2024 Impact Report
Empowering Thriving Congregations Through
a Cycle of Generosity
Dear Friends,
We are so excited and grateful for your partnership and the lasting difference we helped make in 2024, strengthening congregations, communities, and leaders across the Wesleyan movement. Together, we are supporting the loving work of Christ in the world, grounded in love, generosity, and belonging.
First, let us share a few data points that mark a solid year for us. We ended the year with $75.5 million in investments and total assets of $114.6 million, and our loan portfolio is now at $104.9 million and steadily growing. We also invested $657,000 in learning and innovation cohorts for church leaders and $320,000 in outstanding spiritual innovators across the country through the Locke Innovative Leader Award.
These numbers represent the seeds of dreams made real through life-giving ministries and programs. These dreams become inspiring stories of impact, and we share them in the report and throughout our website. Every story represents countless others, and we highlight a few from 2024:
Bethel AME Church in Ardmore, Pennsylvania, added investments in Impact Certificates* to their financial plans to help them sustain the church long-term.
The Pasifika Community in Las Vegas, Nevada, utilized a flexible loan to create a cultural hub for local Pacific Islanders, providing a foundation for the entire community into the future.
The Gathering Imaginations event in Houston, Texas, ignited participants' imaginations for the new thing God is doing.
Together, we are helping the church stand to its fullest witness for a future where faith, love, and community flourish for generations to come by supporting ministries and innovative leaders courageously helping more people know God’s love.
So, dear friends, it is with deep gratitude that we give thanks to God for you and for the ministry we share.
Rev. Lisa Greenwood
President & CEO
Wesleyan Impact Partners
Mr. Wayne Moy
Board Chair
Wesleyan Impact Partners
Impact Certificates
INVESTING IN NEIGHBORHOODS
Impact Certificates* offer variable and fixed-rate investment opportunities to individuals, churches, and agencies that provide positive returns and fund loans to churches, helping them grow and flourish now and into the future.
Investing Impact Story
Making a Difference Locally
Bethel AME Church of Ardmore, Pennsylvania, has been a beacon of faith and service and a thriving neighborhood hub for 129 years.
Under the leadership of Rev. Carolyn Cavaness, Bethel AME lives out a tradition of service to God throughout its community. One way they're changing lives for the better is through Ardmore Victory Gardens; launched in 2018, it promotes wellness, food sovereignty, and intergenerational learning.
Note: This experience may not be representative of other investors. It is no guarantee of future performance or success.
Loans
GROWING NEW MINISTRIES
Wesleyan Impact Partners specializes in loans that meet the unique needs of churches and ministries with flexible terms, consideration of factors not usually taken into account by commercial lenders, and typically lower closing fees.
Lending impact story
Creating a New Spiritual Home
A Pacific Islander cultural hub all its own, Pasifika, a United Methodist Community, is a shared space for First Samoan United Methodist Fellowship (‘New Paradise’), First Filipino-American Fellowship (‘Promised Land’), and First Tongan United Methodist Fellowship (‘Destined for Eternity’) congregations.
The facility includes a charter school that the congregations can rely on to generate revenue to support their growth and ministries. Pasifika is the result of a collaboration among the Desert Southwest Conference, the Desert Southwest Foundation, the Committee on Finance and Administration, and local churches, with Wesleyan Impact Partners providing the loan required to affordably acquire the building.
PHILANTHROPY
Emboldening a Spirit of Generosity
Gift planning offers you an opportunity to support vital ministries, build thriving congregations, and help communities flourish now and into the future. Uncover the giving option that works best for your goals.
Wesleyan Impact Partners’ philanthropy team works closely with churches and individuals to craft charitable giving plans that maximize their philanthropic legacies through donor-advised funds, endowments, and charitable trusts.
Learning and Innovation
INNOVATING FOR HOPE
We help empower leaders doing God's work in the world by convening conversations that build courage and creativity, ignite imaginations, and inspire innovation.
Learning and Innovation impact story
Investing in Each Other
Gathering Imaginations brought leaders from across the country together in Houston, Texas, to connect with, nurture, and inspire each other. The two-day conversation among spiritual thinkers, innovative leaders, and servant-hearted community members focused on the future of the church and the communities it serves.
A powerful centering theme that emerged during this gathering is that the path toward a world of generosity and belonging is guided by compassionate purpose and a commitment to invest in each other, our neighbors, and our neighborhoods.
locke innovative leaders
2024 LOCKE INNOVATIVE LEADERS
The
Locke Innovative Leader Award shines a bright light on innovation and
entrepreneurship across the Wesleyan ecosystem, raising up the ministries and
voices of courageous leaders creatively reaching more people with the Gospel.
Jonathan Brooks, “Pastah J”
Lead Pastor, Lawndale Community Church
Chicago, Illinois
Rev. Dr. Heber Brown, III
Founder, Black Church Food Security Network
Baltimore, Maryland
Carlos Huerta
Executive Director, Center for Community Transformation
Fresno, California
Moy Mendez
Executive Director, Hope Center
Blue Island, Illinois
Rev. Dr. Kenda Creasy Dean
Mary D. Synnott Professor of Youth, Church, and Culture at Princeton Theological Seminary
Princeton, New Jersey
Doing God's Work in the Neighborhood
The Locke Innovative Leader Award recognizes individuals who demonstrate exceptional creativity and leadership in developing new practices and ministries that expand the reach of God’s love and serve the unique needs of their communities.
The 2024 honorees are creating new ways to transform lives through preaching and community engagement in Chicago, promoting food security across a national network based in Baltimore, teaching financial leadership and entrepreneurship in Fresno, increasing well-being and personal agency in Blue Island, and innovating for love at Princeton Theological Seminary.
Igniting Imagination Podcast
IGNITING CONVERSATIONS
Every movement for change begins with a conversation. The Igniting Imagination Podcast features rich discussions with leaders across the church landscape that invite listeners into new possibilities for themselves, their church, and their community.
How Does Theology Shape Church Property Decisions?
with Dr. Willie James Jennings
Sparking Inspiration Together
The generative conversations in the Igniting Imagination Podcast this year called us to think about how we can use church property in new ways and leverage it for good, the current and future church, and the transformative power of building thriving neighborhoods and communities.
The podcast supports leaders in their efforts to ensure that churches and congregations, as well as organizations that nurture people's spiritual lives, remain the inspirational core of our communal lives.