Jul 26, 2026 2:30:51 PM

Foundation Newsletter - August 2026

FROM THE EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR

We Ran Out of Hands

Our Saturday meeting closed in July. Here is the honest reason, what we are building in its place, and the ask that comes with it.

Friends,

On June 20, we opened a Saturday Christian recovery meeting at Montachusett Recovery Center here in Leominster. We ran six sessions using the Life Recovery Bible. On July 25, we closed it.

I want to be plain about why, because you deserve that and because the reason matters for everything else in this letter. It did not close because the curriculum was wrong. It did not close because the room was wrong. It certainly did not close because the need is small. The need in this county is enormous. It closed because one person cannot open the room, lead the study, follow up with the people who came, keep the foundation's lights on, and build the ministry all at the same time.

We ran out of hands, not out of heart.

That is a hard sentence to write in a newsletter. It is also the most useful thing I have learned all year, because it pointed to the fix. Mark Twelve does not need more ambition. It needs more people. This issue is about the three ways we are going after that: two volunteer roles are opening now and a funding appeal to hire our first paid staff.

Thank you for standing with us. Every one of you has made this year possible.

Kevin D. Flynn, RCP — Founder & Executive Director

The harvest is plentiful, but the workers are few. Ask the Lord of the harvest, therefore, to send out workers into his harvest field.

— Matthew 9:37–38 (NIV)

IN THIS ISSUE

Two Ways to Serve: the Coach Corps and the Christian Recovery Virtual Travel Team

An Honest Ask: grants and gifts toward our first two paid positions

Program Notes: a new direction for our third pillar, and where the scholarship stands

Ways to Give: the Mark Twelve Recovery Circle

VOLUNTEER RECRUITMENT

Two Ways to Serve

Two roles. Two very different commitments. Both open today.

The Mark Twelve Coach Corps

The Coach Corps is a volunteer roster of credentialed recovery coaches who give a few hours a month so that nobody who needs a coach is turned away for inability to pay. Every coach on the roster holds an independent credential earned on their own; we are not asking anyone to work outside their scope or their training.

Coaches take one or two clients at a time, referred through Mark Twelve. Some will also mentor a scholarship recipient, cover an intake conversation, or review a Bible study before it goes out under our name.

WHO	CCAR Recovery Coach Professional certification, or an equivalent state or national credential in good standing.
FAITH	A follower of Jesus Christ, comfortable coaching within an explicitly Christian frame.
COMMITMENT	Two to four hours per month, scheduled entirely around your availability. Ninety-day trial, then an honest conversation.
SCREENING	CORI check, credential verification, volunteer agreement, confidentiality policy, conflict-of-interest disclosure.
WE PROVIDE	Referral routing, scheduling support, liability coverage while serving, documented hours for recertification, monthly coach fellowship.
GOAL	Six to eight coaches by December 31, 2026.

The Christian Recovery Virtual Travel Team

A travel team goes to away games. That is exactly what this is. Rather than asking people to come to a room we host, we are sending volunteers into rooms that other faithful organizations already host online. We attend as guests who add strength, never as recruiters who take from it.

There is a governance reason as well as a ministry reason. Before this foundation refers a hurting person to an outside meeting, somebody from our team should have sat in that meeting. A referral made without firsthand knowledge is not a referral. It is a guess.

WHO	Anyone. No certification required: people in recovery, family members, church members, and allies alike.
FAITH	A follower of Jesus Christ who can sit quietly, listen well, and share honestly when it is their turn.
COMMITMENT	Two online meetings per month, roughly an hour each, plus a three-minute written check-in after each one.
CONDUCT	We are guests. No soliciting or promoting Mark Twelve inside a partner meeting. Full confidentiality. Host's format followed exactly.
WE PROVIDE	A vetted calendar of online meetings, orientation before your first, a simple check-in form, and a monthly team call.
GOAL	Fifteen to twenty volunteers by December 31, 2026.

HOW TO JOIN EITHER TEAM

Use the contact form at the bottom of https://marktwelverecovery.org/about-us. Tell us which role you are interested in. We’ll schedule a follow-up call to have a twenty-minute conversation, a screening step, and orientation, generally within two weeks.

DEVELOPMENT

An Honest Ask

We are seeking grants and gifts to fund our first two paid positions: a meeting facilitator and a part-time grant writer.

Volunteers will carry a great deal of this work, and we are grateful for every hour. But volunteers cannot carry all of it, and pretending otherwise is how the Saturday meeting closed. Two functions in particular need someone whose job it is, not someone fitting it around a job.

