Churches don’t stand alone in their communities. Here are 3 great reasons to coordinate benevolence with other groups in your community.

Church benevolence programs often take the form of helping with groceries, paying utility bills, providing clothes, etc. Those are the kinds of needs that other groups are probably already addressing in your community.

Avoid Duplication

Does your community really need another functional food pantry, soup kitchen or clothing thrift store? Maybe. Chances are good that more people in need would get more help faster if you support the programs that already exist in your community.

Coordinating keeps you from having to manage duplicate administrative & bookkeeping burdens. That frees up your church’s time and resources to help elsewhere, perhaps addressing a need that nobody else is.

And when you coordinate benevolence, it helps avoid another kind of duplication: there is the rare individual that would abuse the generosity of the community. Without coordination, a person could get help for a single need several times over by going to different groups. That could rob someone else from getting single help for a single need because the resources were already given out.

Build Strong Relationships

If you’re leading people to have restored and healthy relationships with God and with others, shouldn’t our churches follow that same pattern with other organizations in their communities? When you coordinate benevolence, it creates opportunity for ongoing relationships. That’s good for the community and good for your church.

Another thing that networking accomplishes is figuring out what’s already going on in your community. Sometimes a person seeking help from your church doesn’t know what else is out there. Being a connecting resource is easy and potentially very helpful.

Address Security

Unfortunately, this is just one of those things that has to be on your radar these days. Maybe a little more for you churches that have office space, but having checks and gift cards on hand could make your church a target. If you coordinate benevolence with other organizations that have established systems and safeguards in place, you stand to reduce risk for your staff and volunteers that help.

So consider including working with others part of your church benevolence system. Tackle needs and address the systemic roots of those needs together as a whole community.