Our History
First Fruit, Inc. was founded in November 18, 1976 as a vehicle for the founders to give from a heart of generosity, while doing it effectively and strategically. Over time we have grown in size and scope while remaining true to our mandate to fund the work to which God has called us.
When First Fruit began to formally shape its strategy in 1988, we asked top theologians and missiological experts a few key questions: What they saw as the most critical issues in church growth, missions and world evangelism and where they would fund if they had a substantial amount of money to allot to mission endeavors. The responses were used to create First Fruit’s first Trends Analysis , a document that was meant to help focus and shape our funding for the next ten years.
In tandem, our founders were working to sharpen their calling and vision for the Foundation. They realized their desire to work where others were not and where, consequently, the needs of the people were not being met. They held a passion for evangelical medical projects as well as other human needs-related work. Financial accountability was a must, and they knew that they wanted to be one of many funders, never an organization’s sustaining funder. In addition, they highly valued geographical diversity in their granting and an ability to have personal low-key contact with the organizations through board and staff travel.
With the vision and strategy set in place by 1990, First Fruit created our first strategic policy handbook and hired our Executive Director. He began to proactively seek out grants that fell within the First Fruit framework, always asking where the Spirit of God was moving and what needed to be done to meet people’s needs. From 1990 to 1999, the First Fruit staff (the ED and a Program Administrator) together with the board, funded 699 grants. Since 2000, the staff has grown to six people and over the last 6 years, First Fruit has funded 1,102 projects. Additionally, First Fruit board and staff have traveled to more than 50 countries – often more than once – in an effort to maintain personal connection with a large percentage of the organizations being funded.
First Fruit is committed to funding indigenous missions and seeks to remain current and proactive in our funding by updating the Trends Analysis every decade. We also continue to research various areas of need that are brought to our attention by the organizations we fund. Two examples of this research are the India Leadership Study and the Christian Microenterprise study.
First Fruit feels blessed to work with so many wonderful organizations around the world and prays that we can continue to fulfill our Mandate of proclaiming and sharing God’s love.
