Zakat Foundation of America partnered with Indiana University’s Lake Institute on Faith and Giving to provide a 3-day intensive course resulting in an Executive Certificate in Religious Fundraising. As a leading non-profit organization, Zakat Foundation offered the course as a capacity-building opportunity for its local and international partners in the non-profit sector.
Held the first weekend in March, more than a dozen local organizations attended the three-day intensive course at Zakat Foundation's headquarters. The program provided the research, tools and customized training needed to meet religious community leaders’ needs as well as the needs associated with faith-based organization fundraising.
“It is a great opportunity to provide classes here at Zakat Foundation of America, at the location of a nonprofit organization. We hope for more partnerships in the future,” said Dr. David King of the Lake Institute.
Zakat Foundation’s Executive Director, Halil Demir, said he is happy for the partnership, as it provides services to local partners on how to raise funds for their projects.
“American nonprofit organizations must be innovative in their fundraising,” Demir said. “Lake Institute brought great perspective in that sense.”
The course was open to all religious community leaders and faith-based fundraisers, and it focused on the cultural, organizational, and philanthropic practices unique to religious institutions. Participants were guided to explore and deepen the spiritual underpinnings of fundraising from their faith tradition and to build their organization’s development program on a core foundation of professional fundraising principles.
The following seminar topics were delivered: Nurturing Generous Congregations & Organizations, Nurturing Generous Donors, Fundraising as Bearing Witness, and Creating a Revelation-Based Morality of Money. Participants will now apply the contents of their ECRF learning through design and implementation of a year-long project for their faith-based institution.
Although the course is priced at a regular value of $1,350, Zakat Foundation's sponsorship made it available to participants at a discounted fee of $300, with full scholarships available for participating organizations on a limited budget.