Benefits

The benefits of giving are seen by Christians every day.  But biblical truths are not just beneficial for the believer.   “Do not kill” is a biblical truth. You do not even have to know who God is for this truth to be meaningful in your life. God’s truth benefits believers and non-believers alike every day.  So His truth about giving are for the believer and non-believer.

As this blog is written for the purpose of Transformational Fund-raising and Transformational Giving here is an article passed on to me by one of our missionaries.  Why Fund-Raising Is Fun.

In this article the author mentions the benefits of being a charitable person.  So since being charitable is beneficial, then helping people be charitable is fun, because you know you are being a benefit to them if you help them become charitable.   

Here is a quote from Mr. Brooks  that caught me.  

 I have found that the real magic of fund-raising goes even deeper than temporary happiness or extra income. It creates meaning. Donors possess two disconnected commodities: material wealth and sincere convictions. Alone, these commodities are difficult to combine. But fund-raisers facilitate an alchemy of virtue: They empower those with financial resources to convert the dross of their money into the gold of a better society.

 Of course, not everyone shares the principles that motivate my institution’s scholars and supporters. But with millions of 501(c)(3)s and houses of worship nationwide, no one needs to wait on the sidelines and hope that politicians will marshal government power in service of their priorities. By investing their own time, talent and treasure, every American can bring his or her core principles to life. That can mean promoting literacy, conserving nature, saving souls or something else entirely. None of this is exactly revolutionary; after all, Jesus himself taught his followers, “It is more blessed to give than to receive.”

 What struck me is the reality that when our convictions are based on God’s Word, then combining His truth with the resources, or wealth, He has given to us, puts the donor on the front line of seeing God’s truth change the world.  By giving you can get off the sidelines.

Now that is beneficial.  

Are $$ the sign of success?

What a silly question to ask fund raisers...are $$$'s the sign of success???  Of course they are.  But wait.  Perhaps that is not the best question to ask.

Let's start with a more basic question before we jump to the jugular.

Are you doing fund raising or are you doing ministry?  If your fund raising is not part of a deeper ministry, this blog is not for you.  This is not to condemn anyone. This is just a different approach. Different is different not wrong.

So, if you are still reading,  I am assuming you answered...I am doing ministry, not JUST fund raising.

If you are doing ministry then stewardship/giving is part of the work but not all.  Therefore in TG, getting dollars is only part of the story not the entire story. Here is one way of setting goals my development teams uses in training.  This helps see the entire story and go beyond dollars to ministry.

If support raising was a college course,  what would an “A” look like?  No one takes a college course without getting a syllabus in order to know what to do to get an “A”.  All the work done in the class is done with the final grade in mind.

 

So here is what the syllabus might look like.

Fund Raising Syllabus

Goals of class

1.      Mobilize current champions to deeper involvement

2.      Enlarge team with new champions for The Cause

3.      Hit budget (Doing 1 and 2 will lead to #3)

How to accomplish class Goals

Plan

·        Fund raiser set goals for their work

·        Identify Champions activity according to PEO

·        Identify a few champions to work on migration goals with them

Implement Plan

·        Activity must align with class goals

·        Activity needs to align with CMS principles

·        Activity needs to be regular!!!

Evaluation

·        Success is measured by the goals of the class stated above.

·        Monthly identify what is working and what is not.

·        Evaluation is done collaboratively with a coach.

Set Free to Be Stronger

Do you ever feel that fund raising is draining?  Stupid question, right?   Maybe the better question is: Is it possible to do fund-raising without it draining the life out of me?  The answer: YES!

The next few posts are draw from a great article you can download for free by Henri Nouwen called The Spirituality of Fund-Raising.

The foundation of his teaching is in the love of God.  In the love of God we find what we need, and what we can give to those in need.  The nature of love is to give. Nouwen shows the common ground for the one who receives gifts and the one who gives gifts is God’s love.

Early in the article he addresses the idea of asking without fear.  This can be done because of the common ground is God’s love.  We can ask without fear is rooted in the fact that giving is a God-thing, not a people-thing.  People only give to others as a result of the image of God in them.  Without the image of God we would all be selfish (more selfish than we already are). But as His creation, made in His image, we love because of Him and giving comes from loving.  So, ask without fear!

Nouwen goes on to say,

“When we have gained the freedom to ask without fear, to love fund-raising as a form of ministry, then fund-raising will be good for our spiritual life.”
 

