Churches United invites community to dream up social enterprise with them

MOORHEAD, Minn. -- Churches United is asking its friends, donors and the community at large to help it dream up a social enterprise that helps continue to strengthen the agency’s finances so that it will be able to serve long into the future. 

Churches United is a large, faith-based nonprofit that for 38 years has worked to provide safe shelter, stable housing, nutritious food and a path toward healing for hundreds of community members every single day. The organization currently operates four facilities that include an emergency shelter, stand alone food pantry, and two permanent supportive housing apartment buildings, all located in Moorhead. 

Over the past six months, as Churches United’s board and leadership started planning for the organization’s future, diversifying the $3 million-plus per year in revenue it takes to provide services for more than 500 people per day was identified as one of the agency’s most critical priorities. CU leaders say that while the community is very supportive, the organization must identify additional ways to fund its life-saving mission to provide food, shelter, housing and healing to ease the pressure of raising 70 percent of its funding every month. 

“As a person-centered place of care, healing and housing,” CEO Pastor Devlyn Brooks said, “we need to spend more of our energy on meeting the needs of our community members, and less on generating the critical dollars it takes to fund such a vital mission.” 

With assistance from outside nonprofit experts who helped with an exhaustive review of its organizational finances and leadership structure during the past six months, Churches United’s leaders are launching a community-facing initiative to explore opportunities that would not only meet a need in the Fargo-Moorhead metro area, but also provide additional funding for the organization. Some call this a “social enterprise” model of funding. 

To assist the agency, CU’s leaders are seeking the input of the very community it serves, and are inviting supporters, donors and others in the community to participate in a survey that will help the board and staff understand what entrepreneurial social needs exist in the F-M community. 

The work to assess the landscape of needs in the community, and identify potential entrepreneurial opportunities will take several form over the next several months. 

The first phase of this process will begin immediately with a communitywide survey that will focus on several key stakeholder groups, including donors, volunteers and community members at large. You can find the link to participate here: https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/SK7F2V7. 

“We’re encouraging everyone to complete the survey to help Churches United identify any social entrepreneurial gaps that exist in our community,” Pastor Brooks said. “We know that there are services our community needs that nonprofits are uniquely equipped to perform. And we want to ensure that we’re strategizing in alignment with our community.” 

Later, in July, the Churches United Board of Directors and its leadership team will host a “Community Leader Forum" on Tuesday, July 14, at the Minnesota State University Moorhead Christianson Alumni Center on campus. During that forum, CU will present the data collected from this communitywide survey and ask local leaders to help dig even deeper into the information and uncover where the needs are. 

Even later still in the year, the consulting firm DBD Group of Des Moines, Iowa, also will assist Churches United leaders in qualitative data-gathering conversations with similar large, faith-based nonprofits across the country that are fulfilling necessary community services while also generating vital revenue to fund their organizations. 

Eventually, all of the data and community feedback will be sorted, collected and analyzed before the most appropriate social enterprise opportunities are prioritized and presented to the CU Board. Pastor Brooks says the goal is to utilize this important engagement process to shape Churches United’s future organizational goals and financial planning. 

Churches United Board President Jess Spieker Ferden encouraged all community members to engage in this opportunity to shape the future of this venerable organization that has grown to meet the community’s needs for four decades. 

“Whether you’re a long-time donor, or someone who casually knows a little about Churches United, we want your feedback,” President Spieker Ferden said. “The information we gather from the community will shape our organization’s future for years to come. Please consider participating in the survey and our upcoming Community Leader Forum.” 

Churches United was founded in 1987 in the heart of downtown Moorhead in a former Lutheran church. In 2019, Churches United merged with the Dorothy Day organization, also located in Moorhead. CU now operates Micah’s Mission, which provides emergency shelter and a community day center; Dorothy Day Food Pantry, a standalone food pantry in downtown Moorhead; and Bright Sky Apartments and Silver Lining Apartments, both permanent supportive housing apartment in north Moorhead.