Each year, the Generosity committee (appointed by the Undergraduate Student Cabinet) partners with an organization of their choice and facilitates a campus-wide offering to challenge, sharpen, and encourage the generosity of our students, faculty, and staff.
During the 2014 fall semester, the committee put on a handful of events/activities that helped our Lincoln campus focus on the meaning of generosity. We learned some crucial points that must be a part of our understanding of a Christ-like life of giving.
This spring semester, our students are excited to put what they learned into action through a partnership with1MISSION. 1MISSION is a community development organization that gives people living in poverty an opportunity to earn a home by serving their community. You can watch this 3-minute video to see more about them or watch this or this to see how people’s lives are being changed.
LCU’s traditional undergraduate student body is dedicating this spring semester to working with 1MISSION to raise enough money to build three homes in Mexico. That is a total of $12,000.
The process attaches LCU’s fundraising efforts to one family in need at a time, while we work to “build” their home. We are currently working together to put a new roof over the Ortiz Sotomea family. You can learn more about them by following this link.
The initiative is designed to reach beyond generic on-campus offerings, though that is an option for giving, by encouraging us to “campaign” in our community. One example of this would be holding a car wash campaign, in which the students wash cars in exchange for donations that will funnel into the 1MISSION goal. Another example may be that a group of students would commit 15 hours to raking leaves in the community (if indeed there were leaves on the ground) and had friends and family agree to donate a dollar amount for each hour that they raked. The opportunities for campaigns are endless which gives individuals and student groups the opportunity to use their creativity.
This partnership allows students to look at their own lives, decide what they have to give, and put on a personal/group campaign to use that thing/skill to raise money. Generosity representative, Ashlyn Nickerson said “It also breaks the barrier between global and local generosity. As we work in our community, we raise money for the families in Mexico that are working in THEIR community to earn a home. It promotes community development all around.”
Nate Hughes, the organization’s Partnerships Director, came to the Lincoln campus in January to help launch the initiative on campus by speaking in missions classes and speaking during Chapel worship.