We are grateful that Citizen Impact has had a great year! We now have two part-time employees and several faithful volunteers who make our organization run smoothly. We had many successful events and awarded the Citizen Impact Scholarship for the first time in several years! Executive Director, Paul Smith, visited over twenty churches during the summer and fall, updating churches on what happened at the Georgia General Assembly last spring, and what was going on in Washington, DC. We also ran a successful online voter information campaign prior to the 2024 election.

In February, we held our annual Pastors & Ministry Leaders’ Day. The Lord blessed it with the largest attendance ever, including many new pastors! Dr. Jim Schettler brought two great messages, challenging all of us. We also had two wonderful Student Legislative Days. The students were able to tour the Capitol, hear from legislators, and learn about civil processes under the Gold Dome.

At the Georgia General Assembly there was a hard push to legalize sports betting here in Georgia. Again, however, we (along with other like-minded organizations) successfully stopped any expansion of state-sponsored gambling. We were also instrumental in strengthening the language of the Georgia Promise Scholarship Act, which Governor Kemp signed into law this year, to better protect Christian schools. You can read our entire legislative update from Spring 2024 here.

We made two trips to Washington, DC, advocating for churches, Christian schools, and religious freedom. Two specific pieces of legislation we discussed with lawmakers during our September trip were the Charitable Act and the Safeguarding Charity Act. The Charitable Act would benefit nonprofits and taxpayers, changing the tax code to include a universal charitable deduction. The Safeguarding Charity Act would help protect the tax exempt status of nonprofits and churches. You can find more information on that visit here.

Our Annual Conference at Peoples Baptist Church in August was a great success! We had many first time attendees and a large group of students. We had several great workshops and an informative legislative panel. Tim Goeglein was an excellent speaker who talked about “Faith in the Halls of Power” and his experience working for the George W. Bush administration. Our blog post on the conference can be read here.

Citizen Impact works hard to advocate on behalf of our churches and Christian schools at the Georgia General Assembly. We also work to be a reliable source of pertinent information for the average pastor, Christian school worker, and church member. If Citizen Impact has been a valuable resource to you or your church this year, please consider giving financially to our ministry so that we can finish the year strong. You can click here to make your tax-deductible donation.