In this economic climate, talk of starting a new business is laughable, and one that relies on donations from community members seems even more far-fetched.
Yet this kind of business was just what Mike McPherson, a member of Jubilee Baptist Church, Daphne, in Baldwin Baptist Association, had in mind when he started PowerSurge 100 last year.
The concept behind PowerSurge 100 is to find 100 people or groups to donate $1,000 each. Then the contributors choose a Christian nonprofit organization in either Baldwin County or Mobile County to receive their combined $100,000 donation as a grant. Keeping things local is important, McPherson said.
“As we began looking around the community, we found that a lot weren’t getting the money they needed,” he said of local ministries. “(There is) United Way in the secular realm, and we wanted to start a Christian foundation to give grants away to other ministries in our community.”
Last year, PowerSurge managed to raise $60,000 and presented it to Youth-Reach Gulf Coast in Summerdale, a branch of a 25-year-old Houston-based ministry to help troubled young men.
Since Youth-Reach Gulf Coast has been around for only a year, grants like the one from PowerSurge have been instrumental in helping it move forward.
“It’s been an awesome venture with PowerSurge,” said Derrall Mayfield, director of Youth-Reach Gulf Coast. “They’ve done exactly what they’ve set out to do: giving a surge in finances so we are able to do things we wouldn’t be able to do in our regular budget.”
So far, the organization has used the money to purchase a 12-passenger van, a riding lawnmower for its 81 acres and computers to get its offices up and running. One-third of the grant went to hiring a teacher for its campus school.
Not only has PowerSurge impacted its first grant recipient but it’s also been inspirational to those involved on the “giving” side.
Paul Matthews, senior pastor of Jubilee Baptist, said PowerSurge has infused his congregation with excitement and energy.
“When you can give a big gift to a struggling or worthwhile ministry, it feels like you’re part of something bigger,” Matthews said. “And I really love it as a pastor, because the ministry isn’t designed to take away money that would be going to the church since it’s above tithe-giving. So it’s not a competing thing; it’s an over-and-above ministry.”
With just a year under its belt, PowerSurge is already growing. Another branch called Teen PowerSurge is in the works. It will be run solely by teenagers and seek donations of $100.
A Baptist couple from Jacksonville, Fla., have expressed interest in bringing PowerSurge to their community, and there’s been talk of expanding to both Birmingham and Baton Rouge, La., as well.
“We’re ready now to go to other locations, because now we have a template,” McPherson said. “The hardest part at the beginning was we were so new and it was difficult for people to know if we were the real deal.”
The work being done by Youth-Reach Gulf Coast, however, is a testament to PowerSurge being “the real deal.”
“Without the grant, we wouldn’t be where we are today as far as opening the school and being where we are agriculturally,” Mayfield said. “With the dip in the economy, this has been a tremendous blessing and provision by PowerSurge and by the Lord.”
For more information, visit powersurge100.org.
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