ABCUSA: National Ministries And Partners Launch Interfaith Isaiah Fund

[Jayne, Andy]

VALLEY FORGE, PA (ABNS 06/04/08) - National Ministries, American Baptist
Churches USA has partnered with five faith-based organizations to launch
The Isaiah Funds, believed to be the first interfaith fund for long-term
domestic disaster recovery.
 
The funds-a Redevelopment Loan Fund and an Access to Capital Grants
Fund-will initially focus on recovery in low income Gulf Coast
communities by helping affordable housing projects close financing gaps,
helping small businesses get back on their feet, and supporting the
development of community centers. Founders hope the funds become a
springboard from which other funds are developed to support recovery
following future disasters.
 
A collaboration of Jewish, Catholic and Mennonite as well as Baptist
organizations, The Isaiah Funds grew out of the work of the Katrina
Investment Response Team at the Interfaith Center on Corporate
Responsibility (ICCR) in New York, N.Y. As a founding member of The
Isaiah Funds, National Ministries continues its long history of
leveraging its financial investments to help address social justice
concerns.
 
National Ministries' Treasurer and Chief Financial Officer Michaele
Birdsall, CPA, who is spearheading the American Baptist home mission
organization's participation in this effort, encourages American Baptist
partners to consider investing in The Isaiah Funds.
 
The funds' goal is to build up the program to $10 million for loans and
$1 million for grants with the help of foundations and faith-based
institutions by the end of 2009. Already $4.5 million has been raised
toward that goal.
 
"People of faith are called to play a unique and critical role in
addressing the chronic needs of our society," Birdsall says. "More than
two years after hurricanes Katrina and Rita, I am still struck by the
level of devastation that continues in New Orleans. Not only the
devastation of buildings and infrastructure, but also the devastation of
lives, families and communities. Participation in The Isaiah Funds is
part of National Ministries' continued commitment to use every available
resource to support the Gulf Coast rebuilding effort."
 
Gulf Coast Housing Partnership, which has finished about 600 units of
affordable housing since the storm and is working on an additional 500
units, will receive the first loan of $500,000.
 
The funds' name hails from the words of the Old Testament prophet: "You
will restore the age-old foundations and be called repairer of the
breach, restorer of the streets in which to dwell" (Isaiah 58:12).
 
National Ministries' partners in The Isaiah Funds include: CHRISTUS
Health, a Catholic faith-based, not-for-profit health system; Highland
Good Steward Management, a provider of investment advice to
not-for-profit institutional investors; Jesuits of the New Orleans
Province, a Jesuit order that serves the people of God in the southern
and southwestern United States; Jewish Funds for Justice, a national
public foundation; and MMA Community Development Investments, a
Mennonite-related community investment program.
 
For information about investing in The Isaiah Funds, contact Michaele
Birdsall at 610-768-2368 or mbirdsall at abc-usa.org.
 

Andrew C. Jayne 
American Baptist Churches USA 
Mission Resource Development 
http://www.abc-usa.org/