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Great Endowment Growth!

We are well on our way to reaching our $50,000 goal to create an Endowment Fund for ISAAC! Huge thanks to all our awesome donors. As soon as we reach $50,000, ISAAC will begin to receive annual interest income! If you can help—with any size gift—just put “ISAAC Endowment Fund” in the memo space of your check or the FBO space for your charitable distribution, and send it to:

Kalamazoo Community Foundation
402 E. Michigan Ave
Kalamazoo, MI 49007

Ray and Ann Sweany became Endowment Fund donors recently and wrote this about their decision:

“My wife Ann and I are relatively new transplants to Kalamazoo. Not knowing anyone when we moved here, we became involved at First United Methodist Church as a way to integrate ourselves into our new community as well as participating in a gathering of Christians who felt the call of God to do justice and show mercy. We were invited to participate in the Justice Team before we were even members and that has led us to now.

“In 2016, the Justice Team had determined areas in which we would concentrate; economic justice, racism, immigration and gun safety. I met Dr. Charlae Davis on the front lawn of FUMC one June afternoon on the birthday anniversary of Hadiya Pendleton where we were urging our society to enact laws to reduce gun violence. Previously, we had been participating in Michigan United and had some awareness of ISAAC, but, in that conversation with Charlae, we became aware of how closely our goals paralleled those of ISAAC. The next fall, our congregation began to come into full partnership with all of you at ISAAC. We are aware that many of us at FUMC are the beneficiaries of white privilege and the institutional church itself has shared in that status. We are thankful that we can become a part of a community that aspires to be the Beloved Community, realizing that we can and should invest ourselves to bring about justice in this world. In our membership vows we pledge to give to God our prayers, our participation, our gifts, and our witness. In acknowledging our sins in confession, we pledge to live a new life that is transformed and transforming. So, I am asked why did my wife and I become monthly donors to ISAAC and make a gift to the endowment fund? See above.”

– Ray Sweany, Housing Task Force member