Wow, there is a lot to unpack from that statement.

• One: We can gain a freedom from Christ to ask without fear.  How liberating!!
• Two: Did he really say LOVE fund-raising??  He did!  We must see it as ministry.  If I love to be included in the ministry of God, then I can love fund-raising as part of His ministry.
• Three: It will be good for me!  The ‘good for me’ part is not because I get funds, but because my own spirituality needs it.  He said, “good for our spiritual life.”  My spirit grows in Christ as I minister for Christ.  Fund-raising is ministry. Therefore, I can do it in freedom, knowing it is ministry to Christ and to others. This liberating outreach then makes me stronger in Christ.

You do not have to be drained by fund-raising!!  Due to the common ground of God’s love being a giving love, you and your champion can be stronger at the end of the funding because when God is at the heart of our ministry all involved get TRANSFORMED.

Teach "First Fruits"

I had the privilege of attending a leadership conference this month.  Good stuff.  There were a lot of seminars on fund raising.  I was encouraged to actually hear the word “transformation’ used frequently.  There were many seminars with good principles on TG.  It was great to get affirmation that TG is the right track. Several presenters were helping others to see the TG is not about the agency or the project but about the giver.  So I was encouraged as I learned more.

 

Unfortunately there were also some discouraging seminars as well.  For example one had a lot of TG talk, but no TG action.  The data they encouraged you to gather from the giver was being done in the name of relationship building, but the purpose was to just get more money.  But there are lessons to be learned even in the ‘transactional’ seminar.

 

I learned that the purpose is the key!! I learned that we must walk-the-talk and not just talk-the-talk.  The talk of TG cannot be artificial.  The goal must remain focused on ministry to the giver, and trust in God to give the increase.  This focus helps us not be phony.  This purpose must be revisited daily to keep it genuine.

I also learned the need to keep the focus on the ministry not the money.  Focusing on ministry means I help the giver stay focused on the depth of God’s work, not the depth of their pockets. One presenter mentioned our biggest competition is the rising cost of gas and milk.  I humbly and whole heartedly disagree.  If the focus is on God’s ministry and the champion’s role in ministry, we need not panic when gas prices go up. The Bible teaches that giving comes from our first fruits.  I was discouraged with the talk on disposal income and how the rising cost of living eats away at disposal income which means less money for ministry.  If the ministry of God is based on what is left over, we are all in trouble.  But I believe that the ministry of God is done with the first fruits.  And God honors the champions who give their best.  Since when is God’s work restricted by the price of oil and milk?

 

Since TG is based on the theology of God’s abundance and not a God of scarcity, the champion’s disposable income is not the issue.  Focusing on disposable income reduces giving to a choice between the movies or giving. The champion does not have to decide between giving or going to the movies.  The reason:  when giving is done out of obedience it is an issue of stewardship, giving from our first fruits.  So when all bills are paid and the champion has $10 left in her pocket she is not torn between the movies and the ministry, because the ministry was already  ‘paid’ with the first fruits, not the left overs. Transformational living frees giving from being disposable.

Restore the Joy

Scott Rodin has written a short novel called, The Third Conversion.  It is a quick easy read based on the move from being transactional to transformational in giving.  He shows how this shift in the life of the giver impacts the needed shift in the life of the fund raiser.

The book is an enjoyable story reflecting the principles of Transformational Giving.  It is a helpful example of how you may be able to change your conversations with those who give.  He shows both good and bad encounters.

Following a bad encounter, Rodin has one of the characters of the story dissect what went wrong.  He observes that the reason the encounter went wrong was opportunity was missed.  Not the opportunity for the gift but an opportunity for ministry.  Here is what he says, “We had the opportunity to help them recover the real joy of giving in a God-pleasing way, to develop hearts that are rich toward God and blessed in their giving.”

What I love about this quote, is the focus on the “joy of giving”.  Do you believe God’s Word when He says it is more blessed to give than receive?  Every Christian worker I work with says yes to this question. Do you believe there is joy in giving? Again the room says yes. However, a good number of those who need to raise support back off the money question when talking to champions.  So if you back off the money issue, but you believe it is more blessed to give, then is it fair to say you may be in a position of robbing the champion of a blessing by not addressing the opportunity to give.

Maybe we do this because we do not see giving as a joyful event.  Perhaps we have approached giving as a “tax” not as a gift.  It is April and it is tax time.  Those who owe wait until April 15 to send in their forms.  I have been in churches who approach the offering time like a tax payer approaches April 15.  Let’s stop this attitude.  Giving is a joy. 

