Gamaliel Registers for “Passport to Power” with First-Ever Online Fundraiser

Gamaliel’s first-ever online fundraiser, We Are Gamaliel: Passport to Power, was held Saturday, February 27 and live streamed to multiple platforms. The live streams and video recordings have been viewed more than 1,000 times, and the event brought in over $26,000 in investments.

The evening was a virtual journey through Gamaliel, complete with tour guides Catoya Roberts, Gary Enrique Bradley-Lopez and Rev. John Welch. Affiliates from each state where Gamaliel operates contributed videos that highlighted their work at the local level. Gamaliel National Staff, Board of Directors members, and sustainers were also on hand to discuss Gamaliel’s National Strategic Priorities and the importance of the Network in building power across the country. 

Gamaliel also took the opportunity to honor Rev. David Bigsby, who plans to retire in 2021. Rev. Bigsby has served in a variety of capacities across the Gamaliel Network for more than two decades. As President of Gamaliel of Metro Chicago, President of Gamaliel of Illinois and Iowa, Chair of the Gamaliel Council of Presidents, and Member of the Gamaliel Board of Directors (just to name a few positions he has held), Rev. Bigsby has advanced the need to develop religious leaders in the attitudes, arts, disciplines, and spirituality of community organizing.

In honor of Rev. Bigsby, Gamaliel announced the Rev. David Bigsby Religious Leaders’ Development Fund, which will continue Gamaliel’s tradition of training religious leaders to ask the hard questions of what it means to be a community of faith in this time and place, act with courage, and respond to the needs of millions of people crying out for purpose, for hope, for connection, and for the power to transform their communities. With the help of investors eager to show their appreciation for Rev. Bigsby’s work and legacy, Gamaliel met its goal of “seeding” the Fund with $5,000 raised during We Are Gamaliel. Contributions to the Fund will continue to be accepted indefinitely through Gamaliel’s main investment page. Those who wish to designate their contribution to the Fund should mark the investment in honor of Rev. Bigsby.

A recording of We Are Gamaliel can be found on Facebook, YouTube, and our website.