HELPING HANDS: Thanks to its active volunteers, Rockford-based RiverWorks (led by Denise Kesanen, above) was able to open a food shelf that has served up to 153 families a month.

Denise Kesanen believes in God moments. It’s been hard not to since she took the helm last year of RiverWorks, a Rockford community development organization that was started by the Riverwood Covenant Church.

There was the time last year when the city offered to donate a building to RiverWorks on the condition that the nonprofit pay for the renovations needed to transform it into the community’s first food shelf. The RiverWorks board budgeted $25,000 for the project but ended up not spending a dime because people of all faiths stepped forward to donate their time, skills and products. By this past July the food shelf was serving 153 families a month.

Then there was the time Kesanen sent an e-mail to the organization’s board of directors about needing shelving for the food shelf. The accidental addition of a local business owner to the e-mail list resulted in an almost immediate phone call. His company, it turned out, distributed the exact shelving she mentioned. RiverWorks could have as much as it needed—free. “We believe there is great power clearing the way and making it happen,” said Kesanen. “There are so many stories about moments we just can’t explain any other way.”

Whether they’re grounded in Christianity, Islam, Judaism or any other religion, faith-based nonprofits are effective because they can draw upon their deep and lasting connections to their communities to help meet people’s basic needs. Their motives aren’t about proselytizing, which funds for their charitable work can’t legally support. Instead, “they are tapping into a different motivation,” said Chris Fastner, program manager for the Initiative Foundation, which has invested both grants and leadership training efforts to organize and advance the work of central Minnesota’s faith-based charities. “Feeding the hungry, clothing the naked, helping the poor—they are basically living out their faith of serving their fellow human beings.”

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“We believe there is great power clearing the way and making it happen. There are so many stories about moments we just can’t explain any other way.”

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The federal government has not developed an official definition of a faith-based organization. But they tend to be characterized by a religious legion of active volunteers, shoestring budgets and a commitment to serve the most vulnerable.

The launch of a faith-based initiative by former President George W. Bush in 2001 provided new funding sources for faith-based nonprofits and established offices in several states, including Minnesota. Subsequent research by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation confirmed these unique nonprofits’ effectiveness in addressing community needs.

The Initiative Foundation has also provided more than $700,000 through 180 grants to RiverWorks and other faithbased organizations in the 14-county central Minnesota area.

Volunteers are much of the reason why faith-based organizations can make a broader impact on a minimal budget. About 500 of the volunteers at Great River Area Faith in Action in Becker donate time every week to provide caregiver and support services for seniors. Many of them give far more than the average one to two hours a week. “We have a lot of volunteers doing 15 to 20 hours a week,” said executive director Denice Freih. “There is a common belief that there is a higher power. God is at work, working through us, binding us together and giving us strength and bringing in the labor to do it.”

Great River Area Faith in Action’s success has allowed the nonprofit to expand into youth services. “Just the other day, a group of volunteers drove to St. Cloud to deliver a bed to a high school football player who has never had one,” Freih said. “He’s a star on the field and most people would never know that he doesn’t even have a bed to sleep on.” IQ