sTART a LOVE INC
Learn How You Can Start A Love INC in Your Community
The Church has a unique biblical calling… to be the hands and feet of Christ to those in spiritual, physical, emotional, relational, and material need. It is Love INC’s mission to help the Church live out this life and community transforming calling. Is God asking you to help churches help people through the ministry of Love INC? We hope our information kit will help you answer this very question.
Hello!
Thank you for taking the time to explore what it might look like to start a Love In the Name of Christ affiliate in your community. We are genuinely excited that you are looking into the Love INC model. We believe with all our hearts that a mobilized and united Church is the greatest hope for our neighbors to experience meaningful help, sustainable hope, and the transforming love of Christ. When local congregations join together — across denominations, backgrounds, and traditions — the love of Jesus becomes visible in powerful and practical ways.
We hope the information and resources are helpful as you determine whether the Love INC model is the right fit for you, your churches, and your community. Every community is unique, and this discovery process matters. We want you to feel freedom and clarity as you explore, ask questions, and gather information.
Please know that you are not navigating this alone. Our National Developing New Affiliates (DNA) team is available to guide and support you as you learn. Our hope is that you feel informed and equipped as you learn about Love INC, so you can make a confident decision about whether it is the right fit for your community.
We are grateful you are exploring this opportunity, and we look forward to journeying with you.
Grace and peace in Christ,
Rev. Daniel Walker, DMin
Director of Developing New Affiliates
Love In The Name of Christ—National
Our Development Process
Love INC National has 45+ years of experience starting affiliates. Our development process offers step-by-step guidance that will encourage you spiritually and lead you through the inherent difficulties associated with establishing a legal entity, building community awareness, fundraising, and training your teams. Each step is described below, including one you can take today!
Schedule a Call with a Development Specialist and Request Your Territory
Now that you’ve taken the first step of expressing interest, the next step is to schedule an introductory call. Following this call, our team will send you a link to fill out a Territory Request Form. But don’t worry, a Territory Request is exploratory in nature and not a commitment to developing a Love INC affiliate. It simply gives us an idea of what territory your potential Love INC would cover in case other interest in that area should arise, and gets the ball rolling.
After a Territory Request, the next step is purchasing our Welcome Kit and exploring the first 3 of our 9 stages of development. Our Welcome Kits contain a variety of books and materials that complement our training and will help you discern if Love In the Name of Christ is really right for you (as a Vision Carrier) and for your community. As we want this opportunity to be as accessible as possible, we set the price for this kit at just $100.
The Gain Knowledge step will help you more fully understand Love INC, your community, and how to serve people in need via “Redemptive Compassion”, Love INC’s philosophy on addressing poverty.
The overall goal of this step is to help you to build confidence in your ability to vision cast to those in your community.
In this step, we help you build a strategy around: who to contact, how to contact them, and what to say them. By the time you reach the end of Share Knowledge you will have a solid understanding of whether Love INC is right for you and your community. If you decide to move forward, you will be asked to pay a $500 development fee (don’t worry we’ll share a solid fundraising plan with you).
Once you’ve built some momentum with partner churches and local businesses, it’s important to transition from the Development Team to the first Governing Board of Directors. We’ll help you recruit potential candidates, select the cream of the crop, and train them to be an effective Board that gets results.
Once the first Governing Board of Directors is installed, a $1000 development fee is due. At this time, we will schedule an onsite training with your Board to prepare you for the final three stages of the development process.
This step will help your Governing Board successfully navigate establishing a 501c3. We will guide you through writing your Articles of Incorporation and By-Laws and then provide tips and prompts for filing multiple legal documents. Once everything has been legalized, a second development fee of $1000 will come due. (Again, we have a fundraising plan designed to help you reach this goal.)
This is the last big push before opening, we’ll guide you through finding office space, soliciting business related donations, establishing policies, hiring staff, and rallying volunteers.
Once an Executive Director is hired, he/she along with select board members will be invited to our Leadership Education and Development (LEAD) Training. This training casts vision for the Love INC Movement, teaches our philosophical approach to serving people in need, and trains your team in Clearinghouse techniques.
Before your affiliate opens your doors, the final development fee of $1000 will come due, bringing the total development fee to $3,500. (This is less than half of the actual cost to guide you through the process, as Love INC National covers the rest.)
Even after your affiliate opens its doors, Love INC National will continue to guide every step of the way. Here is what you can expect in your first year:
- Eight months of Executive Director training, mentoring, and peer support.
- Training with one of the largest Love INC’s in the country to cast vision for future ministry growth.
- An on-site consultation after your first 12 months.
- Access to online video training, resources, and tools.
- Regular National e-news containing encouragement and training opportunities.
Ready to Get Started?
Become part of our national movement by joining over 110 affiliates across the United States and more than 30 communities in development.
If you’d like to continue exploring whether Love INC might be a good fit for your context, we invite you to schedule a call with a development specialist.
After you’ve had an introductory call with a development specialist from Love INC National, you’ll have the opportunity to fill out the Territory Request From. The request for territory is exploratory in nature and not a commitment to developing a Love INC affiliate. It simply helps to get the ball rolling and ensures that there are no current Love INCs in your area.
