Helping nonprofits help others

Focus on the Family makes headlines for its efforts to defeat same-sex marriage measures in other states.

NavPress publishes Christian books and other materials that are distributed worldwide.

The Christian & Missionary Alliance works to spread the gospel on a global scale.

It might seem as if these Colorado Springs-area ministries do little to help their community.

Maybe they just need a good PR firm, because these and other large local ministries are working together - without much fanfare - as the Community Roundtable to help small nonprofits become more effective at reaching out to needy people in the Pikes Peak region.

"We do a lot in the community, but one of the things we are not so good at is telling our own story," said Devin Knuckles, assistant to the president at Focus on the Family and interim executive director of the Community Roundtable.

The Roundtable started in the 1990s as a loosely knit group of nonprofits that wanted to help out locally. Focus took over the Roundtable's organizational and administrative responsibilities in 1997, and in 2005 the Roundtable became a 501(c) 3 nonprofit.

The 17 participating parachurches and organizations include Focus, Catholic Charities, Christian & Missionary Alliance, David C. Cook Ministries, Nicky Cruz Outreach and NavPress. Helped by their combined 3,200 employees, they serve as "parent" organizations that adopt secular and faith-based nonprofits and offer support through prayer, hands-on labor, financial assistance, material resources and expertise.

"Our mission is to give our energies to breaking the cycle of poverty in the Pikes Peak region," said Peter Udall, chief operating officer of NavPress, a publisher of Christian materials and books.

Financial assistance tends to be the least significant contribution, but it still adds up.

Focus records show that since January 2003, it's given more than $250,000 to its adopted organizations.

The Roundtable's past adoptees include the Colorado Springs Pregnancy Center, Family Life Services, Destiny Project, Urban Peak of Colorado Springs, Westside Cares, and Hope and Home. Current adoptees are Liza's Place, Interfaith Hospitality Network and Helping Hands Ministries in Peyton.

Organizations seeking adoption fill out an application that is reviewed by the Roundtable's board of directors. Three organizations are adopted for three years, with the proviso that each completes a one-year probation.

"Unless you give them long-term support, you just don't understand them that well," Knuckles said.

Every year one adoptee is rotated out to be replaced by a new one.

From February through November, on the third Thursday of the month, Knuckles leads a Roundtable luncheon attended by about 60 organizations.

Barb Agnew, co-executive director of Interfaith Hospitality, which offers transitional housing for homeless families, said she enjoys the networking opportunities the monthly Roundtable offers.

"The meetings help us learn of other organizations we can help and ones we can collaborate with," Agnew said.

As an adoptee, Interfaith Hospitality has received computers from Focus and a building renovation from NavPress.

Focus and NavPress also donated time and materials to help Urban Peak of Colorado Springs, a secular nonprofit helping homeless teenagers.

Urban Peak head John McIlwee said he respects how the Roundtable makes no distinction between secular and faith-based groups when it comes to support.

"They do a lot more than people realize," McIlwee said.

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Call Barna at 636-0367

The Community Roundtable

Next meeting: noon to 1:30 p.m. Thursday
Where: Springs Rescue Mission, 5 W. Las Vegas St.
Cost: $10 for those having lunch; registration is required. Free for those forgoing lunch; no registration is required. Open to the public.
For registration and more information: 277-7470, ext. 125.