The Ohio Conference Board of Directors recently approved Make a Difference grants totaling $14,850 to fifteen churches and other organizations. Funding requests totaling $162,771 were received from 27 different ministries. Grants are divided into three categories that deal with special needs for church leaders, churches and communities.

Grants to serve the needs of church leaders were given to:

• The Northwest Ohio Association to hold a seminar for small church leaders ($1000)

• Miller Avenue UCC to subsidize staff salaries ($1000) 

• Cross Creek Community UCC to develop and empower transformational lay leadership ($1000)

To address special needs of churches, grants were awarded to:

• Grace UCC, Norton, to subsidize the church’s annual budget ($1000)

• Memorial UCC, Toledo, to remodel Sunday School rooms ($500)

• Willard UCC, to help replace church roof ($1000)

• David’s UCC, Kettering, to help pay for church subscriptions to the Parish Resource Center ($500)

• Old Springfield UCC to replace the narthex roof ($1000)

• First UCC, Findlay to be used for a praying garden ($500)

Special needs of communities were funded with grants to:

• Interfaith Hospitality Network of Summit County (Akron) to support homeless families by renovating a house to be used as a Family Center ($2000)

• Paradise UCC to establish an ecumenical Bible School ($350)

• St. John’s UCC, Dayton, for a MusicFest to raise funds for United Church Homes ($500)

• First Congregational UCC, Lorain, to help pay the salary of the Thrift Shop Coordinator ($1000)

• Congregational Community UCC, Monroeville, to establish an after-school youth club ($500)

• The Racial Justice Youth Ministry of Cincinnati, to purchase a van ($3,000)

Committee members Elaine Mikesell, Robert Hawkins and Charles Kuck stress the difficulty of making grants when the amount available is so much less than the requests. Mikesell, committee chair, said to the Board, "Please remind folks that we are trying to divide these funds among many programs that are worthy of receiving funds, but we just don’t have it to give."

Make A Difference grant funds come from the earnings of the Make A Difference endowment fund. The amount available each year is equal to 5% of a three-year rolling average of the endowment fund total. The criteria for the awards were established at the 1992 Ohio Conference Annual Meeting.