Advancement Magazine Writing for a Non-Profit
- Rachel Ashley
- Sep 29, 2023
- 4 min read
Updated: Sep 30, 2023
Objective and Audience
Writing for a non-profit typically serves the fundraising and earned media interests of the organization. This short article was written for a university's biannual magazine, which was sent to alumni, parents, and donors of the institution. It was a high quality print publication created to build connection to the university with the ultimate purpose of expanding and deepening the philanthropic pool that supported student scholarships, campus development, arts programming, and athletics. I wrote several magazine articles like this, each with its own specific objective. This one honored a long-time faculty member who represented the university in important spaces outside of the campus.
A downloadable PDF of the article in its original magazine form is available at the end of this post.
A Man of Many Hats
I first met Jerry Pattengale (IWU alum, ‘79) at the local airport just down the road from Indiana Wesleyan University. My husband, a pilot and acquaintance of Pattengale’s, introduced me as his wife, a writer. Pattengale, when he realized we were kindred spirits, started telling me about his latest piece—a preface, I think, to a book by a well-known Christian author.
Small potatoes for Pattengale. His connections range far and wide. He is as well versed in people as he is in history (three of his four degrees are history-related), which is probably why his current title at IWU is university professor, the first person ever to receive such a unique and honorable designation.
I grew up hearing about the elusive Jerry Pattengale, perhaps like many of the University’s constituents who never had him as a professor or worked with him directly. My grandmother, drawn to his Midwest humor in the Buck Creek series, is one of his biggest fans. She used to clip his articles from Marion’s local newspaper, the Chronicle-Tribune, and drop them off for my reading pleasure.
Pattengale’s work is expansive but focused, ranging from these delightful gems in our small-town newspaper to acting as a founding director for the Museum of the Bible in Washington, D.C. for eight years. Among his many projects, he is currently serving as co-director for Lumen Research Institute, a partnership between IWU and Excelsia College in Sydney, Australia, that has created opportunities for IWU to lead and shape conversations in Christian academia.
Dr. Todd Ream (Taylor University), a senior fellow at Lumen, believes the institute has met needs in ways leaders never expected. “Lumen is generating resources that will hopefully benefit the intellectual community that IWU is a part of,” he said. “When Books and Culture closed, we lost an important conduit for conversations about the evangelical mind. Lumen is proving to be an entity that is willing to take responsibility for those conversations.”
Lumen’s first significant publication was released in December of 2018. “The State of the Evangelical Mind”, edited by Jerry, Todd and Lumen Fellow Dr. Christopher Devers (Johns Hopkins), came about as a result of Lumen’s first symposium, but it was also timely in that it closed a growing gap in a global conversation that Todd says many evangelicals were sensing. It also took the first step toward Lumen’s future of being a more external-facing entity. In fact, just before the book was released, it rose to the number one spot in Amazon’s list of new releases in religious studies education.
The Lumen Research Institute project represents the best of Jerry’s gifts— moving possibilities into reality by empowering the University’s greatest asset: its people. He says his greatest joy is that his projects have inherent value for people, both reflecting positively on the Kingdom within academia and bringing the name and work of IWU to the national stage.
“Jerry is thinking 10 to 20 years down the road, building foundations, relationships and ideas that may take years to develop,” Dr. Devers said. “But in the long run, his work is in the strategic interests of the institution, whether it’s finances, endowments, writing or partnerships. He is laying the foundation for what is coming down the road.”
I asked Jerry how he can balance the many facets of his work, especially when it requires him to spend most of his time away traveling. He mentioned a few things—the wedge principle, character and humor.
“I just try to be myself and take on tasks that have some overlapping mission,” he said, a sentiment others have echoed about Jerry. It was evident the same person sitting with me at JAX Cafe across from campus is the same person who sits with Hobby Lobby’s Green family. He balances the challenges of the work by keeping his character in check first. “The key to wearing many hats is always putting them on the same head,” he said over the rim of his coffee cup.
I first believed Jerry's personal mission might be solely focused on his writing endeavors – he is, after all, known best as an author – but in short time it became clear that personal success was not at the helm. Rather, Jerry’s quiet legacy is conceptualizing possibilities and moving them into reality, living in and connecting as much to academia as he does to the broader world, investing purposefully in personal and professional relationships, and, perhaps even quieter yet, serving the many interests of our magnificent institution.
Jerry Pattengale has multiple major projects in the works: the upcoming “Public Intellectuals and the Common Good” symposium from Lumen Research Institute in September 2019 (and IVP book), a television series with Trinity Broadcasting Network (TBN), a study guide with Saddleback pastors for his new four-volume Bible resource and a Tyndale House Publishers book about Christian martyrs. His book “Is the Bible at Fault?” was recently published mid-2018 and he contributes regularly in Marion’s Chronicle-Tribune newspaper, where I’m sure my beloved grandmother is his most faithful reader.
For more information about Lumen Research Institute, visit iwulumen.org.
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