Two things can happen to change this way of thinking. 

• First, start with yourself.  You become the cheerful giver.  Experience the joy of giving personally.

• Second, pass the joy on to others. (You cannot pass on what you do not possess.)  Teach others about the joy in giving.  Help them recover the joy of giving in a God-pleasing way.

What to Measure - Part 2

I want to follow up from the previous post by joining Covey’s’ lead measures’ in 4 Disciplines of Execution (4DX) to Moore’s ‘scattering matrix’ in Seize the Vuja De .  Let’s see how these concepts reflect each other in what we measure.

A goal in fund raising is the income.  So this is the lag measure: what you measure when you are done. It is also a gathering matrix because it is what you take in. But we said “A goal in fund raising is income”, not THE goal. In TG the goal is greater than the dollar amount; it is lives transformed through giving.  Hitting the dollar amount is a portion of the goal and the easiest to measure.  But in order to measure transformed lives we have to have lead measurements that help us see if we are scattering the message not just gathering the money. 

In the 4DX book one example is a lady who is a top seller in a shoe store.  The statement made about her is, “The manager knew what she did differently.  She would get lost in the customer’s world.”  This lady would notice what the customer was wearing, offer options to fit their style, ask what they did for a living, etc.  In other words it became about the customer’s need for shoes not the stores need to make sales.  Sound familiar. 

TG is based on the need of the champion not the need of the agency.  If this principle is key in the selling something as temporal as shoes, just think of the importance this principle can play in helping someone in their discipleship journey of giving.  TG happens when it is about the champion’s bottom line not ours.  The beauty is, God then adds fruit to the agency’s bottom line when the champion is transformed. 

So you have a budget to raise.  Your board or someone is monitoring the bottom line.  But what should you monitor.  In TG with a scattering matrix let me suggest a few items you and your leaders can be measuring:

-        Did my encounter with that champion leave them richer than they were before, i.e. Did it add value?

-        Did I give the champion what they need to get involved?

-        How many have I equip to tell others about the outreach?

-        How many of my champions testified that they shared the outreach with someone else?

-        Are people passing on what they learn?

-        How many champions are moving forward in their discipleship journey, i.e. How many are migrating from Participation to Engagement, Engagement to Owner?

Granted, this list is harder to measure than the bottom line.  But remember the bottom line is not just to get funded.  Part of the bottom line is to grow champions for the Cause. So we also need to keep in mind, how many we bring with us on the journey, not how many report back to about the journey.

I would love to discuss these measurements.  Drop a note if you have a comment or question.

Can the Sales Pitch

I am on an email list that sends me very helpful teachings called McKaughan Musing.  I wish I could provide the link, but after days of trying, I am having technical difficulty.  So I will cut and paste.  These musings are from http://www.missionexus.org/, but I cannot get you to the direct link to the article I am quoting.

For the February 2013 edition the focus is Marketing vs. Sales.  McKaughan says this,

 I was re-reading a book on Peter Drucker, who was my generation’s leadership and management Guru. (A Class with Drucker by William Cohen) I came to a chapter on Marketing and Sales and it got me thinking.

   For Drucker, marketing was central to strategically leading any organization. Sales, on the other hand, was merely a second or third tier tactical issue

   To Drucker, the clear distinction between marketing and sales was that in marketing you found out what your customer wanted and then you built that into your product. Since what you produced was what was wanted or needed, a well- designed and carefully manufactured product hardly needed to be sold. What you produced met the customer’s needs and desires. Sales on the other hand had to do with pushing things on people where there was little intrinsic need or desire. Selling had to do with the creating or manipulating need or desire. According to Drucker, sales dealt with tactics, not strategy. Strategy always trumps tactics. If your strategy is wrong, your tactics will never lead to success.

Transformational Giving is about principles that guide our strategy, which in turn will guide our ‘tactics’.  Wrong strategy leads to wrong tactics. 

Could it be that the reason the listener often hears our fund raising presentation as ‘begging’ is because we are using tactics built on poor strategy?

McKaughan strikes on a truth Drucker taught that is core to TG.  "To Drucker, the clear distinction between marketing and sales was that in marketing you found out what your customer wanted and then you built that into your product."  The teaching we give in the migration of the champion (donor) is to find out what God is doing in their life.  This strategy is built on principle #4 in the 10 principles of 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.

