Launchpad Partners supports leaders starting and growing inclusive faith communities and digital faith platforms through coaching, consulting, resources and events. We strongly believe that there are not enough communities and resources where LGBTQ individuals, women, and people of color can intersect, invest, grow, and serve. Launchpad serves leaders meeting that need.

Now in our second full year of operation, Launchpad was founded by Jen Fisher and Aaron Bailey, two pastors and entrepreneurs with success in building businesses, churches and nonprofits that share these values. You can read more about us here. We are supported by a network of progressive churches and individual partners who are committed to creating leaders and communities that address injustice and embrace all people.

As 2020 comes to a close, we are giving thanks for all that God has done for us and for our fellow faith leaders through Launchpad. We never would’ve imagined that in a year as overwhelming as this one, that we would’ve seen our young ministry grow like it has. 

In 2020, Launchpad made huge strides for an organization in only its second year of operation:

• Co-hosted our first 3-day spring rest retreat in Phoenix, Arizona attended by 15 leaders from around the country. Read about it here.
• Co-hosted 10 months of weekly or biweekly online support calls for faith leaders, regularly attended by a min of 6 and max of 16 leaders every time
• Started working with 8 leaders as coaching clients in discernment, pre-launch and launch phases of their organizations. Get to know some of them here.
• Connected our clients with 9 additional experts from our partner network who offered wisdom and advice from their diverse experience as faith leaders and entrepreneurs 
• Supported the launch of one new community (Desert Voices) and journeyed alongside an additional 3 churches/communities who took new steps toward their vision this year
• Attended the 2020 Q Christian Fellowship conference where we spoke with more than one hundred leaders from around the country
• Spent hundreds of hours talking or emailing with potential leaders from around the world (U.S., Italy, New Zealand, Mexico, Canada) who are interested in our network or services 
• Developed an investing partners program and recruited 4 church partners who will be investing in us through 2021. Learn more here. 
• Started our first fundraising campaign and recruited multiple individual donors who, along with our church partners, gave enough toward our budget to allow Jen and Aaron to start drawing part-time salaries for their work in 2021.

If 2019 was a foundational year for us, then 2020 has been when we’ve started to see our work yield results. We believe we have so much more to offer in 2021, so many more people to partner with and resources to develop.

This year we plan to continue to host regular online support calls, but this time with more of a focus on the vision of Launchpad. Join us once a month for our Networking and Support Hours, starting January 11th with special guest Fred Harrell of City Church San Francisco, who will be there to share practical, spiritual, and emotional wisdom from his 20+ years of leading and mentoring new and emerging ministries and faith leaders.