ATLANTA – After more than seven years as president of the Cooperative Baptist Fellowship Foundation, Don Durham announced Feb. 18 to the Fellowship’s Coordinating Council he will resign his position in June at the conclusion of the 2010 General Assembly in Charlotte.

"I have known for 20 years that the time would come for me to leave institutional ministry for a local church setting – it’s time," said Durham, a 1994 graduate of Southern Baptist Theological Seminary in Louisville, Ky. "When I decided more than a year ago to move closer to my daughters in central North Carolina, I knew that it was also time to make this ministry transition. I am pursuing bi-vocational ministry among people for whom traditional church doesn’t typically work."

The CBF Foundation exists to raise and manage endowment funds for CBF strategic initiatives and CBF partner organizations and churches. The Foundation is an autonomous organization, closely linked to the Fellowship, but governed by a separate board of trustees.

Durham, 40, has been working with the Foundation’s board since July 2009 to ensure a smooth transition. The board is conducting a national search for a replacement and would like to have someone in place by mid 2010.

"Don’s leadership has allowed the Foundation to provide meaningful support to the work of the Fellowship into the 21st century," said Rebecca Wiggs, a Mississippi attorney and current chair of the Foundation’s board. "He has helped create a genuine partnership between Baptist agencies, churches and families who want to be effective stewards of their money so that the ministry of CBF will be ongoing. Don’s skills for both ministry and financial planning have helped us develop the Foundation in such a way that it will be a resource for the next generation of God’s people."

Responsible for all facets of managing the CBF Foundation, Durham’s primary focus was on securing fund management clients among CBF churches and partners with endowment funds of their own, and providing endowment and stewardship promotion planning services tailored to the local situation and culture of each of the congregations or partners.

By focusing on building funds under management, Durham was able to bring the Foundation to the break-even point in 2008 as projected. This growth allowed the Foundation to add another full time staff position to give primary focus to the Foundation’s long term reason for existing – work with individual donors who can and will make transformational gifts to endowments for the work of the Fellowship and its partners.

He increased the number of CBF Foundation clients by more than double from 17 to 43, and he attracted the first multi-million dollar fund management clients for the Foundation. He secured more than $10 million in fund management accounts and realized estate gifts including the Foundation’s largest realized estate gift to date – over $1.2 million to endow CBF Global Missions field personnel salaries.

"We’ve been blessed by Don Durham," said Daniel Vestal, the Fellowship’s executive coordinator. "Don has approached his work with the deeply-held conviction that financial management and investment not only contributes to help make ministry happen, it is a ministry. He is one of the most gifted development specialists I have ever worked with. CBF has a brighter future because of Don Durham."

A major focus of Durham’s work with the foundation was in his role as a consultant to congregations for planning their endowment promotions in ways that fit the local culture of the church and integrate well with the larger mission and vision of each church.

"Don Durham and the CBF Foundation have been of immeasurable help in getting our Planned Giving Campaign moving and on the right track," said Paul McElroy, co-chair of the Planned Giving Team at First Baptist Church, Winston-Salem, N.C. "He helped us develop an outline of important issues and milestones and spoke to our congregation several times on Planned Giving. The CBF Foundation will be a repository for the gifts and manage the investments for our church. We owe a lot to Don and CBF Foundation."

In addition to helping churches connect their endowments with their missions, Durham led CBF Foundation to offer churches a way to invest a portion of their endowment principal in micro enterprise development loans to entrepreneurial borrowers in poor countries who use the loans to start or expand businesses to support their families.

"I’m more proud of this than anything we’ve done during my time with the Foundation," Durham said. "Churches get really energized when they realize they can invest their endowments in microfinance and do as much good with the principal as with the proceeds. Over a 5 year period, an investment of just $10,000 can offer more than 500 individuals the best opportunity they can have to lift themselves out of poverty – and stay out."

The foundation has just over $1 million committed to microfinance investments so far.

"I’ve spent the last 15-20 years helping pay for an awful lot of good ministry as a fund raiser," he said. "However, I believe it’s time for me to transition to a more direct expression of local ministry with my sleeves rolled up as one seeking to be the presence of Christ."

Learn more about the Foundation at www.cbff.org.

CBF is a fellowship of Baptist Christians and churches who share a passion for the Great Commission and a commitment to Baptist principles of faith and practice. The Fellowship’s mission is to serve Christians and churches as they discover and fulfill their God-given mission.