A message of encouragement from the team:
Dear Friends, we are convinced that God is still here and still at work in our Presbytery. The purpose and mission of our team is to contribute the substantial resources of our Presbytery to support that work in your communities. But, as important as these resources are, just as important to us are the opportunities for us to be a community of believers sharing the stories of what God is doing in our congregations, networks, and partners. Please feel free to apply, and we can’t wait to hear from you and to hear what God is doing in and through you! This is the day that the Lord has made; let us rejoice and be glad in it.
The Vision Fund Team
March 2024
The Presbytery of the Western Reserve has established The Vision Fund to focus on the following three specific areas of the Matthew 25 Initiative: to build congregational vitality, to dismantle structural racism, and to eradicate systemic poverty.
To enable your project or work that contributes to any of these, the Vision and Mission Task Force, working with the Vision Fund Team, invites you or your group to complete the following electronic grant application, sharing your vision, your purpose, and your contact information. The team will review your application and, if approved, a grant will be disbursed.
Please note the suggested amount thresholds per application and number of applications allowed per year:
Individual - $1000 per application, 1/year
Member Church - $2000 per application, 2/year
Presbytery Committee - $5000 per application, 3/year
Presbytery Network - $2000 per application, 2/year
Other Entity or Presbytery Partner - $1000 per application, 1/year
Grant applications can be accepted anytime throughout the year and are considered on a rolling basis during the months of February, April, June, August, October, and November. To be considered in a particular month, applications must be completed by the first of that month. Due to the time needed to process applications, we ask that grant applications be completed no later than November 1 for funds to be dispersed in the current calendar year.
If your project or work lies outside of the three Matthew 25 areas, please note the Presbytery can still help. You can see other sources of funding at our information page here.
If you’d like to download a PDF version of this cover letter, you can do so here.
The Matthew 25 Movement
To date, 1,186 congregations, 96 mid councils, and 66 groups have embraced the vision, living into the truth that what we do matters to God, and how we treat others is important to God.
From the Matthew 25 page on presbyterianmission.org:
When we welcome others, we welcome Christ; when we bring together people who are divided, we are doing God’s reconciling work. We are called to serve Jesus by contributing to the well-being of the most vulnerable in all societies – rural and urban, small and large, young and not-so-young. From affordable housing to community gardens to equitable educational and employment opportunities to healing from addiction and mental illness to enacting policy change – there is not just one way to be a part of the Matthew 25 movement.
Make no mistake, Jesus is calling us to perform ordinary acts of compassion in daily life. In so doing, we continue Christ’s work of proclaiming release to captives and good news to the poor — the good news of God’s righteousness, justice and peace for all.
Visit presbyterianmission.org/ministries/matthew-25 for more info!
Evaluation Rubric
Applications will be considered based upon several aspects of the application, and whether or not they hit particular benchmarks.
The application areas are:
description of story
demonstration of need
description of goals and outcomes
timeframe of work
alignment of budget to description of work and goals
monitoring & evaluation plan
alignment of project goals to Matthew 25 initiative
Some of the benchmarks include:
clarity of descriptions
feasibility of timeframe
alignment of budget with goals
effectiveness of evaluation plan
alignment of project with Matthew 25 focus areas.
important note
You cannot save your progress and return to this form; it must be completed in one session. If you would like to plan your answers ahead of time and copy/paste them into the form when ready, there is a document (containing just the project information questions — contact info & other simpler questions are only included on the full application) available here in Word format and PDF format.