SGM Spiritual Directors Formation Programme Alumni Partnership Fund

 Partner with us in sustaining affordable formation for future spiritual directors

Do you value what you received during your formation as a spiritual director with Spiritual Growth Ministries?

Would you like to bless future cohorts by helping to keep SDFP fees affordable?

Fran Francis, National Co-ordinator Spiritual Directors Formation Programme

We’re inviting you to participate and partner with us in a new venture! The SDFP Alumni Partnership Fund is a future-focussed initiative to ensure home-grown formation of spiritual directors remains not only possible but accessible.

Like the person who plants a tree whose shade they will never rest in, the SDFP Alumni Partnership Fund grows spiritual directors for future seekers. You don’t have to be a “high roller” to make a genuine difference to ongoing affordability of this special programme, which touches the lives of so many people, here and overseas. 

So, as kaitiaki (guardians) of Spiritual Growth Ministries (SGM), we invite alumni of the Spiritual Directors Formation Programme (SDFP) who feel moved to do so to partner with us financially to support the sustainable financial future of the SDFP.

Your generosity helps to keep fees affordable for future cohorts, just as the generosity of invisible others paved the way for you.

As a vital part of our contemplative community, you’ll be partnering with SGM in our ministry of forming spiritual directors and fostering the growth of contemplative spirituality in Aotearoa, New Zealand.

We’re also inviting our Asian and ex-patriate alumni to partner financially in the Alumni Partnership Fund so that the affordability flows to future participants from your regions. Lower fees benefit all participants, not just New Zealanders or those living here. 

The establishment of this fund has been enthusiastically encouraged by our new SGM Administrator, Jenna Edgar - a freshly-minted spiritual director who has seeded the first donation into the SDFP Alumni Partnership Fund with her husband, Zach.

Jenna shares what has prompted her below:

Jenna Edgar, SGM Administrator

“To be able to contribute financially to the future of the SDFP and SGM is an honour. I see it as planting a seed for another in the very place I feel I have come to life myself.   

The invitation to offer a financial contribution to the work of SGM is bigger than making a donation. It gives each of us a way to invest back into the Formation Programme that has sculpted and shaped our very own lives, with the knowledge that in doing so we are creating opportunities for others to experience the same.”

  • The SDFP Alumni Partnership Fund invites alumni who feel moved to do so, to partner with SGM in our ministry of forming spiritual directors and fostering the growth of contemplative spirituality in Aotearoa, New Zealand. You can do this by making a monthly, annual, or a one-off donation to SGM in an amount of your choosing. Your donation will help to sustain the financial health of the formation programme for future cohorts of spiritual directors.

  • As SGM transitions into the future, Workgroup continue to be acutely mindful of the gap between our financial outgoings and our income.

    Currently the programme costs more to offer than we recover in fees. We estimate that there is a deficit of approximately $800 per participant per year on the Spiritual Directors Formation Programme. Clearly this Is not sustainable in the longer term and we are thankful for the reserves built up overtime.

    Significantly raising fees may make the Formation Programme unattainable for too many participants and so we are caught in a dilemma. As one Workgroup member said ‘we need a miracle’. 

    We have come to expect miracles of generosity and provision as we seek to prayerfully discern our way with wisdom and faith. The establishment of this fund is a step of faith in our part, inspired by the enthusiastic generosity of Jenna and her husband Zach who have seeded the first donation.

    SGM Workgroup are developing multiple streams of potential income to contribute to this need. This Alumni Partnership Fund is one of thm.

  • As alumni of the Spiritual Directors Formation Programme you embody the ministry of spiritual direction and the gifts of contemplative practice in your own lives and work. Just by being you! You are part of the stream of contemplative spirituality that flows with unique expression right here in Aotearoa, New Zealand.

    As part of the SGM community you may welcome an opportunity to support the sustainability of the Formation Programme at affordable fees for future cohorts.  This is a no-pressure invitation to make a “pay-it-forward” blessing for those who come after you.

How to Donate

Spiritual Growth Ministries is an incorporated trust registered with the New Zealand Charities Commission on 17 June 2008 (CC 26037)
- David Crawley, SGM Workgroup Member

  1. Give via online banking to Spiritual Growth Ministries 03-0166-0198782-00. Add your name and town in reference line, and Alumni Fund in particulars. Please email Jenna Edgar (admin@sgm.org.nz ) your postal address so we can supply you with an official donations receipt for tax purposes.

  2. Donate using credit card via Donorbox on our Donate page. Select one of the set amount buttons on Donorbox, or specify a particular amount. You will receive a donations receipt by email. Please tick the check box ‘Write us a comment’ and write Alumni Fund.

Ways you can partner with SGM as alumni:

  • Make a one-off donation to the SDFP Alumni Partnership Fund.

  • Make a recurring monthly donation to the SDFP Alumni Alumni Partnership Fund by setting up an automatic payment to the SGM bank account or via Donorbox.

  • Make a recurring annual donation to the SDFP Alumni Alumni Partnership Fund by setting up an automatic payment to the SGM bank account or via Donorbox.

  • Leave a bequest to SGM in your will.

  • Notice any God-promptings to let people in your life know about the Spiritual Directors Formation Programme. Most people find their way to this unique ministry because someone saw something in them and pointed the way. Having healthy numbers of participants in each cohort make a huge difference to our financial sustainability.

Naturally this is a no-pressure invitation. We acknowledge that just paying for your own fees may have been a stretch of faith - a miracle of provision in itself!

For those who do feel moved to donate, thank you for considering this invitation to invest in our shared future. Whether you can afford to give $5 or $5000, we are grateful for your support.

~ SGM Workgroup