Strategic Funding Plan

Commit to the LORD whatever you do, and your plans will succeed.  Proverbs 16:3

Lutheran Foundation of St. Louis has a rich heritage of partnering with churches and organizations to positively impact the lives of hurting people in our community. Building on this Christian foundation, the Board has adopted a new strategic funding plan to guide its efforts over the next five years (2009 – 2013). This new plan focuses our philanthropic efforts in five areas that address clear, measurable community needs that allow us to better understand and determine our community impact (link each below to their respective page):

These funding focus areas were selected after several months of exploring our past grant history, current and future community needs, opportunity for impact, and fit with the Foundation’s vision. Those familiar with the Foundation will note that the areas identified build on the Foundation’s past funding interests and rich heritage of supporting people of faith, particularly Lutherans, as they work to improve the care of people.

Successful grant applicants will need to demonstrate how their request addresses one or more of these funding focus areas and supports the outcomes identified by the Foundation. Please click on each area listed above to learn more about the respective goals, funding interests, and anticipated outcomes.

The Foundation recognizes that we must expand our “funding tool kit” in order to effectively impact the areas identified. The Foundation therefore will consider requests to launch new or expand existing programs, build staff or organizational capacity, support capital projects related directly to provision of services, and challenge grants.

Over the next five years, we will evaluate our progress in achieving the outcomes identified in each funding focus area. Because the Foundation does not directly provide the services related to these focus areas, we look forward to partnering with those congregations and organizations that are taking a leadership role in our new funding focus areas.