Deconstructing Fundraising
Something I’ve seen a lot recently is Christians deconstructing their faith. Typically I see those who have experienced deep hurt or a significant crisis in their life rethink how they see Christianity. People ask the question why they believe what they believe and build their faith by asking why. My purpose here today isn’t to take a stand on deconstruction but look at my own journey when it comes to fundraising
The last few months I’ve been completely looking at fundraising from a different perspective. I’ve been asking what’s the purpose of fundraising and looking at it from more of a spiritual perspective. Here are a few takeaways (my plan is to make these podcast episodes).
Fundraising is never about you or your organization. So often when we look at fundraising, we look at it from our perspective. As a missionary, we say we need to raise our budget and it becomes very self-centered. As a nonprofit we say we need the money to do what we do. In my opinion both of these aren’t the true purpose of fundraising. Fundraising is about the person who is giving, not you. First off, there are over a million nonprofits to give to. They don’t have to give to you necessarily. If you’re a missionary, there are dozens of missionaries people can give to. Fundraising can and should be more focused on how the person donating can grow, not how you can grow as an organization. This mindset has taken a bunch of pressure on me because if someone says no, it’s not them saying no to me but they’re not ready to support our cause. Also those that give will be more deeply embedded because they have an opportunity to grow as givers. Fundraising isn’t about you but about your cause.
Grow a support team like you grow a church. Picture yourself as a pastor right now. God spoke to you and said you are planting a new church. What would you do? You would probably start growing a team around you to complement your skills. Say you have great preaching skills but are tone deaf. You would look for a worship leader. You may be really organized but don’t know about accounting practices so you’d look for someone to fill that role. Even if your worship leader isn’t making much, you would still recruit the individual regardless of the money they have. I feel like sometimes in the nonprofit and the missionary world, we only value those that have money. However when we do, we could be missing out on valuable pieces to our team that could help us grow. Those that stuff envelopes are just as important as those who cut $25,000 checks. It just looks different.
Most people won’t give to an organization cold. They need relationship. At times I think about what got me involved with missions and look at why I give to the people we give to. Every person I give to I have a personal relationship with them or have seen their work. In my experience as a missionary, I have tried to do the cold contact via phone calls, emails, and snail mail. It doesn’t work. You need relationship with them. Also relationship doesn’t mean pretend to be their friend until they give you the money. Honestly, I’ve taken the approach that I don’t care about the money. My goal is to provide them with relationship, ask about their needs, and get them plugged in to what we do. Plugged in can be anything from praying regularly for the ministry, learning more about our ministry, to serving at our ministry and so many things in between. I felt the call of God to my life after I served. I give to missionaries after I have a relationship with them. I continue to see that relationships is what keeps us going as missionaries, not just paying the bills. The old way of just cold calling a bunch of pastors isn’t to me as valuable as those friendships and partnerships built through sharing a meal, building one another up. Building relationships is important for me now.
I hope this helps you with fundraising and I appreciate all of you! Click here to give to our ministry!