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16 I NonprofitProfessionalPerformance Magazine
take charge of the subject and how you’re
going to study it, but you take charge of this
group, how you’re going to function, how
often you’re going to meet. We don’t have a
particular pattern.” Of course, you have to
tell them that over, and over, and over again,
and the facilitators do that. The facilitators
have been in such a peer group, and they
understand that they, themselves, had a hard
time getting that.
We give them space for self-direction and
agency, but we also believe in evaluation. It
is never us telling them what to do, but we
are always seeking their deeper learning:
“What does this mean to you? How are
you applying this?” Whatever they say to
us is transformative to them, and it may
be completely different from what they
presented in their proposal. We are creating
a platform or a context in which mature
clergy, beyond that point of jumping through
everybody’s hoops, can claim their own
agency for self-directed renewal.
Building Grant Attractiveness.
The early program that we had in Alabama,
which lasted about twelve years, came to
the attention of the Lilly Endowment staff,
unbeknownst to us. But Ed and Peggy
Dixon, the couple that had started and
funded the program, had done an evaluation,
and somehow that evaluation got to the
Lilly Endowment staff. As we learned later,
Lilly’s religion staff had been giving money
to seminaries, research projects, and other
similar entities, but they were looking in new
directions and saw this program in Alabama
that was peer-group based.They put together
a new grant division called Sustaining
Pastoral Excellence for funding peer groups
with self-directed learning. A group of us
who had been part of this earlier program
saw an ad regarding this new direction and
decided to get involved.
We assembled a writing team and were
awarded the first grant: $2,000,000 for five
years. They funded about 67 projects around
the country. At the end of the first five years,
they offered a partial continuation grant for
another five years, which was half of what the
original grant was so, in our case, that was
another million.
We have always, also, had a vigorous local
fundraising effort, and a high buy-in. Peer
group members are expected to contribute
$600 a year for three years. Each church with
a staff member selected also provides $900
a year through the duration. Each group
receives an $80,000 continuing education
grant, but $36,000 of that was paid by their
personal and religious organizations’ giving.
The Institute’s board of directors engages in
fundraising efforts, as well. While we were
awarded two grants totaling $3 million by
the Lilly Foundation, we raised locally about
$2.7 million.
Now we’re at the end of that very generous
funding from Lilly and we continue to
investigate funding options. Our peer-group
members and their churches pay a substantial
amount of the programming costs, but we
continue to work to find ways to fund the
$80,000 education grant for each group’s
also have a group committed to
working on funding, raising additional money
from their acquaintances. Two members of
the group have people within their churches
who are decision-makers in small family
foundations. We recognize these sources
aren’t the same as a $1 or $2 million dollar
grant but, as social benefit organizations, you
continue to raise funds to help the cause.
Dr. Larry Dill, a member of Leadership Birmingham
and Leadership Huntsville/Madison County, Alabama,
is the Executive Director of the Institute for Clergy
Excellence. He is past president of the Minister’s
Association of Greater Birmingham and of Eastside
Mental Health Center. In 1987, he was chosen Citizen
of the Year by the Eastern Area Chamber of Commerce
in Birmingham, AL.
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