What if congregations and nonprofits could turn the traditional approach to leadership and neighborhood engagement on its head? This is one of the many questions Center for Leadership and Neighborhood Engagement (CLNE) asks of itself and its community. “How will we be the work?”

CLNE has a vision to mobilize congregations and leaders as powerful neighborhood-based agents for positive social change. By providing coaching, training, programming and immersion experiences around cultural competency and asset-based community development, they are meeting neighborhoods exactly where they are, focusing on engagement and relationship.

Thrivent Charitable grant support is building sustainability for CLNE’s work in offering transformative learning experiences to strengthen and inspire leaders, guide suburban faith communities toward reinvestment in urban BIPOC communities, and amplify voices of color. Grant support is also advancing their Twin Cities and national networks for organizing congregations, leaders, and faith communities to effect systems change in communities.

Support from the Thrivent Community Impact Fund, ELCA Impact Fund and generous gifts from our donors help make this possible. For Impact Funds, Thrivent Charitable conducts an invitation-based grantmaking process. For more information visit our nonprofit resources.