Some ways we’ve seen God provide for projects when we didn’t have the funds for materials:

1. Pray and acknowledge that Jesus is the Lord of all funding sources. It is a great testimony to do this with the person you are helping. What a great foundation for the Gospel.

2. Check out your local materials supplier. We’ve found that if you can get the manager to listen long enough to tell some of the story of what is needed and why, you will have much more favor with them. Big box stores can offer discounts - not to mention any names, but the orange one’s manager typically can give 10% discount on the spot and the blue one often prices materials at their cost. These asks can be more difficult if it is a church asking which is another conversation about forming separate non-profits.

3. Other community-minded business leaders.

4. Deacons’ benevolence fund.

5. Women of the Church or the Men’s Group.

6. Your Sunday school class or small group can often kick in.

7. Service organizations and business groups.

8. People from the volunteer team often are willing to help.

9. Partnerships between HRM and other local charities are attractive, especially if the charity made the referral in the first place.

10. Request a grant or ask a local non-profit to apply for a special grant for a larger project. We had a local charity, which had already received a grant in 2011 ask us to apply on behalf of a family needing a handicap lift. The grant request would go the Electrical Membership Cooperative (EMC) from which the family got power. We got it and the family got a matching amount and the lift was funded. The lift has blessed both the parents and their sixteen year-old with cerebral palsy.

11. Some municipalities and some non-faith-based charities get Federal grants and must find ways to spend them for any qualifying need, no matter that volunteers come from a church, and come without restrictions on your activities, such as prayer or sharing your faith. They are usually earmarked for specific kinds of project or people groups. These are really good resources to know about on an on-going basis. Find volunteers who have connections to find out about such programs and use them, even if you’d rather they never pick up a hammer! God has given each church and each person different gifts to use for His Glory – Romans 12: 4-8.