It is about the champion’s impact not ours.  So it is about the champion and what she needs, not my need for their funds.  Then as Drucker said, “Since what you produced was what was wanted or needed, a well- designed and carefully manufactured product hardly needed to be sold.”  So if your ministry is designed to fill the gap God has placed in someone’s life (i.e. their need) then God will go before you and the need you present meets the champion’s need not just yours.  In this case it will hardly need to be “sold”.

Let’s take helping orphans as an example.  You are trying to raise money for your orphanage. So the tactics could be to show starving, lonely children.  The tactic being, show the kids and the funds will come.  I talked with a group that even flew the kids from a Majority World Culture to the states and paraded them to churches to raise money.  It worked, short-term. The problem was, in two years they had lost momentum.  They could not sustain the sympathy.  So they were trying to find a new group of kids to fly to the states for another ‘tour’.

But if raising money for orphans is not just about you or the kids, but also the giver and his need, how would this change the tactic?  Does the Bible not tell us to take care of the orphan?  Is this need being meet by the local church or the members sitting in the church that day?  The ministry to orphans is not just about the kids, it is also about the listener’s need to answer the call of God to serve children.  So now the strategy changes to reflect the biblical need of the believer to get involved in the lives of orphans.  It moves to an all-encompassing need.  The children have needs, the agency designed to reach them has needs, and the listener has a need to obey the command of God to serve. 

Now giving is fulfilling the champion’s need to obey and be a part of ministry.  The strategy moves from closing the deal to get the sale, to meeting the need of all involved.  We have moved from a transactional exchange to lives being transformed. The giver is now as blessed as the receiver. 

More About Stories?

It seems every time I turn a page in regards to funding these days there is something written about telling stories.  That’s ok, Jesus was a story teller.  We know we need to tell true and good stories.  I think the reason we see so many articles written about story telling is because so few do it well.

 

Nothing new has been written about telling stories that the generations before us did not write, but as with the any good truth, it needs taught repeatedly.  I came across yet another good piece on the role of stories in giving.  It mirrored teaching in the principles of TG so let me share it on this blog since the purpose is to advance the teachings of TG.

 

The article comes from ECFA.  It is by Bill Frisby and Dave Rippey.  They give 5 broad categories in helping people tell stories. One guideline they give is particularly in sync with TG.  It is this, “(A good story) places the giver into the ministry as an active participant.”  Great TG teaching.  The story is not just about you or your ministry, it is about the champion and his/her role.  The champion as a giver is part of the story.

 

Another well-defined need of what should go into your story is also highlighted in this article.  The authors show us that without Christ there is no story!  So the story must include the fact that nothing can be accomplished without God being a part of the story.  The end result is not the ministry, not you, not the champion…the end result is What Is God Doing!!!   Then we are responsible for following God and to be found doing what God is doing.

 

If you get caught doing what God is up to, guess what??...you will be transformed! God’s stories are the ones to tell to see people changed in their walk and in their giving.

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!!!

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. 

3 Simple Questions

There can be three easy questions you can have in your mind to help know the level a donor/champion is in his/her transformational journey. To refresh your memory of the transformational journey and its three levels of activity, Participant, Engaged, and Owner, you may need to click the level and see how these are defined.

The individual who is involved and begins to participate has answered the question:  “What can I do?”  This is the entry for us all.  We need to start somewhere.

The Participant who begins to ask, “Who else should do this with me?” is ready to function with the cause at the engagement level.  The sphere of influence is now getting bigger than the person and the project. 

The Engaged champion whose actions reflect the question, “Who else needs to know about this?” is now ready to be an owner and transfer the cause to others. Once the cause is being transferred, the individual has owned it is so much duplication begins.

It is really not hard at all to identify the level a champion may be functioning. Your role can be one to help the champion ask the next question to keep the involvement moving in a positive direction.  I fear some fail to disciple the champion because it seems too hard or cumbersome.  Hopefully these three questions help make the moving our champions simpler to understand.

Too Much Information?

“I know something you don’t know.” This familiar playground chant really is just the beginning. We all learned early that information is power. We may not say it in the same way as adults, but as we grow older the truth of information being power never goes away.

This is not to say it is bad. It is just true. How people use the power of information is what makes it good or bad.

In today’s world, power is accessible by more people than ever because the information is out there. With the web and blogs and whatever the next generation invents, we all know that being informed is not longer an issue. (Some champions in your ministry may have more info about what is happening than you.)

