President's Blog

Reflections on All Saints’ Day

As All Saints’ Day is celebrated this weekend, it brings to mind the wonderful hymn by Lesbia Scott, “I Sing a Song of the Saints of God,” which she wrote for her children. 

One of the joys of working for Episcopal Relief & Development is that every day, I am reminded through the powerful stories of our partners worldwide that “The World is bright with the joyous saints who love to do Jesus’ will.” 

Scott says, in her lovely Anglican way, that you can meet them “In church, or in trains, or in shops, or at tea…” Indeed. 

You can meet them in Gaza, Gulf Port (Mississippi) or Goma (Democratic Republic of Congo) as well—and I have! 

She calls all of us to God’s mission of healing a hurting world.  Enjoy the hymn below and share with us how you mean to be a saint in today’s broken world.

I sing a song of the saints of God,
Patient and brave and true,
Who toiled and fought and lived and died
For the Lord they loved and knew.
And one was a doctor, and one was a queen,
And one was a shepherdess on the green:
They were all of them saints of God—and I mean,
God helping, to be one too.

They loved their Lord so dear, so dear,
And his love made them strong;
And they followed the right, for Jesus’ sake,
The whole of their good lives long.
And one was a soldier, and one was a priest,
And one was slain by a fierce wild beast:
And there’s not any reason—no, not the least,
Why I shouldn’t be one too.

They lived not only in ages past,
There are hundreds of thousands still,
The world is bright with the joyous saints
Who love to do Jesus’ will.
You can meet them in school, or in lanes, or at sea,
In church, or in trains, or in shops, or at tea,
For the saints of God are just folk like me,
And I mean to be one too.

Lesbia Scott (1898–1986)
© 1929, 1940 Lesbia Scott

As many of you know, Episcopal Relief & Development prides itself on assuring its donors that we have one of the lowest indirect (fundraising and administrative) costs rates in the industry.  We work hard to keep our ratios in line.

However, an article in the Fall 2009 issue of the Stanford Social Innovation Review, entitled “The Nonprofit Starvation Cycle”, calls this strategy into question.  It cites a Bridgespan Group study, asks some probing questions, and concludes that “A vicious cycle is leaving nonprofits so hungry for decent infrastructure that they can barely function as organizations—let along serve their beneficiaries.”  The author calls on funders to take the lead in breaking this cycle.  To read the entire article, click here.

One funder has done just that.  The Boston Foundation recently announced that “More of its grantmaking dollars will be shifted over the next two years to provide organizations with general operating support. As a result, fewer purely programmatic grants will be made in the future.”  You can read about it here.  (In the interest of full disclosure my sister is on the staff of The Boston Foundation.  I assure you I had nothing to do with the change in their policy.)

Maybe we shouldn’t be focused so much on indirect costs rates.  We’d be a stronger, more effective organization if we didn’t.  Making that case to donors is tough, though.  What do you think?