Giving in the Fourth Quarter

Written by Robert Brooks Heard, MDiv, BCC, ACPE

Filed under: Foundation

Dear ACPE Members and Friends, 

We’ve made it to the fourth quarter of 2024. Your contributions throughout the year support grants in research and provide scholarships to students. If you would like to make a gift to ACPE in the fourth quarter, you can make a one-time donation or become part of the Sustainer’s Circle as a monthly donor. In this newsletter, I’d like to showcase the impact of your contributions and other ways to give this year.

2025 Grant Cycle Now Open 

If you have not heard, the 2025 Grant Cycle is now open! I strongly encourage you to review the grants that are available for 2025. Consider applying for the Christopher Brown CEC Ignite Grant aimed at supporting the development of Certified Educator Candidate programs. Also, consider applying for an Innovation in Spiritual Care Education and Research Grant or a Mission Advancement Program (MAP) Fund for Spiritually Integrated Psychotherapist Grant. Our grants are designed to promote Justice, Equity, Diversity, Inclusion and Accessibility. 

I’d like to highlight the 2023 MAP Fund Grant recipient, Rev. Dr. Patricia Williams. The Foundation for ACPE supported the project titled “Transformative Hope in African American Female Grief Care.” Dr. Williams writes, “The foci proposed were to pinpoint the peculiarities of African American women’s struggles as complex grief is experienced and to expand on the research conducted by womanist theologians on the importance of attachment experiences in the resilience and well-being of African Americans during grief navigation.”  

In an interim report, Dr. Williams shared that because of being involved in this project, “Participants began to abandon the false narratives and were expressing a desire to pursue a truth journey. They displayed a reduction in despair and the need to wear masks as they began to believe they could escape the imprisonment of their false narratives.” The Foundation for ACPE is proud to support the important work of Dr. Williams and all our grant recipients. 

Giving Tuesday 

Support ACPE on Giving Tuesday, December 3, 2024. Organizations and individuals take this time of year to select charitable organizations to support. I hope you will choose ACPE as one of the non-profits that will receive your gift this Giving Tuesday.  

Conference Sponsorships 

Another way to donate is through conference sponsorships. Consider requesting your organization to become a sponsor for the 2025 ACPE Annual Conference in Minneapolis. Specialized conference sponsorship packages are available that include offerings such as complimentary conference registrations and sponsor recognition. Remember, this year, we are celebrating 100 years of Clinical Pastoral Education! Contact ACPE Foundation Director & Chief DEI Officer Jasmine Okafor for more information. 

On behalf of the Board of Directors of the Foundation for ACPE, I thank you from the bottom of my heart for the ways you give back to ACPE. Your support makes a world of difference to the advancement of spiritual care education.  


R. Brooks Heard, Foundation Board Chair 
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