During September the international Non-Government Organization ”Sofia Global” hosted a workshop in Rome, Italy where it is based. 44 people attended the workshop from across the globe. The focus of the workshop was grant proposal writing and fund searching for mission. The grant proposal writing follows a 14 step module developed over a decade in these workshops by the CEO of AMS, Brother Allen Sherry, and recrafted in recent years with the other current presenter Dr. Arnout Mertens, International Director of Philanthropy and Development at Jesuit Refugee Service. This workshop has been over-enrolled for a number of years especially as the number of lay professionals who are employed by religious communities increases in this work. This year there was a mix of lay people, religious and missionary priests. Among the participants was AMS Co-ordinator of Communications and grant writer Tony Skinner who commented that “this work was my first experience of faith based NGOs involved in development work and there were diverse experiences shared in the case studies”. Tony also presented an overview of how AMS promotes its work to the group as part of one session.
The workshop was enriched by three presenters in the afternoons: two were funders: the Director of International Projects at Aid to the Church in Need Germany and the Assistant Co-ordinator of Public Affairs at the US Embassy to the Holy See. In addition there was a presentation from the director of a funding service group in USA called Mission Service Project.
The involvement of AMS team in this annual workshop enables us to establish links to other successful funders as well as sharing our experience with European agencies. Sharing our experience of promoting AMS’s work through digital platforms and low key supporter events also gave the participants an alternative approach to publicising their work.
Michael Coleman
AMS Operations Co-ordinator