No longer are the ministry professionals the ones who have a ‘corner on the market’ of information. So when we do our web sites and brochures if all we are doing is spitting out info, we are not telling them much they do not already know. In an information age, our champions have information overload. If all we do is give more information we risk not moving anyone forward in their discipleship journey.

What is the role of the ministry in light of all the information out there? We have the opportunity to provide context for all the information the champion already has.

Let me give you an example:

John Doe lives in EveryTown, USA. EveryTown has the population of about 300,000 people. His mom, Momma Doe, lives in SmallVille, USA; population 5000. Momma Doe hears on the news about a shooting in EveryTown. She reads about it in the newspaper and sees it on the Internet. (Don’t kid yourself, Momma Doe does have Internet, I can prove it by all the forwards of cute little kittens she floods my inbox with every Monday.)

Momma Doe is worried her son John is not safe living in the ‘big’ city. So she calls to ask him to come home. Momma Doe has the information, and it sounds awful, but she does not have the context of the information. So John’s job is to put the information in context. He tells his mom that the shooting was not anywhere near where he lives and works. The shooting was in the drug district, it was the result of a drug deal gone bad, and it happened at 3:00 AM in an all night bar. So John will stay safe so long as he does not frequent the all night bar at 3:00 AM in the drug district and avoids getting involved in a drug deal gone bad.

John put the information in proper context.

Providing context is a great way to help your information sharing now move the champion forward. Once the info is placed in context we can begin to engage the audience at an equipping level that helps them know what to do with all their info. Most everyone has info, not everyone knows what to do with it.

So as you are moving someone forward in Transformational Giving and they say, “Why are you serving in that region, the information I read is that they all are evangelized?” You now have the opportunity to provide the context for the information.

The information a champion knows is not a threat to us, but an asset. First it shows they care enough to be informed, so jump on that and go on the journey with them to give context. Then help them act on what they know.

Time Spent

You know how the Beatitudes seem to turn everything upside down: blessed are the poor, the meek and so on? Well, the biblical roots of Transformation Giving do the same.

One part of TG that seems to be the reverse from the norm is how we spend our time. We often think our time should be spent with the crowds and a lot of big meetings. In fact for missionary who travel to churches, often get discouraged when the crowd is small.

And what about those fund-raising dinners? We always want the numbers for these to be high. That’s ok. We want our church services and banquets all well attending: nothing wrong with that sort of thinking. But if that is where our thinking ends, then we probably are not doing very well fund-raising and we certainly are not being transformational.

I know missionaries who Sunday after Sunday have a full schedule of meetings with good crowds and yet they are under-funded. So the solution is...better find more meetings? WRONG.

Look at how Jesus spent His time. Did he spend time with the crowds? Of course he did. Did the crowds produce followers? Yes. But look at the time spent with the crowds versus the time spent with the disciples. And look at the time spent with the 12 and see how he even took more time to spend with the three, Peter, James and John.

The lesson here is not to ignore the crowds, but rather if the message is to go beyond the ‘wow’ of the public presentation, discipleship in smaller groups must happen. Jesus spent time developing a few to influence the many.

There is a lesson in this for TG. If all we do is focus on the crowds and meetings and never work to develop individuals in their journey we risk failing to be ministers to the giver, and become just offering takers.

I had one missionary couple tell me that the last time they were in the states to do fund-raising they only had a few Sundays off for the whole year and they did not get their budget raised. They asked for a new way to reach the champion this time home. We talked about TG. So in their first four months home from the field they focused on pouring their lives into 4 local churches that support them. They attend prayer meetings and lead small groups for these churches. As a result of their investing time in a ministry of discipleship they told me they have pick up over $400 of new monthly support. They have also had friends from the churches give them more personal referrals for new contacts than they had the entire time they were home last time.

Their Story

Part of discipleship others is telling your story. Having a new disciple tell her story is a key part of the journey with Christ. In fact when you disciple people, you help teach them that they are now to be a witness. We teach them to tell someone else about Christ.

Look at Mark 5 and see what Jesus tells the man from Gadarene to do after the demons were cast out

18 As Jesus was getting into the boat, the man who had been demon-possessed
begged to go with him. 19 Jesus did not let him, but said, “Go home to your own
people and tell them how much the Lord has done for you, and how he has had
mercy on you.” 20 So the man went away and began to tell in the Decapolis how
much Jesus had done for him. And all the people were amazed.

