2022 Lionheart Annual Report

The Best Church Camp Story Ever

Our flagship location at Lake Church had the opportunity to send eight students from Lionheart’s Trailblazer after school program to camp this summer. The students would not ordinarily have had the ability to pay for the church’s camp experience but your generosity enabled them to attend.. They were accompanied by our Lionheart Community Director and one of the Trailblazer teachers, who is also a member of Lake Church.

Of course, the enemy didn’t want this to happen, so one of the mom’s cars broke down the morning of camp and she called to say her son would be unable to make it. A church member jumped into action and went to pick up the Trailblazer and his mom so that he could attend camp.

Out of those eight Trailblazers — including the one who wasn’t going to make it due to car trouble — four came to accept Christ as their personal Lord and Savior!

We are so thankful for the ways Lionheart and the church partner worked together to make a difference in the lives of these children.

We are working diligently to plant seeds of truth in the hearts of all of our Lionheart kids so that when times like church camp come, their hearts are ripe

A Young Heart Forever Changed

In January of 2022, one of our Pre-K students, shared with his parents at dinner that he knew Jesus came as a baby, lived a perfect life, and died on the cross for our sins so that we might live with Him forever. The preschooler was ready to accept Christ after hearing the many stories Lionheart staff share with students throughout the Christmas season.

His parents were so excited and told him that if he really believed that was true then he could pray and ask Jesus into his heart so that he would receive eternal life and live with Jesus forever in heaven. There, in the booth of a Mexican restaurant, our Lionheart parents prayed with him to accept Jesus as his Savior.

His mom wrote the academy staff that evening as she attributes so much of his foundation in faith to the daily Bible stories, prayers, and conversations his teachers and academy staff members are having with him about Jesus.

We are so thankful for moments like these when we are reminded that even at such a young age, our kids can understand and comprehend the incredible gift God gave the world: His Son, Jesus.

A Message from our CEO

In the eight years since Lionheart opened, God has shown great favor to us with protection, resources, Christ-centered staff, and missional churches. We act as the front porch of the church to reach millennials who might not come on Sunday, but need excellent child care during the week. Our academy staff partners with the church to connect Lionheart families through church events and Sunday services.

We opened our first academy in August 2014, and in October 2022 we have grown to 14 academies in three states. Our pipeline is full, with 50 qualified missional churches across America, and five academies are set to open in 2023. We will serve more than 1,800 families of great diversity with Christ-centered love. In fact, 50 percent of those enrolling in Lionheart do not belong to a church — a great mission field!

Spiritual outcomes are our primary objective. This year, we have seen our results skyrocket in planting the seeds of the gospel, making spiritual connections with families, blessing them with acts of service, and connecting families to churches. We have witnessed many transformations, baptisms and even conducted a wedding for a Lionheart family wanting to follow God in marriage.

It’s no secret that the past two years have been challenging for the child care industry. We are

blessed with an awesome leadership team, coaching, and an HR team that has helped us hire 356 employees this year. We have a flourishing culture and have been named a Best Christian Workplace Institute for eight years straight. We continue to invest in our people because they are our most important asset.

I recently marked my first anniversary of serving Lionheart as CEO, and I’m so thankful to be a part of all that God is doing through Lionheart. Thank you for being a part of our family and helping us plant seeds of the Gospel everyday. Our world is hurting, and it’s a privilege to serve an organization that seeks to bring light and hope to families every day!

In Christ,

Pete Wayman

Meet Pete

• Served as CFO of Lionheart since 2014

• Sailed 3,100 miles across the Atlantic this year on a 47’ sailboat

• Privileged that his children and grandkids all know, love and serve the Lord

• Celebrating his 50th wedding anniversary in June 2023

2022 Snapshot

Scholarship Fund

100%

8,962

4,164 1,850 $1.2M 356

48,265 MOMENTS TELLING CHILDREN THAT GOD MADE THEM, GOD LOVES THEM, AND JESUS WANTS TO BE THEIR FRIEND FOREVER

of your gift goes to support hard working families who need help affording quality child care. Each family is vetted based on need, has a copay and support for six months. Then they are eligible for review for renewal. In Texas, yearly child care tuition averages $16,000 for an infant and $11,000 for a three-year-old.

