Transformed Philanthropy

“Russ wanted the Russell Berrie Foundation to make a difference, to make his philanthropy count,” said Angelica Berrie, president of the Russell Berrie Foundation. “Giving is not just about writing a check. It is a relationship between those who have the means to touch people’s lives and the causes that inspire their generosity. In the process, we are transformed by acts of loving-kindness.”

The above quote is from the Russell Berrie Foundation and their focus on transformational giving. Not bad stuff. However, let me challenge this statement by laying the Christian principles of TG on top of this.

I am not saying the quote from Ms. Berrie is wrong; I just want to tweak it. So let's look at it phrase by phrase.

• "Russ wanted the Russell Berrie Foundation to make a difference, to make his philanthropy count,” Good point, no one wants to think their giving was a waste of resources.
  


• “Giving is not just about writing a check.” Amen. More people need to hear this and believe it.
  


• “It is a relationship between those who have the means…” Here is where I would like to ‘beef up’ the thoughts of the RBFoundation’s idea of transformational giving. “It is a relationship”, I love that part. The statement about ‘people with means’ can be taken wrong if we are not careful. We all have means, not just the wealthy. Not the same amount to be sure, but if giving is not just about writing a check then transformation giving is for. Everyone has something to GIVE. (Check out When Helping Hurts to see that everyone has something to give.)
  


• “to touch people’s lives and the causes that inspire their generosity.” As this blog looks at TG we look at the Christina view point of giving being part of following Christ, so this portion of the quote takes a different turn when thinking of giving being part of our stewardship. What if we said, “to touch people’s lives in ways to communicate and inspire their generosity as an act of obedience to the teachings of Christ.” Giving is Christlike, therefore giving changes the giver in that it is a result of the character of Christ breaking into a fallen world. Also by looking at our generosity as an act of obedience it takes the focus off us and puts the focus on what God is saying and doing.
  


• “In the process, we are transformed by acts of loving-kindness.” So true, but as followers of Christ both giving and teaching about giving flow from God changing givers as a result of obedience. Loving-kindness is from God. This is why the act of giving is transformational.

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.

Passion

I have not met many people who say, “I love to raise funds!” However, we all work among people who must raise funds. Fund-raising is often seen as the necessary evil. Many wish we could just skip it and get straight to our ‘call’. But God has not allowed me or most of you to find gold in the backyard, so we fund-raise.
What I love to do is communicate God’s Word. What a thrill to see the Word of God enter the heart and mind of someone and watch God use it to transform them into His character. In fact, when given the chance to share I do it with passion, because God is doing so many great things.

Here is an observation I received from a champion regarding passion and funding.

When I listen to the passion of a ministry presentation my heart is stirred. The presenter communicated so well what God is doing and I was on fire. Then they asked for assistance to help fund it and I was ready to get on board. But as they spoke about money, all the passion left and they became ‘squirrely’ and apologetic. I did not give. I thought to myself that if they cannot be passionate enough about my role in giving and are embarrassed by it, maybe God has another direction for the burden in my heart.

After hearing this I thought to myself, “Am I apologetic when talking about funds?” I shouldn’t be. Why? It is because God has called all of us to give. Giving is like any other spiritual discipline, it needs to be taught and presented with passion. Spiritual disciplines bring us closer to Christ. Giving is not any different.

I do not love fund-raising. I do love to communicate God’s Word. So I don’t fund-raise. I communicate God’s Word. God’s Word commands His followers to be givers. So I communicate the need for this spiritual discipline to be part of the believers walk. I can do this with passion. No ‘squirrely’ or apologetic presentations, but passion about the believer following the commands of Christ.

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!!

Safety Tested

In college I had a friend with a Volvo. Honestly, it was an ugly car, but his parents got it for him because it was the safest. Personally I would rather have a sports car than a safe car. Sports cars are good looking, safe cars, well, are not. Why does safe have to be ugly? I want both safe and good looking.

TG is both. It is good looking and safety approved. Let me explain.


What happens to giving when the economy crashes? We assume giving crashes too. But does it have to?

What if the champion’s giving is because they see the outreach as his or her own and not yours? For example let’s say the champion sees feeding the homeless as her own responsibility not the local rescue mission’s responsibility. The champion needs the local rescue mission to get the meals out, after all not many homes are equipped to feed a few hundred people a day. But the drive of the ministry is as much the champion’s as it is the rescue mission.
Therefore when the economy crashes the champion keeps giving because it is his call, her ministry. The ministry is a part of who they are because of what God does in the champion’s life through obedience. It is seen as the champion as a shared ministry.


When giving is a result of shared ministry it transforms the champion as much, if not more than the agency, mission, church etc. This is the ‘good looking’ part of TG. So when a champion is looking for a giving model to test drive, TG catches his eye like the sports car catches my eye. But TG is also safe in that it depends on God and His provision and is not dependent on the stock market or external economic influence.

TG is safety tested, because it works regardless. Multiple stories are out there of champions who give even in tough times not because the giving is done out of a disposable income, but because it is done in obedience to God. This is why it is important to build your giving on TG and why TG needs taught.

Eric Foley calls this ‘recession proof’ giving. I like that. My bank cannot even offer recession proof guarantees.

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.

All Can Give

Giving is such a huge part of who God is. Nothing reveals this more than Christmas. So isn’t it interesting that so few who call themselves Christians give as Christ asked us to give.

I was in a church that apologized for taking an offering. Another asked guest not to give. I know their intent is in the right place because many outside the church see those inside the church as only after their money. But look at this through discipleship eyes. Since giving is being Christlike, and this is part of discipleship, it is like saying, “We do not want our visitors to reflect Christ this week, wait until you get to know us better before you decide to reflect Christ by giving.”

Everyone can give. In fact in the world of missionary outreach we face real issues when a culture feels they are ‘exempt’ from giving because they do not have enough. Watch this video and then tell me some people just do not have enough to give.

The church in the video from Mizoram, India was described by the pastor in the video as the poorest of the poor. But as a result of the “Handful of Rice” a church emerged and now raised $1,500,000 for outreach. They send missionaries all over the world. Their gift has changed the world for Christ.

Giving is a huge part of who Christ is. You want to be like Christ, then give. Teach this. Live this.

(For a good book on the fact that everyone in Christ has something to give, read When Helping Hurts. A must read for all ministries.)