Jesus asks him to tell his story. The same holds true for when giving to God transforms our walk.

We spend most of our communication with donors and champions in telling them what God has done through their gift. Nothing wrong with this. This type of ‘reporting’ is good accountability. But it is one way communication. Let’s create two way communication.

The one giving to the ministry also has a story to tell. He needs to tell others how giving changed his walk. You have the opportunity to build a ‘stage’ for the champion to broadcast his story.

• Start by asking the champion to tell you her story.


• Then assist her in broadcasting the story. Perhaps tell the champion’s story in your next blog or newsletter.


• Finally coach her to tell this story she just told you to others.
  

Transformation is too important to not be talking about. It is also too big for us to talk about by ourselves. Get others talking. God likes it when we talk about Him!!

Sometimes it just takes a small adjustment

Be careful not to slip into transaction when the pressure is on to get to the funds now. The method of “10 more donors at $10 a month” can end up being just about YOU. This old method can become stale and ‘me’ focused quickly if we are not careful, because by itself it does not move folks to transformation. A few simple tweaks of this appeal can move this to transformation.

But before we tweak it let's look at the dangers of it without looking for transformation.

Dangers using this appeal in your newsletters:

• Keep in mind that the majority of the ones getting the letters (email) already give monthly so this type of appeal may be preaching to the choir.
• This appeal tends to be all about the missionary and not about the champion.
• This appeal fosters no involvement outside of cash.

So we need to move this appeal to transformation…

1. The time has come for the “O’s” on the mailing list to get different info than the rest of the list. For example the “O” can receive an email the week before the general email saying something like, “Next week we will be sending an update to the team. In this update we will be asking the team to rally together for the last bit of the financial part needed for the ministry in ..wherever.. Let’s join together in prayer this week as God prepares the hearts of those who will receive the coming update.” This now gets the “O’s” mobilized. Then they can also receive the general letter to so they can see it firsthand.

2. When the general letter goes out it needs to move people to action greater than giving. For example it could state, “For those already assisting in the financial goal of the team, ask God what may be next for you. If the Lord shows other ways you can help the cause we would love to hear what God is doing in your journey.”

3. When the general letter goes out it needs to focus on the team and the champion rather than language like “We need or I need only 25 more donors” The “I need” once again makes the champion a spectator not a player.

Example of the tweaks to the “We need only 25 more donors at $40 per month and we can get to the field.” appeal.

“As we all have been working these past few months to mobilize the Gospel for _____, here is an update on how we are doing. To have the ministry extend to _____, $$$$ are needed to reach the financial portion of the outreach goal. So as a team let’s trust God as we work together to see Him provide. One way God can provide is for this need to be shared. For example, the need would be met by 25 new champions at $40. Pray about what God would have you do or whom God would have you talk to about being part of the outreachto _____.”

This is just an example. There are several ways this could be presented. Maybe you could even attach to an email a coupon the champion could print and use to recruit others.

Commercial

During this Christmas season watch the commercials, (I know I hate commercials too). They appeal to the joy of the giver as much as to the person getting the gift. Obviously they are trying to be sure their product will make you feel as good about buying it as the receiver will feel about opening it. Which goes to prove you cannot escape God’s truth, after all God is the one who said it is better to give than receive.

As Christian agencies and churches many of you reading this are on the ‘asking side’ of the giving season. We all have our special Christmas appeals, and year-end giving strategies. Nothing wrong with all this.

But let’s ask ourselves the question, “Are our strategies working to transform the giver as much as they are designed to transform the recipient?” Do our strategies reflect God’s truth that it is better to give? Are the methods we use helping the donor grow in their relationship to Christ?

God’s Word teaches us to be like Christ. Christ gave. So we can work to build our strategies to reflect Christ-likeness by helping people give. The great thing about transformational giving…it goes beyond the ‘cheesy’ jewelry commercials and really helps the believer deepen their relationship with the GIVER. Let’s work to focus on the donor’s journey as much as Madison Ave focuses on the buyer.

Help Get a Champion Started

Getting started can sometimes be the hardest part. After all once an object is in motion is it easier to keep it going. A big question for funding today is getting the ‘bodies at rest’ in motion. How do we get the person who is not even at the Participation level to get going?

With all the fears today about money and budgets, small steps can become a helpful way for new givers to see that their faith in God is not misplaced. However the small step in giving must be linked to relationship or discipleship if it is to help the champion move from getting involved to staying involved.

