PORTLAND, OR / ACCESS Newswire / May 11, 2026 / Mission Increase, a Kingdom impact accelerator helping nonprofit leaders, donors and churches transform more lives for Jesus, is celebrating a landmark year for LifeWise Academy, a national Bible education nonprofit headquartered in Columbus, Ohio. LifeWise, which partners with Mission Increase as it empowers communities to provide Bible education for their public school students during school hours, has grown its annual fundraising from $300K to an anticipated $40M for 2026.
When LifeWise Academy began transitioning from a local to a national organization, its leaders knew they needed new strategies for growth and turned to Mission Increase for support. By participating in Mission Increase workshops, coaching and consulting sessions, LifeWise began to shift the way they view partner and donor relationships.
"We learned that donors are not just donors, they're owners of the ministry," noted LifeWise's Chief Advancement Officer Derek Stemen. "Additionally, Mission Increase gave us insights we could use in real-time to grow strategically without ever making us feel like we were drinking from a fire-hose of information. The quarterly structure of their program gave us the time we needed to make sustainable changes in our donor engagement strategy."
LifeWise's significant growth represents a transformative step in the organization's capacity to empower local communities and integrate Bible education into the lives of thousands of public school students. What began as a goal to serve 25 schools by 2025 has expanded to more than 1,100 schools across 34 states and LifeWise will have served approximately 100,000 students by the end of the 2025-2026 academic year.
An interview Mission Increase conducted with Joel Penton, LifeWise's founder and CEO, is available here. To learn more about how Mission Increase helps nonprofit leaders, donors and churches transform more lives for Jesus, visit https://missionincrease.org/.
To learn more about LifeWise Academy, a nonprofit that provides Bible-based character education to public school students during school hours under released time religious instruction laws visit https://lifewise.org.
Contact:
Brianna Roberson
Mission Increase
marketing@missionincrease.org
423-460-7895
SOURCE: Mission Increase
View the original press release on ACCESS Newswire:
https://www.accessnewswire.com/newsroom/en/education/mission-increase-celebrates-partner-lifewise-academys-landmark-year-of-growth-1165687