Position One — Meeting Facilitator

Part-time. The person who opens the room, leads the study, holds the format, and follows up with the people who came. Consistency is the whole product in recovery work; a meeting that might happen is a meeting people stop trusting.

SCOPE	Facilitating recurring Christian recovery meetings, in person and online, with preparation and participant follow-up.
HOURS	Approximately eight to ten hours per week.
QUALIFICATIONS	Recovery coach credential preferred, facilitation experience required, mature Christian faith, comfort with people in acute distress.
WHY PAID	Reliability. A volunteer can miss a Saturday. A meeting cannot.

Position Two — Grant Writer

Part-time. Grant cycles run nine to eighteen months and reward organizations that submit consistently and report cleanly. We are eligible for funding we have not had the capacity to pursue, and every month we do not pursue it is a month of compounding delay.

SCOPE	Prospect research, proposal drafting and submission, deadline calendar, and reporting on awarded grants.
HOURS	Approximately eight hours per week.
QUALIFICATIONS	Demonstrated grant-writing record with measurable awards and comfort with faith-based mission language and secular funder requirements.
WHY PAID	This role is expected to fund itself and then some. It is the highest-leverage hire available to us.

What We Are Raising

The working first-year target for both positions combined is in the range of thirty to thirty-nine thousand dollars, inclusive of wages, payroll taxes, workers' compensation, and required insurance adjustments. The Board of Directors will review and set the final figure at its meeting on August 11, 2026, and the approved budget will be published in the September issue.

HOW WE WILL HANDLE THESE GIFTS

Gifts designated for staffing will be tracked as restricted funds and reported separately to the board and to donors. No position will be posted before the board approves the budget and the funding is substantially in hand. We will not hire against money we hope arrives. If the goal is not reached by June 30, 2027, we will contact every designated donor individually and either redirect the gift with written consent or return it.

If you represent a foundation, a congregation, or a family fund and would like our budget narrative, program outcomes to date, or a conversation about a specific need, please reach out. We are glad to be asked hard questions.

PROGRAM NOTES

Where Things Stand

Short updates on the rest of the foundation's work this month.

A NEW DIRECTION FOR OUR THIRD PILLAR

Our third program pillar, funding and supporting Christian recovery programs and meetings, has formally shifted from hosting our own meetings toward referral and affiliate partnerships with established organizations already running online Christian recovery meetings. The Virtual Travel Team is the operating arm of that strategy.

THE SCHOLARSHIP PIPELINE

Our scholarship program funds an additive layer of Christian recovery coach training for people who have already earned their CCAR certification independently. Curriculum selection is in final review, and we expect to publish criteria, the application, and the award cadence this fall.

SIX FREE BIBLE STUDIES, STILL FREE

All six studies remain available at no cost on our website: the four dimensions of loving God from Mark 12, loving yourself as God loves you from Psalm 139, loving your neighbor from Mark 12:31, a study for combat veterans from Joshua 1:9, pouring out your heart from Psalm 62:8, and comfort for those who mourn from Matthew 5:4.

PARTNERS

Our thanks to The Life Church of Massachusetts in Fitchburg and to the Montachusett Recovery Center in Leominster, where our facility relationship remains in good standing.

Ways to Give

The Mark Twelve Recovery Circle is our recurring giving program. Monthly gifts are what make a hire possible — a grant is a moment, but a monthly gift is a payroll line.

TIER	MONTHLY	WHAT IT UNDERWRITES
Group Member	$12	Materials and workbooks for one participant
Program Sponsor	$25	A portion of a scholarship award
Recovery Patron	$50	Coaching hours for someone who cannot pay
Kingdom Builder	$100	Direct support toward paid program staff

Join at marktwelverecovery.org. Mark Twelve Recovery Foundation, Inc. is a 501(c)(3) public charity; contributions are tax-deductible to the extent allowed by law. We use Zeffy, which charges the foundation no platform fee — every dollar you give arrives.

Governance

The Board of Directors meets next on August 11, 2026. Our directors serve without compensation: Chris Kinney, MBA, Chair; Evelyn Delgado-Flynn, Treasurer; Niki Dillingham, Secretary; Jean Landry, Director; and Amanda Prokowiew, Director. The Executive Director serves ex officio and does not vote.

Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength.

— Mark 12:30 (NIV)

MARK TWELVE RECOVERY FOUNDATION, INC.

marktwelverecovery.org • Volunteer: https://marktwelverecovery.org/about-us

114 Water Tower Plaza #1089, Leominster, MA 01453 • A 501(c)(3) public charity, EIN 41-4761057

Kevin D. Flynn, RCP • Founder & Executive Director • A Christian Path to Sobriety

Christian 12-step meetings, 501(c)(3) Public Charity