The other day I met with three young men who have a burden to be part of the solution. One mentioned he has always had a burden for missions and has supported missions. However he is not at a point that he can give funds regularly. (Unfortunately many ministries make the champion feel if they cannot give regularly they are not ‘on board’. This is unintentional but it tends to happen.) So he did what we want every champion to do…he found others ways than just dollars to give. He created a website with a vision to help others like him to start a pattern of giving.

Here is a part of his story… A missionary was visiting him once and mentioned that one of his methods of evangelizing was buying guys coffee and talking faith. So the champion said, I could help pay for one of these coffee meetings. The missionary said this would be a huge help and from this small idea the champion was being part of evangelism on the other side of the world. Then this got him thinking, what about the others from my generation who could help in similar fashion. So a website was born.

http://www.forafriend.com/ is a website for the champion to get started. They can pledge a gift, like a cup of coffee, a DVD, a Bible etc. Then from this site the champion hears back from the ministry telling them when the gift was used. Also the site gives the champion opportunity to drop the ministry emails and encouragement. It has the tools built in it for transformational giving. In other words, the gift can become an opening for discipling the champion to greater things in the Cause.

Moving Forward - Part 3 of 3

This is the final stage in moving champions forward. We have identified two levels already: Participate, and Engaged. This step is the Ownership level or the “O”.
To disciple a champion to this level it is the process of helping the champion become the owner of mobilizing others for the cause within their sphere of influence.

A champion is an owner when the following happen:
• Transfer cause to others
• Provide tools for others in working in the cause
• Reproducing yourself in others ie. Getting non active Christians to participate.
• This is a transfer of cause, not legal transfer

The moving forward is not linear movement. Rather it is circular in that the Owner brings in others to the Participant level of the cause and as they move deeper the cycle reproduces itself and the cause grows.

The Owner no longer waits on the agency or institution to move them forward. They move themselves and take the responsibility to move others in their sphere of influence. Reproducing becomes key at this level. Thus making empowerment one of your major tools in the journey you have with the “O’s”.

Get Friends To Talk

A key part of the Body of Christ is in its members sharing their faith. If we never tell our neighbor about Christ how will they hear about the Good News?

In a similar way when giving transforms your life you tell others. We tell our friends about the organization we help and how helping them has changed us. We are more apt to attend a church or help an agency recommended by a friend. We even go to restaurants and movies friends suggest.

The seventh principle in TG is about our peers.
Principle 7: The relationship between champion and champion is as important as the relationship between champion and organization

Even before today’s world of internet, Facebook and Tweets, the suggestion of a friend went far beyond the impact of a store’s advertisement. But with all the communication tools for us today, the word of a peer plays a bigger role than ever.

Check out this web site to read what a leader in fund-raising learned about peers connecting online.

As we think of the need to move champion-to-champion communication forward, we need to ask ourselves some questions.

1. Is your ministry impacting donors at a level that moves them forward in their walk with Christ? If this is not a part of their giving then champion-to-champion communication will not happen.

2. If the answer to #1 is yes then ask this question…Have you created places or ways for the transformed champion to tell their story?

3. Have you created tools and training for champions to work on behalf of the cause of the ministry they have with you?

Foundation

As you build you have to have a foundation. In thinking, principles equal building blocks. My home is built on a foundation made with blocks. My thinking is built on a foundation made with principles. So what are the building blocks for Transformational Giving? Well they are the 10 principles authored by my trainer, Eric. Here they are…

Principle 1: Every act of giving is first and foremost a statement about the faithfulness of God.

Principle 2: Transformational giving is based on the abundance and trustworthiness of God, not a theology of scarcity.

Principle 3: It is better to give than to receive.

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.

Principle 5: A Transformational Giving relationship between a champion and an organization is primarily a peer-level accountability relationship, not merely a friendship or a mutual admiration society.

Principle 6: The champion, not the organization, is called to be the primary means of advancing the cause within the champion’s sphere of influence.

Principle 7: The relationship between champion and champion is as important as the relationship between champion and organization.

Principle 8: Giving is not the process but rather one vital result of the process of a champion being comprehensively coached to share the cause effectively within his or her sphere of influence.

Principle 9: Giving is learned, not latent.

Principle 10: Champions categorize themselves not according to the amount of their giving but by the degree of comprehensive personal ownership they are exhibiting in the cause.