Announcing the Fall 2022 Mission & Ministry Grantees

The National Benevolent Association is proud to announce its Fall 2022 Mission & Ministry Grantees. In this cycle, NBA’s Mission & Ministry Grants program provided a total of $192,500 to 33 Disciples projects and ministries working with older adults, children, and youth.

Launched in 2017, the Mission & Ministry Grants program has made purpose-restricted funds available for Disciples’ congregations and health and social service ministries for half a decade. This year, the NBA Grants Committee met virtually to evaluate and accept applications for both the Spring and Fall cycles. Now in its sixth granting year, the NBA has been able to grant more than $1,235,350 to ministries that support disenfranchised youth and older adults. Additionally, in 2020, NBA was able to grant $1,000,000 to health and social services organizations that needed support throughout the pandemic via the NBA COVID-19 Response Grants.

“It was such an honor to serve on this committee. To be able to read and see the work and creative ideas out there that will be truly beneficial to those in need was such an honor for me,” said Dr. Judy Alston, NBA Trustee and Mission & Ministry Grants committee member. “As a Professor of Leadership and an ordained minister in the Christian Church (Disciples of Christ), my heart is overjoyed to see the Mary McLeod Bethune model of the ‘Head, Heart, and Hand’ at work in real-time.”

The Fall 2022 grantees are located across 22 Disciples regions. For the first time, there are grantees in states like Hawaii and Pennsylvania. Of the 33 selected projects, 10 are focused on education for at-risk children and youth, 16 are focused on older adults, and seven are intergenerational, serving both communities.

NBA continues to take seriously our internal equity work; this includes thinking about how our granting process can be more equitable and inclusive. We recognize that lengthy and confusing grant application processes can deter some communities from applying. To that end, we continue to offer our grant information in English, Spanish and Korean. Additionally, we simplified our application process in order to make it more accessible to a wider group of communities.

We also recognize that in low-income communities and communities of color, systemic needs are often greater. This cycle, more than 70 percent, or $138,600 of our grant dollars went to projects that will directly benefit multicultural communities.

“It’s been such a blessing to see this granting program grow the way it has over the years,” says Grants Coordinator Kara Whitehouse. “I’m grateful to our grants committee for their work in selecting our grantees this year and also to our Board of Trustees for seeing a great need there is across the denomination.”

See the full list of grantees below and stay tuned for stories from the grantees throughout 2023.

Fall 2022 Mission & Ministry Grant Recipients