Encouraging the brightest light of faith: An end of year letter from innoFaith
Dear friend,
I was taking a late afternoon stroll around my neighborhood the other day. The setting sun had already cast the houses and streets into gray shadows, but as I turned a corner, a bright rose-hued light caught my eye. A tall church steeple towering high above the gray rooftops glowed brilliantly with the pink light of the setting sun. The beauty of the scene took my breath away for a second. As I continued down the block and passed the church, I saw that it was in complete disrepair, abandoned, boarded up, a for-sale sign on its expansive corner property.
So many things rushed to my mind in that moment–how the potential of religion can seem so brilliant like that glowing steeple, and yet how it so often disappoints us, showing up more like that mess of an old property; how many of our faith institutions strive valiantly to shine light to the world even though they may be falling apart or fading into the sunset; and mostly how I believe there is still light to shine if we can transform the property holding it, symbolically speaking, into something worthy of that light.
I created innoFaith because I believe in this potential. I believe that the brightest light of faith comes not from beautiful buildings or pious living but from the wisdom of our traditions, stripped of the dogma, that not only promises a better world but inspires people and communities of faith to take action to bring that better world into existence.
At innoFaith, we believe that sacred wisdom gets embodied and activated through a beautifully diverse collection of people, leaders, and communities. We believe that if we combine the wisdom and assets of our faith communities with the ingenuity of social innovation, we can create real change toward a more just, equitable, and peaceful society. We believe that if we step out of our silos and collaborate across our faith communities and across the sacred-secular divide, we open up new opportunities to do this even more effectively. And we believe that if we do this, our faith communities, in whatever form they take–a traditional house of worship, an emergent community meeting in homes or coffee shops, a virtual community–will also thrive.
At innoFaith, our mission is to inspire people of faith to address the social challenges of our time through innovation and collaboration. We nurture an ecosystem of people and organizations at the nexus of faith and innovation to increase social impact. We offer curated content, custom connections and convenings, and a collaborative interfaith community to help humanity and the planet thrive.
It has been an exciting growth year for us. Over the past year, we:
Grew our audience with more regular monthly newsletters and social media presence, including featuring eight leaders of varied faith backgrounds in our Meet an innoFaither series and sharing countless stories, resources, fellowship and grant opportunities, accelerators, and more to support people in their changemaking journeys
Launched a Certificate Course in Faith, Innovation, and Social Impact with a multi-faith cohort of leaders in partnership with the NYU Bronfman Center
Co-developed a plan for a national field study on spiritual innovation and social impact in partnership with Glean Network and Chaplaincy Innovation Lab
Initiated and funded a partnership between the Interfaith Coalition of Bowie, Maryland, and the Giving Square to pilot the Giving Square's innovative Kids for Kids Fund initiative in an interfaith setting
Led a workshop on Innovation Leadership for Social Impact at the Parliament of the World's Religions, the largest and oldest interfaith convening, in Chicago.
Shared the work of innoFaith on public radio through an interview with Inspired by Interfaith Voices
Became fiscally sponsored by FJC, allowing us to accept tax-deductible donations under their 501c3 status
Honed our key messages and offerings and made our first hire—part-time Communications Manager Abbie Haug
In the coming year, we plan to:
Continue to grow our audience and network of leaders and support them with the most relevant content, connections, and opportunities to advance their work and leadership
Develop more content, including an event series to bring innovative, high-impact ideas to faith communities seeking to create change, starting with a virtual webinar in February 2024 on intergenerational engagement for social impact, in collaboration with award-winning organization CoGenerate
Launch the aforementioned spiritual innovation field study and develop a related set of convenings in collaboration with Glean Network, Chaplaincy Innovation Lab, and other partners
Bring the NYU Certificate Course in Faith, Innovation, and Social Impact to more leader cohorts
Develop a fund to support interfaith innovation
We want to continue to connect the very best of social innovation with the very best of faith to foster innovation that matters, to support people and communities of faith to achieve their potential as agents of change for a better world. I invite you to read more about our planned initiatives for 2024 and our respective funding goals for each here. If you are able to make a contribution of any size toward these goals and/or share with someone who is, that would be a huge gift to us. You can donate here.
As we near the end of the year, during a time when so many gather to celebrate holidays, I want to end this letter with my sincere gratitude. innoFaith exists because of YOU. I cannot wait to continue building a better world together in the new year.
In faith,
Danielle
Photo by Raphael Renter | @raphi_rawr on Unsplash