Beyond the Offering Plate:
How Thriving Black Churches Can Fund Bigger Community Impact
A live conversation for Black church and nonprofit leaders who are already serving their community — and ready to grow the funding behind it.
Kendra Roberts
VP of Operations, HumanGood Affordable Housing, 25-Year Community Development Leader
Details
Your church is thriving. Your congregation shows up. Your community programs are doing real work.
And yet every year you run the same campaigns, raise roughly the same amount, and watch the vision get a little further ahead of the funding.
You are not struggling. You are stuck. And the difference matters — because stuck organizations do not need a lifeline. They need a system.
There is an entire world of grants, government partnerships, foundation funding, and philanthropic relationships specifically designed to support the kind of community work Black churches are already doing. Most congregations have never accessed a single one of them — not because they do not qualify, but because no one has ever shown them the door.
On May 13, Kendra Roberts is showing you the door.
What You'll Learn
- Why the nonprofit down the street keeps winning grants you qualify for — and the exact gap that is the real reason
- What institutional funders are actually looking for in a faith-based organization — and what makes Black churches uniquely fundable
- The funding streams most thriving churches have never pursued — and which ones you are already positioned to access
- What it would actually take to stop being your church's chief fundraiser
Tuesday, May 19 · 12 PM – 1 PM EST
Reserve My Spot — It's Free
Online · Limited Spots
Why This Matters Right Now
Every year a thriving Black church runs without a development infrastructure, it leaves an estimated $200,000 to $500,000 in accessible funding uncaptured — grants it qualifies for but never applied to, major donors who gave below their capacity because no one cultivated them, corporate partnerships that went to the organization that showed up first.
That is not a projection. That is the pattern NFM sees inside every organization it audits.
The cost of waiting is not staying the same. It is compounding. And the community programs that depend on your funding feel it before your budget does.
Real Results from Our Partners
How Churches Like Yours Are Getting Funded
NFM provided strategic guidance to ITC’s administration and governing board to support this pivotal shift in the 60-year old strategic direction. At the height of the pandemic NFM helped ITC begin to course correct on inherited challenges and build institutional capacity for significant fundraising
NFM assisted us in a space that churches often misuse—statistics. NFM showed us that measuring was a tool of evaluation for growth, not to be punitive. We looked at people, money, gifts, timing and more. All these were measures used now to see where we came up short in order to build up
NFM introduced us to an innovative funding model that’s set to revolutionize our financial sustainability and future growth."
Thanks to NFM, I’ve become a more effective fundraiser, significantly enhancing our ability to expand programs on a global scale."
Learning from NFM, amid a pandemic, congregational fundraising increased three consecutive years!"
VP of Operations at HumanGood Affordable Housing
Kendra Roberts
Kendra Roberts is VP of Operations at HumanGood Affordable Housing, overseeing 100+ affordable senior housing communities across five states. A 25-year community development leader, LeadingAge CA DEI Leader Award recipient, and NIC Future Leaders Council member — Kendra has spent her career on the inside of the funding conversations most Black church leaders never get access to.
Fundraising Expert, Founder & CEO of NFM
Paul Hosch
Paul Hosch is CEO of NFM, the outsourced development department for African American churches and nonprofits with active community programs. He met Kendra at USF and reached out to her specifically for this conversation — because he believes every Black church leader needs to hear what she knows.
