For those of you missionaries who are avid readers of literature, I have a test question for you: what is the length of the longest sentence in published literature? Answer: 13, 995 words! It is in The Rotter’s Club, a 2001 novel by British writer Jonathan...
Sometimes a picture is worth a thousand words...
“Is there a Local Contribution?” This is the question that every missionary should ask her or himself when completing an application for a project grant. If there is not a specific line on the application itself for this information, be sure to announce your “local contribution”...
USE THE CHECKLIST & CHECK THE LIST! I am in the middle of an experience that causes me to risk your seeing me and MPS as a broken record. What do I mean? This past summer I have worked with missionaries in Zambia and Mexico to submit...
I had a meeting recently at a large funding organization that makes grants by committees that are dedicated to various parts of the world, such as an Africa Committee, a Latin America Committee, et cetera. At one point in our meeting, one of the committee directors,...
TEN COMMANDMENTS OF GRANT WRITING FOR CATHOLIC MISSIONARIES Thou shalt never miss an application deadline because it will cause automatic disqualification of your application Thou shalt not apply for a project that the foundation does not fund because this would be wasting your time (and...
The Unmet Need I spoke recently with a foundation director who returned from a visit to India, where he spent time at several locations, visiting with a variety of missionaries. One can only imagine that his head was/is spinning, but not from the noise and crush...
BEING OF TWO MINDS “If only the foundation knew how valuable this work we are doing is OR how much of a different even a small grant would make for our work!” I have heard this or similar statements many times by missionaries and they always make...
Many years ago, I was a Jesuit novice, for the Midwest Province in the United States. One of the stories shared me and my fellow novices was about St. Ignatius Loyola, founder of the Jesuits, and the lengths he would go to in trying to...
Dear sister and brother missionaries, I want to share with you an important insight that affects all of us. Last week I had lunch with a man who had recently retired from being the president of a foundation for a large pharmaceutical company. The company foundation made...