For the last few years, innoFaith has been an experiment to explore the people and organizations that are thinking differently, or seeking to think differently, about how people and communities of faith can engage and collaborate and use innovation to address the social challenges of our time.
The old way of understanding what faith communities look like and the old measures of success are faltering. At the same time, new ways are emerging; new opportunities for reimagining the value faith communities have to offer the world. At innoFaith, we believe that faith communities thrive when they lead in helping humanity and the planet thrive, and that when we pair the ingenuity of social innovation with the sacred wisdom of our many faith traditions, we can build a more just, equitable, and peaceful world.
innoFaith is now at a point where we can do more to help nurture the ecosystem of people and organizations at the nexus of faith and innovation for social impact, but doing so requires more resources.
We are excited to share that innoFaith is now fiscally sponsored by FJC, which enables us to raise money under their 501c3 status.
Will you help us fuel innovation that matters by making a donation?
Here are our current funding priorities:
Content and Connections
Help us continue to bring you stories, resources, opportunities, and connections at the intersection of faith and social innovation. So much communication out there is designed to talk at you. When we speak, our goal is to be useful to you. You are someone who wants to use the wisdom and assets of faith to create a better world, and our monthly newsletter uniquely curates the things we think will be inspiring and/or helpful to you to do just that. We bring you relevant funding and fellowship opportunities, resources to help you bring your ideas to life, and stories and insights to inspire and support you, maybe get you thinking in new ways about how to create change. Our content bridges different faith traditions as well as the secular-sacred divide. In addition to our monthly newsletter, we organize events and convenings designed to foster innovative thinking and fruitful connections because none of us can change the world alone.
Scholarships
In the spring of 2023, we piloted a Certificate Course in Faith, Innovation, and Social Impact, in partnership with the Bronfman Center at NYU. This course introduced a multi-faith group of leaders to each other, to mindsets and strategies for innovation, and to some of the foremost faith-rooted social innovators in the country. Participants left with an NYU Certificate, new innovation strategies and tools, new connections, and project ideas to innovatively lead change in their communities. Our ability to continue to run this course depends on scholarship funding that will support leaders from non-profits and religious institutions to be able to participate in the course.
Spiritual Innovation Field Study and Convenings
The American religious landscape is in the midst of a tectonic shift, with thousands of clergy leaving the pulpit every month and thousands of houses of worship shutting their doors every year. But what if faith leadership isn’t growing scarce but rather exists in abundance beyond religion’s current field of vision? And what if the biggest challenge facing religion isn’t dwindling membership but rather dwindling imagination? There is an emergent groundswell of next generation entrepreneurial leaders with bold and innovative projects that redefine the role and experience of faith and spirituality in public life. Understanding and supporting this trend may help us chart the future of faith as a force for human flourishing. So we have partnered with Glean Network and the Chaplaincy Innovation Lab to design a national field study and set of convenings aimed at nurturing and building the field of spiritual entrepreneurship and innovation.
innoFaith Fund
In the coming year, we will be launching a fund to support interfaith innovation for social impact. We know that so many of you have ideas for change and that it can be difficult to find the funding you need to drive that change forward. We also think that existing funding mechanisms often disincentivize collaboration and reaching out across faith traditions to work together to address social problems in our shared communities. We want to change that by providing support specifically geared at silo-busting innovation for social impact, for initiatives that cross the lines of different faith traditions and those between sacred and secular to solve problems.
We have so many plans! Will you be a founding supporter of this work? Just click the button below or write to danielle@innofaith.org. Thank you!
Photo by Goutham Krishna on Unsplash