituality. We also strive to live into our Wesleyan values more specifically through our investment work, including through the actions that guide our Sustainable Economy Framework and our ‘Invest-Engage-Avoid’ approach.

While we have always been able to highlight investment strategies and specific investments that help us achieve our aspirational vision for the economy, until recently we were not able to assess if our equity funds in totality are helping to move the world toward a more sustainable future.

To help address this challenge, we recently created an impact measurement and management (IMM) tool to help us understand how aligned—or not aligned—our investment portfolios are with the Framework.

In the simplest terms, the IMM tool is a resource that helps us understand how our investments align with our Framework by highlighting the positive and negative impacts of our portfolios

If you own a home in the U.S. and have noticed your insurance has increased over the last several years, you are not alone. The national average for homeowners insurance has been rising for the last five years, with a cumulative increase of 19.1% between 2018 and 2023. There are a number of reasons for this spike, including rising construction costs linked to inflation and, interestingly enough, the effects of climate change.