How It Works

How Fast58 works.

There is no platform to join and no fee to pay. Your community picks up the framework and runs it alongside whatever fast you already do. Here is what that looks like in practice.

How it works

Four steps, one week, twice a year.

01 Choose

Choose your cause

Before the fast begins, your community decides where the money is going. This could be a food bank you already support, a pastor you are helping overseas, or a local project your congregation has a real connection to. The important thing is that people know before the week starts.

People give differently when they can picture exactly where their money lands, and that decision stays entirely with your community. We have no say in it and we do not want one.

The cause stays local and the choice stays with your community.
02 Eat simply

Spend less on food for one week

For one week, your congregation eats more simply and spends less on groceries than they normally would. The idea is not to suffer through it but to make a deliberate choice together, with a reason behind it.

Some families barely feel it and some find the week hard going, and both of those experiences are fine. What I have seen is that something happens in a person when they go without for someone else's sake, and a giving campaign cannot replicate that.

One week, twice a year and built into your existing calendar.
03 Calculate

Calculate what you saved

At the end of the week, each family works out what they would normally have spent on food and compares it to what they actually spent. That gap is their contribution.

There is no minimum and no suggested figure. The family who found the week really tight and the family who barely noticed it both give from the same place, which is what they went without.

Average saving is $50 to $90 per family across one week.
04 Give

Give the difference

That money goes directly to the cause your community nominated before the fast began, either through your existing giving channels or straight to the partner. We are not in the middle of any of it.

At 70 per cent participation across a congregation of 500 families, you are looking at around $17,500 in a single week. Run it again six months later and partners can start planning around it, and that is a different thing entirely from a one-off donation.

Want to see what it could look like for your congregation? Run the numbers below.

Straight to the cause and nothing in between.

Ready to bring it to your community?

Bring it to your community
Two brown paper bags filled with groceries including apples, bananas, cabbage and bread

The Maths

What the numbers
could look like.

Your Community's Impact

What could your
fast week fund?

The average Australian family saves around $90 on groceries during a fast week. See what your congregation's savings could actually do in the world.

Number of families 100 families
Participation rate 70%
Savings per family for the week $90

Based on a 35% reduction in average weekly grocery spend. Impact figures based on Australian food bank and international aid benchmarks.

Estimated Impact

$6,300

raised in one fast week

1,260 people fed for a week through a local food bank
126 months of clean water provided
31 school terms funded for children in need
Participating families 70
Per year (two fasts) $12,600
Over five years $63,000

Worth Saying Clearly

What Fast58 is not.

A few things come up regularly when people first hear about Fast58, so it is worth being straightforward about them.

Not a charity

Fast58 is not a registered charity and does not solicit donations. There is no organisation sitting in the middle collecting money on anyone's behalf. Your community adopts the framework and runs it entirely within your own giving structures.

Not a fundraising platform

We do not process payments, hold funds or take a percentage of anything. What your community gives goes directly from them to the cause they chose, and we are not involved in that process at any point.

Not another giving campaign

Fast58 draws from a completely different pool to your regular giving. Your community is not giving from their income or their existing commitments. They are redirecting money they would have spent on food that week anyway, and most communities find it sits alongside everything else without any friction at all.

Not complicated to run

There is no technical setup, no app to install and no reporting obligations back to us. A leader downloads the guide, picks a week, communicates it to the community and runs it.

Your Community. Your Cause.

Bring Fast58 to your community.

Get started Talk to Tony

Where the Name Comes From

It is called Fast58
for a reason.

I did not name it Fast58 because it sounded good. Isaiah 58 is the chapter that stopped me and I had been thinking about generosity and community and what the church could actually do in the world for years before I read it properly.

God is not vague about it. The fast he wants is not about going without in private and it is not about personal discipline. He describes what he actually wants: feeding the hungry, clothing the poor, looking after the people around you. And then he attaches specific promises to that kind of fasting. Healing. His presence close. Call on me and I will answer.

The name is meant to keep people close to that chapter. Every time someone says Fast58, they are saying Isaiah 58, and that is the point.

Isaiah 58:6–7

"Is not this the kind of fasting I have chosen: to loose the chains of injustice and untie the cords of the yoke, to set the oppressed free and break every yoke? Is it not to share your food with the hungry?"

The Holy Bible, NIV

Isaiah 58 is not about self-denial for its own sake. It is about a fast that produces something outside yourself, in the people and the community around you.

Common Questions

What people usually
want to know.

No. There are no licensing fees, no platform charges and nothing owed before, during or after. The only thing that changes hands is what your congregation saved on food, and that goes straight to the cause you chose.

Your community does. Fast58 never touches the funds. Participants give directly through your existing giving channels or straight to the nominated cause, and we are not involved in that process at any point.

Yes, and you choose before the fast begins. This might be a food bank your community already has a relationship with, a pastor you support overseas, a local project or a mission partner. It just needs to be something your community already trusts. We do not tell you where to give.

Twice a year is what we encourage because it builds something sustainable and gives partners something they can count on. Some communities start with once and work up from there. Some find their people carry it personally well beyond the scheduled fasts. Start where your community is ready.

It does not compete with your existing giving at all because it draws from a completely different pool. Your community is not giving from their income or their existing commitments. They are redirecting money they would have spent on food that week anyway, and most communities find it adds to what is already there without touching it.

Fast58 is rooted in Isaiah 58 and it has a clear faith foundation. That is where the model comes from and I would not pretend otherwise. But the practice itself, eating less for a week and giving what you saved, does not belong exclusively to any one tradition. If it resonates with your community, use it.

There is a leader guide on the Get Involved page that covers how to communicate the fast to your congregation, how families track their savings and how to close the week well. If you would rather talk it through first, get in touch and I respond personally to every message.

Your Community. Your Cause.

Ready to bring Fast58
to your community?

Bring to Your Community Get in Touch

© Fast58. Rooted in Isaiah 58:6–7.

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