Description
The Foundation received its tax-exempt status in 1949 but its roots are more than twenty years earlier. It is a network of friends from all walks of life and all ages joined together by our interest in the specific person, wisdom and reconciling power of Jesus. The Foundation operates within a collaborative rather than a hierarchical structure. A core principal of this structure is that the organization is to serve the people, not the people serving the organization. As a 501(c)3 corporation, one of the functions of the Foundation is to provide administrative and accounting support to small groups of people who come together in the spirit of Jesus Christ to serve others around the world in countless different ways. The Foundation handles the legal and financial aspects faced by the people involved in the various projects, professionally and in compliance with all governing laws and regulations. There is not a single set of executives with overall responsibilities; rather each small group prepares annual plans and budgets which are reviewed by a committee reporting to the Board. Under this scrutiny, each group is then free to conduct its efforts under the general guidelines. The basic guiding principle is that all the activities among the poor, with youth, in prisons, for widows and orphans, among political and civic leaders and in any segment of communities, states or nations be done in the spirit and example of Jesus. The people involved in the Foundation seek to give support and encouragement to responsible leaders from all levels of society and all walks of life. This is done largely through small groups of people who meet on a regular basis among their peers to talk, think and pray together about the daily problems they are facing. The people involved in the Foundation nurture projects and give support and encouragement to leaders from all walks of life. The mission to leaders involves facilitating candid, intimate, and thus private, relationships among their peers in governments, businesses and other organizations, based on the leadership principles taught and practiced by Jesus. This is done largely through small groups that grow over time to change participants’ perspectives, attitudes and approaches to problems — in particular, difficulties involving people who struggle daily to meet their own needs.
History
A young Norwegian named Abraham Vereide came to the United States in the early 20th century. He had a great commitment for Jesus Christ. He became a Methodist circuit rider traveling on horseback, preaching in small rural churches in Montana. Later he moved to Seattle where he and his friends began working with people suffering through the Depression. During these years, Vereide realized that many people were poor because of the failure of community leaders (from all spheres) to assist them. He reasoned that if the leaders and people of prominence in the state of Washington knew and cared more about Jesus and more about the plight of the poor, they could give better leadership. He sought out and started meeting regularly with the mayor and some of his friends from Seattle and around the state of Washington. He simply met with these leaders and counseled them to study Jesus and his teachings, especially about the poor and disenfranchised. Because these meetings often occurred over breakfast and always included prayer, they became known as “prayer breakfasts.” Vereide gathered groups that were intentionally diverse, nurturing friendships with people from across religious, political and philosophical viewpoints. He took this model from Jesus, who gathered his own disciples from many different backgrounds. As the groups flourished and began to interrelate, positive changes began happening through these friendships. These ideas caught on, and eventually Vereide’s friends suggested that he move to Washington DC, to cultivate at the national level the same ideas that had such positive impact at the local and state levels. In the 1940s, with encouragement from Vereide, small groups were formed in the Senate and House of Representatives to provide a place for people of differing opinions to meet privately to express their concerns as leaders, to pray, and to share in each others’ lives personally. Early leaders who embraced the power of small prayer groups included Senator Frank Carlson of Kansas, Senator Mark Hatfield of Oregon, Judge Gordon Powell, General Merwin Silverthorne, Richard Halverson, Chaplain of the Senate, and Conrad Hilton (who personally hosted the first breakfasts). In 1953, the two groups in the US Congress joined together to establish the National Prayer Breakfast to afford President Eisenhower the opportunity to participate in such a group once a year. Out of this success prayer breakfasts were started in many nations, cities, and states to discover and to work with leaders at all levels of society. Often these were modeled on the Washington, DC example, but not controlled or funded by the Foundation. As a result of such gatherings in the United States and around the world there have been many examples of leaders’ people’s lives being changed in America and around the world. The key idea is for leaders to be humble enough to admit that the problems they face are more complex than can be solved out of human ingenuity and to seek inspiration from studying the teachings of Jesus together. Vereide continued the work in Washington, D.C. and globally until his death in 1969. A band of approximately half a dozen of Vereide’s closest trusted friends agreed to provide consensus leadership as a team, without titles, to continue the mission. These included lay leader Doug Coe, businessman Paul Temple and attorney Jim Bell, who joined with initial prayer group leaders such as Senator Carlson, Judge Powell, General Silverthorne and Chaplain Halverson. The structured, visionary-led organization that Vereide established quickly transitioned into a vision-directed model after the approach of Jesus, that reflected a decentralized network of people-to-people relationships focused on serving people in need that is still in effect today.
Financial Status
Legal Name
Fellowship Foundation IncFormer Names
National Committee for Christian Leadership, International Christian Leadership, National Leadership Council, the International FoundationTax ID
53-02046042014 Revenue
$17,637,393.00
2013 Revenue
$15,201,979.00
2012 Revenue
$15,177,449.00
2011 Revenue
$15,054,346.00
2010 Revenue
$13,962,152.00
2009 Revenue
$15,518,589.00
2008 Revenue
$14,416,850.00
2007 Revenue
$16,844,869.00
2006 Revenue
$13,485,674.00
2014 Net Assets
$10,948,480.00
2013 Net Assets
$9,463,246.00
2012 Net Assets
$10,066,312.00
2011 Net Assets
$10,240,288.00
2010 Net Assets
$10,319,434.00
2009 Net Assets
$11,588,443.00
2008 Net Assets
$11,455,622.00
2007 Net Assets
$12,873,443.00
2006 Net Assets
$10,332,833.00