Donors Fund Their Passion to Help Bring a Proven Prison Ministry Program to North Carolina
With ever-increasing enthusiasm, Tim and Rae Fangmeier have supported We Raise for more than three decades.
“I grew up with Wheat Ridge [the organization’s founding name] as the mission focus of our Lutheran congregation,” Tim explains. “In 2010, my wife Rae was asked to serve on its Board of Directors. As a semi-retired pastor, I was also asked to take on a part-time staff associate role at We Raise.”
Tim and Rae watched the organization grow over the years, including a broadening of its founding focus on health and wellness initiatives for church workers. At the same time, the couple became motivated to meet needs beyond their own congregation. In We Raise, they found an opportunity to express their faith in action through an organization they deeply trusted after seeing its work firsthand.
“Our longstanding relationship with many of the staff members has given us the confidence to increase our level of support over the years,” Tim says.
Recently, the Fangmeiers’ extended their generosity to help facilitate JUMPSTART, a proven, rehabilitation-focused prison ministry beginning in their home state of North Carolina.
“The United States has far higher incarceration rate compared with peer nations like the UK and Canada,” Tim explains. “Repeat offender rates are also very high. I became involved with a similar prison ministry called Kairos years ago. Done well, programs like Kairos and JUMPSTART dramatically reduce the rate of recidivism among the program participants.
“When Rae and I learned that We Raise was seeking to support JUMPSTART’s expansion to our own state, we were eager to be part of that effort.”
The Fangmeiers donate through a personal Giving Account set up with Fidelity Charitable, a public charity. The Account is a type of “donor advised fund” –– a provision that offers individual donors an easy, flexible way to make tax-advantaged contributions and non-cash gifts to favored charitable projects like the JUMPSTART effort funded through We Raise.
How about you? Do you have a passion that aligns with the mission of We Raise? Do you know of a new or existing charitable project that We Raise could position for growth and success in your community?
To learn more about the scope of our work and how you might fund a need that’s close to your heart like Tim and Rae did, please contact Shannon Durio, We Raise Vice President of Development at 618.772.8885 or shannon@weraise.org.
