The New LSS – Faith in Every Future

Helping children, families and communities address the issue of child abuse has been at the heart of Lutheran Social Services’ mission – Help, Healing and Hope – and our goals. Our track record of providing loving, compassionate care for children at their time of greatest peril, guided by faith, is clear.

Over the last year, senior management and the LSS board have asked, “What more can – and should – we do?”

An examination of the magnitude of the problem, the social, economic and political environments in which we operate, and the strengths and weaknesses of our organization has led to a recognition that LSS must become more focused and strategic, and our programs need to work together as an integrated system, not a collection of independent operating units.

The driving force behind these changes is simply our new vision and mission:

We will accomplish this through a continuum of services and community partnerships, each tracking progress against markers of safety, life skills, education, health, and vocation, all of which are critical to breaking the cycle of child abuse. We recognize that children enter the system at different stages of their lives and due to varying life events. Because the types of abuse vary among children, we are committed to addressing the entire spectrum.

We have an opportunity to redefine who we are, how we live our new mission, and how we deliver our programs and services. By addressing our mission, our people, our programs and services, and most importantly the children of Texas and Louisiana, we can become a premier nonprofit leader in the fight to empower children, families and communities to break the cycle of child abuse.

Accomplishing our new, bold mission will require change. We must:

With a new mission and vision comes a new business model for the organization that will create a more anticipatory form of leadership and allow us be more nimble. We will also introduce a new comprehensive identity strategy that will honor our Lutheran heritage, help unify our services and open the door to others passionate about our cause.

In addition to our programmatic goals, LSS is committed to providing quality, innovative, faith-based services for the children we serve at levels above and beyond the minimum guidelines, enhancing their lives. We further commit to taking on work critical to our mission even when there are not traditional funding streams available. These efforts are made possible through the generosity of countless individuals, organizations, churches, and corporations who share our passion and commitment for breaking the cycle of child abuse, and whose gifts make up approximately 10 percent of our annual revenue.

To accomplish this, we plan to:

• Implement a comprehensive identity strategy that honors our Lutheran heritage and opens the door to others passionate about the cause.
• Expand opportunities for donors to make an impact on the lives of children with their gifts each year, increasing annual fund support by $1 million per year for the next four years, while maintaining our commitment to minimizing the costs associated with fundraising and insuring the highest industry standard of ethics.
• Build, with the help of visionary individuals and management of current assets, a $100 million endowment to support our work in perpetuity.
• Fund the capital expenditures necessary for accomplishing our mission.
• Strengthen our focus in LSS Impact Areas, directly through our programs and indirectly through new key partnerships that impact the key markers and create safer communities for all children.