Wednesday, August 29, 2012

What's Your Story

I receive emails called McKaughan Musings.  Paul McKaughan is a mission expert, author, speaker, over 40 years of mission experience and writes for www.MissioNexus.org.
His latest email was on leadership and getting people to follow.  In this email he made some key comments that apply to TG.
Paul speaks of storytelling.  Here is one quote that really applies to TG and getting the champion involved,

“...if I can see how I can participate in the story, that really gets my blood flowing.”
Did you see what he says?  His personal participation gets him excited. Our stories must include participation.  Without the listener seeing his or her involvement, it risks just being another feel good moment that does not last past the evening news. 

He goes on to say, 
"I want to hear a story of how the world will be different, not merely how your mission will be different."
We need to take this to heart. It is not just about you the speaker, or about just John Doe, the listener, but stories should be about real change for Christ’s Kingdom.  Changes we can work on together. This directly relates to TG principle #4
A champion connects with an organization for the purpose of enhancing their mutual impact on the cause, not only to support the organization’s impact on the cause.

  
Paul gives a list of great questions that can be directly applied to your TG strategy.
  • "Does the story require God’s action?"  - It better be bigger than you and the listener, because if we do it without God it is not His.
  • "Is the story about the future, or merely a replay of a glorious past?"  - A story of the past is valuable if used in a way to reflect the plan and need for future work.  If it is just the past with no vision of the future, put it in your memoirs, but do not share it in champion raising.
  • What are the stories people tell themselves and each other? – Think about this for a moment.  This is my favorite question. It sparks me to think of these questions. What stories do you hear them telling each other?  Is it a story that others will talk about?  One thing I have seen...if the story shows the need for God, displays vision for the future and includes ways for the listener to participate...people WILL TELL others!!!

Tuesday, August 21, 2012

Retention is the New Acquisition

Retention is the New Acquisition.  This is a quote from a good article in the Agitator, Flat Earth Fundraising: Catch & Release Fishing.  This is a quote we need to hear.
I work mostly with missionaries; there are a few churches and colleges, but mostly missionaries.  Missionaries may have mailing lists of 350, 500, 700 people.  Just think if a mailing list of 500 people all gave $15 a month.  This would be $7500 in monthly giving.  That would be $7500 per month without getting one new team member.
However the individual raising funds who has 700-500 names on a mailing list is the same one who says, “I need new donors and new methods for new donor acquisition.”  The response should then be, “You have a data base full of champions waiting to go deeper. Work to retain and migrate this group before we go fishing for more.”
In the same article the author touches on that some of our ‘churning out’ methods on our donor mills to get new donors simply leads to destructive patterns.  So instead of churning more and more what if we increased what, Adrian Sargeant and Elaine Jay call, donor loyalty.  They say, “Increasing donor loyalty by 10% today, increases lifetime value of the fundraising database by up to 200%.”  In TG language we would say…migrating/discipling champions in their journey of giving is the equivalent of increasing loyalty. 
So if increased loyalty of 10% produces an increase in lifetime value, think what adding the spiritual element of Transformational Giving will do for the believer seeking to follow God’s will.  Funding is not to be snatch and grab, or catch and release, but an act of faith in God.  The fund-raiser who is not focused on catch and release is the one who cares more for the giver than the gift, thus avoiding a destructive method of “churn and burn.”
I want to suggest before we start looking for more ways to raise funds, we first improve current relationships.  Care for the champion. Reciprocate loyalty. And share the discipleship journey with the person giving.  All of which will strengthen retention. 

Wednesday, August 8, 2012

Would you raise funds if you did not have to?

What if your agency hit it big?  What if a gift came in that positioned you as such that you would not have to fund-raise any more?  If this type of gift came in would you still do fund-raising? Most I ask this question say, “Are you kidding?  No way.”  Maybe this is why God does not give us these types of gifts? 

If giving is not about the gift but the giver, then why would we ever stop fund raising? 

Look at the feeding of the 5000.  Why take the boy’s lunch to feed the crowd?  Just have the people hold out their hands, say a prayer, and a loaf of bread and a small fish appear in everyone’s hands.  But this is not what Christ did. People ate because someone gave.

God created the system of giving.  Check out the Levites in the Old Testament and see how God chose to take care of them.

Knowing that God wants us to give, helps lighten the burden of fund-raising. Using TG can transform the burden from being one of “I have to do this for my ministry account”, into a burden for others by thinking, “I need to do this for the spiritual development of others and myself.”  TG teaches the biblical truth that giving is part of our spiritual journey.  So exempting people from an opportunity to give would be like exempting one from being a witness for Christ.  The follower of Christ is to be as much a giver as they are to be a witness.  You may be God’s instrument in helping the believer to develop his walk in Christ through giving.