For Funders & Partners
Investing in the soul care of those who lead the Church
Why Fund This Work
The Church faces a leadership crisis. Pastoral burnout has reached epidemic proportions. Ministry leaders are leaving at unprecedented rates. Organizations that should be flourishing are fractured by conflict, exhaustion, and cultures of fear.
Yet most philanthropic investment in Christian leadership focuses on training—more conferences, more content, more programs. While training has its place, it does not address the deeper crisis: leaders whose souls are depleted cannot sustain the communities they serve.
Stillwater Formation Center represents a different approach. We invest in the inner life of leaders—the slow, deep work of formation that produces lasting transformation. This is preventative care for the soul, and it has the potential to change not just individual leaders but the entire culture of Christian leadership.
Investing in leader formation is investing upstream. Healthy leaders create healthy organizations that create healthy communities for generations.
The Leadership Health Crisis
The statistics are sobering, but the deeper reality is even more concerning:
Burnout is normalized. Many leaders accept exhaustion as the cost of ministry, not recognizing it as a spiritual crisis.
Fear drives decisions. Too many organizations are led by anxiety rather than discernment, creating cultures of reactivity.
Isolation is common. Senior leaders often have no safe place to process their struggles without fear of judgment.
Formation is neglected. Leaders are trained in skills but rarely formed in soul. The gap eventually shows.
The cost of this crisis is immense—not just in ministry effectiveness, but in broken families, wounded congregations, and leaders who leave the faith entirely. Yet most of this damage is preventable with the right kind of investment.
Formation as Preventative Care
Medicine has learned that prevention is far more effective than treatment. The same is true for leadership health.
Stillwater Formation Center offers preventative care for leaders—space to rest before they crash, tools to sustain before they deplete, community to support before they isolate. This investment pays dividends for decades:
One leader formed well influences dozens of other leaders, thousands of congregants, and tens of thousands in their broader community.
One burnout prevented saves not just a career but a family, a congregation, and years of ministry impact.
One organization healed creates a culture where staff flourish, volunteers thrive, and mission advances for generations.
The best time to invest in a leader's soul is before the crisis hits. Prevention is always less costly than repair.
Partnership Opportunities
Multiple ways to invest in the formation of leaders who lead leaders.
Launch Partner
Help us establish Stillwater Formation Center as a sustainable ministry. Launch partners provide foundational funding to build infrastructure, develop curriculum, and open our first retreats.
Investment: $25,000+
Retreat Sponsor
Fully fund a leader's retreat experience. Many pastors and ministry leaders cannot afford the time or expense of a 5-day retreat. Your sponsorship removes that barrier.
Investment: $3,500 per leader
Cohort Partner
Fund an entire cohort formation experience. This training-the-trainers investment multiplies as each participant brings formation practices back to their own organizations.
Investment: $15,000 per cohort
High-Level Budget Overview
We are committed to financial transparency and wise stewardship. Here is how partnership funds will be allocated:
Detailed financial projections and audited statements available upon request.
Governance & Stewardship
We are committed to the highest standards of integrity, accountability, and stewardship:
Independent Board
Governed by an independent board of directors with diverse expertise in ministry, nonprofit leadership, and finance.
Financial Transparency
Annual audits, detailed reporting to partners, and commitment to industry best practices in nonprofit financial management.
Mission Alignment
Every program decision is evaluated against our core mission: forming leaders who can sustain healthy communities in Christ.
Partner Communication
Regular updates on impact, stories of transformation, and ongoing relationship with all funding partners.
We view every partnership as a sacred trust. Your investment in this work will be stewarded with integrity, wisdom, and care.
Explore Partnership
We would welcome the opportunity to share more about Stillwater Formation Center, answer your questions, and explore whether partnership might be a good fit for your philanthropic priorities.