June 11, 2015
Picking a Project (Part Two)
The seven member board of directors spends time in prayer individually prior to a review meeting and then again corporately during the review meeting. During the review meeting additional filters are applied to the decision process. Many, many questions are asked. A handful to give you an idea of these meetings would include:
- Are we familiar with the recipient?
- How did the project get to its current point?
- Was the recipient able to articulate the Kingdom impact of finishing this project?
- What are potential costs of flights?
- Are we familiar with the country?
- Are we familiar with the surrounding area?
From there usually 1-3 projects rise above the others. The board of directors then moves to send a project scouting team. This team is tasked with validating the information provided in the application, including the legitimacy of the project as well as gathering logistical information like:
- Where would we stay?
- What would the transportation be like?
- How will we feed the teams?
- How long is it really going to take us to complete this?
- Where will we buy the materials?
The scout team returns to the board of directors and provides a report. This does not always result in a single project to choose from. When we have more projects than budget then the board of directors is left with the tough decision of who gets chosen this year and who has to wait. It is not an enviable position as all projects that make it this far are deserving of completion.
For the recipient who gets denied support we must rest in God’s promise found in Philippians 4:19 My God will supply every need of yours according to his riches in glory in Christ Jesus.
This year FTW has moved to a team structure in order to spread the work load and involve many more of our faithful participants who want to be involved with the ministry throughout the year. One team the FTW Board created is the Project Coordination Team which is responsible for screening potential domestic and international projects and helps bring more clarity to the process for filling a 2-3 project pipeline. To that end most of the process above will fall to this team in the years to come with the Team Leader presenting the findings to the Board with a recommendation for adoption.
Are you interested in partnering with FTW in this area of the ministry? A great first step is to pray for this process specifically. We receive and review applications year around. For more information please contact our Program Director, Mary Padgett at 704-405-3825.
I am so excited to reveal in the coming weeks the project that the Board of Directors has chosen for 2016.
-Joel Davis, Founder of Finish the Work
