Mennonite
Central
Committee

How MCC is funded

Support for MCC's worldwide efforts comes from individuals. "This donation is just a drop in the bucket," one woman wrote, "but perhaps you will receive many other drops and then have enough to help." Many donations come to MCC marked "for wherever's needed most." Donations also come in the form of relief sales, thrift shops, and donations of food grains.

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Relief Sales

Every year relief sales raise millions of dollars through the sale and auction of quilts, crafts, art, used items, livestock and food. The sales are organized and operated by volunteers. Some sales raise more than $250,000 in a single day. A number of relief sale committees coordinate the construction of new houses - called Houses against Hunger - built largely with volunteer labor and some donated materials. These houses are sold and the proceeds donated to MCC.

Relief Sales Home

 

Thrift Shops

Thrift Shops raise funds for MCC through the sale of used clothing, furniture and other items. The first shop opened in Altona, Manitoba in 1972. It was created when MCC had a surplus of used clothing, but no countries to ship it to. For years MCC had sent used clothing overseas, but the large-scale practice ended as more and more countries closed their doors to clothing from North America since it hurt local clothing manufacturers. But North Americans, accustomed to giving away old clothes to MCC instead of throwing them away, continued to donate to MCC. What was needed, quipped a former MCC Canada director, was "a machine where used clothing went in one end and money came out the other." That machine became reality when the thrift shop movement was born.

Thrift Shops Home

 

Food grains

Canadian farmers donate grain through a unique program allowing them to contribute at grain elevators across the country. The grain donation is matched by the Canadian government through the Canadian International Development Agency (CIDA) by as much as four-to-one ($4 for every $1 of grain donated). This grain is then shipped overseas by the Canadian Foodgrains Bank (CFGB), of which MCC is the founder.

MCC U.S. is a founding member of the Foods Resource Bank (FRB). FRB is a non-government organization committed to ensuring that "Food is a Basic Human Right" for all persons. They do this by supporting sustainable development programs which address the human need for secure, consistent sources of food. Sustainable agriculture or food production projects in developing countries are administered through its member agencies including MCC. The money for these projects come from churches and rural communities in the United States who band together to produce food and then sell it, raising funds designed to enable people in the FRB projects to create their own food base.