Who pledged the initial $10,000 for this campaign?

Current and former board members helped by pledging exactly half of the $10,000 (over and above their regular giving), and the other half was provided by a handful of other generous YES! donors. We didn’t plan the exact $5000/$5000 split, but we see it as another picture of God showing off his exceptional math!

Heather (Mazza) Crooker, why are you as a young mother at the age of 27 serving on the board of a ministry focused on adults over fifty?

YES! emphasizes intergenerational collaboration in helping churches and ministries commission adults over fifty to serve and make disciples.

All Christians at any age share in this same calling, and I am so glad YES! values contributions of those of us who are younger to help encourage and challenge those older---similar to how the Lord used young people like Timothy and Titus in the earliest years of the Church.

As new parents of our firstborn son Elijah, my husband Russell and I cheerfully invest in older adults through YES!, who in turn invest in younger generations. It’s a simple concept, but too often the first part of this equation gets left out!

Second half adult ministry can’t just be about older adults serving older adults. And I sure don’t want it to be that way when I get older! 

As expressed in Malachi 4:6 we need to keep the love flowing in both directions generationally, turning “the hearts of the parents to their children and the hearts of the children to their parents.”

We loved the dinner events. Will YES being doing those again?

We’re not ruling out special dinner events in future years or even smaller meal events this fall---but this is the direction we feel called to this year. We hope you understand and can join us in this new adventure!

How has the outreach of YES expanded in the past year?

YES! has made significant strides in moving beyond the borders of Santa Cruz County and California---helping churches and ministries in a broader geographic range. We’ve implemented our missionary-in-residence immersion model in a couple states and in varying sizes of churches, from 200 to over 5000.

YES! plans to continue with several more immersions in 2015, while simultaneously training other YES! workers who will be equipped to do the same in other churches and regions.

I’m already supporting YES on a regular basis. Will my regular giving be matched in October and November, or just special gifts over and above regular giving?

Short answer---just special, unrestricted gifts. Your regular support is a huge blessing and keeps YES! on track financially. This matching funds campaign is intended to help catapult us forward through multiplying both the number of donors and the amount of new gifts.

If you've never given or give occasionally or sporadically, now would be a strategic time to invest by giving an amount that will be matched dollar for dollar (up to a cumulative total of $10,000)---as well as qualifying for applicable tax deductions before year-end.

If I commit to recurring giving during the months of October/November, how much of my recurring gift will be matched?

The funds actually given during the months of October and November 2014.