Foreign-Born Populations - Lutheran Foundation of St. Louis

Funding Goal

To assist foreign-born individuals and families in achieving self-sufficiency, financial stability, and economic mobility, thereby enabling them to succeed and contribute to the community.

Overview

Lutheran Foundation seeks to support congregations and organizations that are committed to improving the social and economic well-being of foreign-born individuals and families in the St. Louis area. We seek to invest in services that allow foreign-born populations to experience increased connectedness through community engagement and civic participation as well as improve their mental, physical, and spiritual health.

Attracting foreign-born populations and providing the services necessary to facilitate successful transition and integration are important to the health and growth of the region. Services that address basic needs, support practical living skills, and provide access to community-based health and human services help foreign-born populations with meeting the everyday challenges of living in a new culture and allow them to make a valuable contribution to the community.

Local congregations and faith-based agencies have historically played a critical role in welcoming and serving foreign-born individuals and their families. Leviticus 19:43 calls us to treat the foreign-born among us as we would treat the native-born. Area organizations have a history of demonstrating the servant heart of Christ through acts of service to those new to St. Louis. Lutheran Foundation looks forward to investing in this work as we strive to improve the care of foreign-born populations and their families residing in the St. Louis metropolitan region.

Outcomes

Outcomes describe, in broad terms, the measurable change within each Funding Focus Area that Lutheran Foundation would like to see in the lives of those served by grantees. Outcomes allow the Foundation to aggregate indicators across multiple grantees to determine our community impact.

Organizations seeking funding from the Foundation must demonstrate how their program will address one or more of the following outcomes:

OUTCOME #1

Foreign-born individuals will maintain or experience improved mental, physical, and/or spiritual health.

OUTCOME #2

Foreign-born individuals will improve their social and economic well-being.

OUTCOME #3

Foreign-born individuals will experience increased connectedness through community engagement and civic participation.

While modeling the healing love of Christ, Lutheran Foundation strives to invest in services that show measurable impact in the lives of hurting people. We look to accomplish this by supporting services that are:

Comprehensive and collaborative in addressing the complicated and complex needs of the targeted population;
Responsive to cultural and gender differences;
Family-centered or focused; and
Evidence-based/informed and/or utilize best or promising practices.

Interested applicants must be recognized by and in good standing with the Internal Revenue Service as a 501(c)(3) organization, or be sponsored by such an entity. In the latter instance, the sponsoring agency must serve as the lead organization and will be recognized as the fiscal agent for the grant. Collaborative efforts, which are strongly encouraged, should include the tax-exempt letter of the lead agency.

Applicants must provide project services in the geographic area supported by the Lutheran Foundation which includes the following counties in the St. Louis metropolitan area:

Missouri counties: Franklin, Jefferson, Lincoln, St. Charles, St. Louis City, St. Louis County, and Warren
Illinois counties of Clinton, Jersey, Madison, Monroe, and St. Clair

Regular Grants
Organizations are typically funded by annual grants. Grants may be renewed for up to three years, with a 20-25% decrease each year; however, grantees must apply annually.

Multi-Year Funding
Multi-year grants are available but are less typical and most commonly awarded to churches and ministries that have had a long-term relationship with Lutheran Foundation and a history of high performance. Funding for the same program is usually limited to a total of three years.

*NOTE: Lutheran Foundation is highly relational and seeks to develop relationships with our grantees to build mutual understanding and partnership. Organizations that anticipate applying for funding are highly encouraged to request a consultation with Foundation staff.

Funding requests into the Foundation are most often for programmatic support. Organizational support is available for organizations that have an established relationship with the Foundation and are able to demonstrate that the funding will enable the organizations to operate more effectively and sustainably. The following are examples of programs/services/activities which the Foundation will consider for funding (not an exhaustive list):

Program Support

Basic needs assistance, such as, housing, transportation, employment readiness, certificate programs, and/or placement.
Faith-based services that utilize chaplains, health and peer coaches, and/or parish/faith community nurses.
Family services such as parenting workshops and connection/referrals to community resources.
Healthcare services to promote healthy lifestyles and nutrition, access to preventative care and diagnosis and management of chronic health conditions.
Language services, such as English as a Second Language (ESL) education, GED preparation, literacy services, community-based interpretation and orientation services to help individuals with limited English proficiency (LEP) integrate into the mainstream community.
Mental health services, such as therapy, crisis intervention, and support groups.
Naturalization and U.S. citizenship services, such as citizenship classes, oral interview preparation, legal services, and outreach events.
Supporting children of foreign-born parents to succeed at all levels of education, from early childhood through higher education. This may include tutoring, mentoring, college/vocational school preparation, parent-student support services, and counseling on college, vocational school, and career options.

Capacity Building Support

Activities and projects that would contribute to the increased capacity and sustainability of the organization in the long term, such as leadership, fundraising, risk management, and performance management.
Short term activities or one-time expenses that help an organization and/or program operate more effectively such as new technology, board and staff training/development, and external consulting services, such as strategic planning and program evaluation.

Click here to learn more about capacity building funding.

The Foundation will generally not consider the following requests:

Annual appeals/special events/fundraisers/sponsorships
Grants to specific individuals
Lobbying activities
Operating deficits
Organizations that do not have a 501(c)(3) tax status
Scholarships
Services outside the Foundation’s defined St. Louis metropolitan area

Unless invited by Lutheran Foundation:

Capital campaigns or major capital expenditures that are not directly related to program implementation
Seed money necessary to start a new agency

For questions regarding funding in this focus area, please contact Rebekah Miller, Senior Program Officer. She can be reached at rebekah@lutheranfoundation.org or 314-231-2244 ext. 110.

For current grantees with specific questions regarding grant reporting, payment, and contracts, please contact Juliet Holden, Grants Manager. She can be reached at juliet@lutheranfoundation.org or 314-231-2244 ext. 111.

LOCAL RESOURCES

Census 2020 – resources and information on the upcoming Census by a local funder, Missouri Foundation for Health.

Immigrant Service Providers Network “increases collaboration by providing opportunities for education and outreach to unite organizations that support the foreign born and their families.”

New American Alliance offers a searchable database to find services in the St. Louis region for immigrants and refugees.

St. Louis Mosaic Project a regional initiative with the goal “to transform St. Louis into the fastest growing metropolitan area for immigration by 2020 and promote regional prosperity through immigration and innovation.”

St. Louis Regional Immigrant and Refugee Resource Ecosystem a resource by the Clark-Fox Foundation that shows the relationship and services the local nonprofit agencies serving the foreign born.

NATIONAL RESOURCES

Lutheran Immigration and Refugee Service (LIRS) provides leadership to a national network of agencies providing services to immigrants and refugees.

Unidos US (formerly National Council de la Raza) provides research and policy on national and state issues for the Hispanic community.

U.S. Department of Homeland Security – Office of Immigration Statistics provides annual data on foreign-born populations of various residency and legal status including number, characteristics and enforcement actions.