Dear Partners in Ministry,

Greetings to you from all of us at the LSS Foundation!

Anyone who has ever built anything from a sand castle on the beach to a house knows one thing for certain: If the foundation isn’t right, nothing else matters.

At Lutheran Social Services, it’s fair to say that we actually have several “foundations.” Our core foundation is our Lutheran heritage – men and women from the Lutheran community who saw a need, came together and created something to meet that need, all out of their conviction that meeting such human needs is what the Gospel of Jesus Christ calls us to do – to serve our neighbor, whoever that neighbor might be, whatever his or her race or creed. From that “foundation” was born Lutheran Social Services.

Today, there is another “foundation” as well – a literal “Foundation” established so that this noble heritage and mission would always have the resources it needs to carry out that mission. In 2011, that mission included service to more than 14,000 men, women and children in Adams, Franklin, Fulton and York counties in Pennsylvania, as well as Carroll, Frederick and Washington counties in northern Maryland. As we brought the year to a close, thousands of other men and women joined LSS in contributing nearly two and a half million dollars to the LSS Foundation to support that mission along with nearly four million dollars in benevolent care.

Whether your passion is for what we do in senior living or community outreach, or hospice and home health services, your gifts to Lutheran Social Services literally make possible all that we do in our communities. Your continued and increasing support helps insure that our “foundation” will be solid enough to allow us to carry on that mission indefinitely.

For all that you have done in that partnership, and for all that we can and will do in the year ahead, for the “firm foundation” you help to provide, we say thank you and God bless you.

Pastor Glenn D. Miller
Vice President - Philanthropy