National Chapter Response under way to help those affected by Midwest Floods —·FOR CHAPTER LEADERS AND CONGREGATIONAL COORDINATORS

Here are updates to the information communicated to all chapter leaders and congregational coordinators via the special Chapter Alert e-newsletter on July 1:

• Information about Thrivent Financial's response to the 2008 Midwest Flooding now is available online at www.thrivent.com/2008midwestflooding.
  
  
• The National Chapter Response process, reporting form and bulletin insert templates now are available on the Forms page, and the For Chapter Leaders and For Congregational Coordinators pages on www.thrivent.com.

Here is a copy of the July 1 special Chapter Alert e-newsletter:

Thrivent Financial for Lutherans and its members are always there to help in times of great need. Unfortunately, we are experiencing one of those times right now as the recent flooding in the Midwest has impacted many Thrivent Financial members and their neighbors.

Thrivent Financial is initiating a National Chapter Response effort where your chapter members can be directly involved in helping those affected by the devastating floods.

Other response efforts In addition to the National Chapter Response effort detailed in this article, Thrivent Financial is providing an additional $250,000 of Care in Regions® funds to the regions directly impacted by the flooding. These funds will be used to support disaster response activities being conducting by chapter service teams in the affected regions.  We expect the regional and national response efforts combined will result in more than $1.5 million to help those affected by the floods: at least $1 million donated and raised by members, and an additional $500,000 provided by Thrivent Financial for Lutherans. The Thrivent Financial for Lutherans Foundation also has provided a $20,000 grant, earmarked for disaster relief, to Lutheran Services in Iowa.

National Chapter Response – a $250,000 commitment
Through this response effort, your chapter members can form service teams to raise funds that will go to help those in need. For every $2 received by chapters nationally, Thrivent Financial will provide an additional $1, up to a total of $250,000. This effort has the potential to raise at least $750,000 to support recovery efforts.

All funds received will be distributed among these two disaster relief organizations to meet needs specifically related to the 2008 Midwest Flooding Response:

• Lutheran Disaster Response, a collaborative ministry of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA) and The Lutheran Church - Missouri Synod (LCMS) to meet needs related to major domestic disasters.
  
  
• WELS Committee on Relief, a ministry of the Wisconsin Evengelical Lutheran Synod (WELS) to provide domestic and international disaster aid. 

Thrivent Financial will accept contributions for this effort through Oct. 1, 2008.

A simple process
The process for planning, conducting and reporting National Chapter Response activities is simple.

The activity 

• An eligible activity may be a collection/appeal or a fund-raising event.
• As with any Thrivent chapter activity, members from six or more different member households must be involved. (For example, the members from your chapter leadership board may be a service team.)
• No pre-approval is required for a National Chapter Response activity.
• TIP: Ask service teams to keep track of volunteer hours, expenses (save all receipts) and attendance in addition to funds raised. This is needed to complete the reporting form (see Step 1 below). 
• All checks from donors must be made payable to your Thrivent chapter.
• Reminder:  As with any fund-raising activity, the chapter or service team should issue an acknowledgement of donation received for contributions received. (See guidelines)

After the activity:  Handling the funds and reporting

1. The service team or chapter completes the 2008 Midwest Flooding Response activity results form. 
   
      Fillable Word version (instructions)  |  PDF version (instructions) 
   
   This week, the form and instructions are scheduled to be posted on these three pages on www.thrivent.com:
   
   -  The Forms page (www.thrivent.com > Members/Chapters > Volunteer Resources > Forms)
   -  The For Chapter Leaders page in the Members/Chapters section.
   -  The For Congregational Coordinators page in the Members/Chapters section.
   
   
2. Important: Do NOT report the results online. This will be done by Thrivent Financial for Lutherans when they receive the forms.
   
   
3. The service team provides the chapter with all funds raised, the completed reporting form and receipts.
   
   
4. A chapter leader deposits all funds received into the chapter's checking account.
   
   
5. From your chapter checking account, write out one check for the total amount of your net funds received to: Appleton Operations Chapter of Thrivent Financial. On the memo line, write "2008 Midwest Flood Response."
   
   
6. Send the completed activity results form, any expense receipts, and your check to:

    Thrivent Financial for Lutherans
    Attention: 2008 Midwest Flooding National Chapter Response
    4321 N. Ballard Rd
    Appleton, Wisconsin 54919-0001

You may complete and submit a form and the funds raised after each activity, or you can compile results and funds raised from multiple activities, then send the form and all funds at one time.

TIP: For a general appeal/collection, we recommend you hold the funds in your checking account until your deadline (no later than Oct. 1) before sending the form, receipts and the check to Thrivent Financial for Lutherans.

Bulletin insert templates available to announce activities
We have developed the following bulletin insert templates to help you get the word out to your chapter members. We encourage chapter leaders and congregational coordinators to work closely with each other so consistent communications are provided to members.

• Announce a fund-raising event   Fillable Word version  |  PDF copy
• Announce a collection/appeal   Fillable Word version  |  PDF copy

Simply fill in your information and print. Remember to get approval from congregations before creating these inserts.

The bulletin inserts are scheduled to be available this week on the Forms, For Chapter Leaders and For Congregational Coordinators pages on www.thrivent.com.

A news release template to announce your activity also is scheduled to be posted to these pages later this month.

Notify members about this effort and how they can help
You can use your chapter Web site and chapter mailings to notify your members about the National Chapter Response. Encourage them to form a service team to raise funds for those affected by the floods.

You may use wording from this e-mail and from the bulletin insert templates to provide information about the response effort.

Important: Please be aware that chapter postcards cannot be used to solicit donations.

Members being directed to your chapter
A "2008 Midwest Flooding Response" page is soon scheduled to be posted on www.thrivent.com. This page will briefly describe the National Chapter Response effort and how members can help. Visitors then will directed to their local Thrivent chapter and encouraged to contact one of the chapter leaders for more information.

Questions?
If you have questions about this response effort, please contact the Fraternal Service Center at 800-236-3736 or fraternal@thrivent.com.