432 children blessed this year

24%

of all children attending Lionheart are on some form of subsidy or scholarship.

Scan to give to our Scholarship Fund!

GOSPEL PRESENTATIONS SPIRITUAL

CHILDREN

INVESTED

CONNECTIONS

SERVED

TO LAUNCH 4 NEW ACADEMIES NEW HIRES

Four New Academies! JOIN OUR TEAM!

We were grateful to welcome many new families to our four new Lionheart Children’s Academies this year. Our new academies are:

• ACADEMY CHRISTIAN

Colorado Springs, CO

• LIFE FELLOWSHIP CHURCH

McKinney, TX

• MACARTHUR BLVD BAPTIST CHURCH

Irving, TX

• SPRINGCREEK CHURCH

Garland, TX

We praise God for this incredible growth and ask that you join us in prayer that the Lord would bring more families to each of our new locations so that children and parents would be filled with the hope of the Gospel.

Taking Care of Our People

OUR CORE VALUES

We love our employees, and we have spent the last year truly investing in them. A big part of that investment meant defining our core values. Our employees are a remarkable group of people with diverse backgrounds and experiences, but we all share at least these three qualities: We are intentional in our relationships, we have a heart to serve and we are tenacious. Other qualities and skills can and are trained, but those three core values are woven into the fabric of each Lionheart employee.

THIS YEAR’S PROGRESS

• Enhanced training and focus on spiritual outcomes and milestones

• Introduced affordable, high-coverage medical plan for all staff as well as other benefits

• Increased compensation to align with market rate

• Rewarded those who stayed with Lionheart with a retention bonus

• Increased time off

• Filled 356 open positions to alleviate staffing pressures in the academies

2022

Academy Growth

God planted the seed; we have watered it and God has made it grow. Our pipeline of qualified church prospects exceeds fifty. Everything we build is done to handle large scale growth. For us, more enrollment means more families in our mission field and more academies means greater support to cover the 50 staff we have in the HeartHub.

The HeartHub staff provide academies with operations, talent acquisition, human resources, education, marketing, finance, scholarship and subsidy resources. By 2025, the HeartHub will become self-sufficient. Until then, we will be raising up $2,586,000 to complete the journey to sustainability. In 2023, we expect that grants, cash reserves and donor commitments will cover the gap. Long term, this ministry will be fully funded by the business model while delivering exceptional Eternal Rates of Return. See the HeartHub Net Surplus/Deficit line in the table below.

We typically invest $600,000 in prelaunch costs and operating deficits until the academy turns cash positive. We use loans from Kingdom-minded investors to fund launches. The loans are repaid during the first 60 months from the academy operating results. See the Academy Net Funding need in the table below.

HEARTHUB FUNDING ($ IN 000S) # of Operational Academies - EOY Year-End Enrollments HeartHub Net Surplus / (Deficit) Academy Net Need 2023 19 2,806 ($1,739) ($575) 2024 27 4,217 ($847) ($924) 2025 39 5,992 $151 ($2,792) 2026 55 8,519 $1,629 ($3,699) Total ($807) ($7,990)

2014 2015 2016 2017 2018 2019 2020 2021 2022 2023 2024 2025 2026 NUMBER OF ACADEMIES YEAR 19 14 11 9 8 6 5 3 1 1 27 39 55

Ways to Partner With Us

GIVE WHERE NEEDED MOST

give.lionheartkid.org

Retaining the best teachers who are passionate about serving Lionheart kids and their families, while also expanding our reach into new communities takes great financial support. Your unrestricted gift will be applied to our work where it is needed most.

GIVE TO A REGION OR PROJECT

give.lionheartkid.org/projects

Supporting a specific Lionheart Academy, assisting with scholarship funds, or giving toward special projects is a great way to partner with us. Find the academy or project you would like to support at the link above and make a gift today.