About Professionals in Christian Philanthropy

PCP’s Mission Statement

A peer learning community of professionals striving to sharpen and encourage one another toward excellence in faith-inspired grant making.

5 Essential Characteristics of PCP

1Relationships

Members of the PCP community share a desire to learn from each other as we strive to steward financial resources for ministry that honors God. We recognize that this is most effectively done when we build trusting relationships.

2Safe Environment

Our events, both physical and virtual, are places where members gather free from being “pitched” by grant seekers. Membership lists are kept confidential, as are public and private conversations at events and online.

3Faith-inspired

Members are believers in Jesus Christ, who work at both Christian and secular philanthropic institutions, and whose grant making is focused on Christian faith-inspired nonprofit organizations and causes.

4Practitioners

PCP members are professionals who are hired or entrusted to do the work of making grants. As a network of peers, PCP is not aimed at those in other related roles in philanthropy, such as consultants, board members, or other staff roles such as administrative, human resource, and finance personnel. But we look for opportunities to share our learnings with those outside our community and to learn from them.

5Diversity

We seek to reflect the larger body of Christ in its diversity. We value gender, racial, ethnic, geographic and theological (within Christian orthodoxy) diversity in our membership.

Current PCP Steering Committee

Brian Decker
Vice Chair

Madala
Denver, CO

Jana Kinsey

Livelihood Impact Fund
San Francisco, CA and Arusha, Tanzania

Chelsea Lernihan

MIGMIR Fund
Chicago, IL and Indianapolis, IN

Jennifer Oakley

Imago Dei Fund
Boston, MA

Steve Mayer
Chair

Cornerstone Trust
Grand Rapids, MI

Terese Stevenson

Rees-Jones Foundation
Dallas, TX

Jeremy Taylor

Tyndale House Foundation
Carol Stream, IL

Staff

Judith Moreau
Projects Manager

Professionals in Christian Philanthropy
Brooklyn, NY

Kate Sedgwick
Program Director

Professionals in Christian Philanthropy
Ames, IA

History of Professionals in Christian Philanthropy

In the early 1980s, several Christian foundations across the United States began increasing their staff numbers.

Among these were the Buford, Morris, Day, Stewardship, Maclellan, and Fieldstead & Company foundations and organizations. At that time, one of the only resources available for new staff to learn the grantmaking business was the Council on Foundations. Although Council on Foundations succeeded in providing general knowledge of the industry, its perspective was almost entirely secular. Thus, members of these Christian foundations began meeting together, first in Atlanta and then in Washington, D.C., to learn from one another about grantmaking from a faith-based perspective.

Membership Criteria

We have three simple criteria that we ask each member to affirm. In brief, these are that each member: believes in Jesus Christ; is a practitioner with a direct role in the grant-making decision process; makes grants to Christian faith-inspired organizations or causes.

To read more about our membership guidelines and nominating process, check out our membership page. To contact us regarding membership or any other questions, please see our contact page.