Make it Transformational: A Blog for Champion Discipleship

As you are probably aware, MIF offers matching grants to organizations that attend our training and meet our funding criteria.  In addition, we meet with all our grantees to consult with them and train on how they can best raise the required match.  As we were reviewing several grant applications this week, it dawned on me that we are practicing what we preach by aiming to transform the ministries we grant to.

MIF does not fund program grants, as we are focused on helping ministries grow their internal capacity to raise more funds and recruit more volunteers through coaching their champions.  An MIF matching grant can only be used for activity that will grow champions for the designated cause.  That may mean funding a development staff position, purchasing a database that will allow you to adequately track donor activity, or developing a new online giving strategy.  But what it doesn’t mean is funding for feeding the homeless or mentoring teens.

The heart of our granting program is actually in HOW the ministry will raise the matching funds.  And this is where the transformation begins to occur.  Both for the ministry and for the champion. 

A good example of this was cited in our grant review, when we were discussing a ministry that wants to expand their already successful annual banquet using a matching grant from MIF.  The question was raised about the additional impact of a grant, if the banquet was already at capacity and raising a sizeable sum for the ministry. 

Wanting maximum leverage from our grants, it was suggested that the ministry raise the matching grant amount by engaging current and new champions in asking them to give toward an additional matching amount to be combined with the MIF grant to make a more sizeable matching gift to present at the banquet. 

This accomplishes three key goals: 1) to double the matching gift amount presented to those at the banquet, 2) the ministry receives training and experience in how to engage new champions as we coach and disciple them in roundtable sessions and 3) the guests at the banquet are encouraged to give to the cause knowing their gift will be matched. 

How might you incorporate TG into your grant opportunities?  Is collaboration a model you could imitate as you identify new foundation partners?  The strength of the transformation is often in relationship with one another and God chooses to work in and through us to fully develop champions for His cause.

One of the byproducts of being an officer of a foundation is that I get included on loads of nonprofit e-mailing lists.  I don’t complain about this, in fact I encourage it, for three reasons:

1. I find these e-newsletters and e-solicitations to be a bottomless source of examples—both good and bad—for my work as one who trains nonprofits in fundraising
2. I become exposed to organizations that might be good recipients of an MIF grant, organizations that I otherwise wouldn’t know much about if I wasn’t included in their communications
3. I learn really cool stuff about the things I'm passionate about.

Unfortunately, of the dozens of nonprofits that send me their material, I can count on one hand (while holding chopsticks) the number of nonprofits that reliably land in the third category.

In the past month at Mission Increase Foundation, we’ve been training nonprofits on grantwriting, and one of the key lessons is to understand that foundations have a mission and a passionate commitment to a cause, so as nonprofit leaders you should become reliable and recognized sources of expert information in that cause.

But why is this so uncommon?

Sadly, nonprofit leaders are typically more committed to their particular organizations than they are to their cause, so foundation leaders have come to see them as provincial, and therefore biased in their communications.  And frankly, we tire of the organization-centric nature of most nonprofit communications—which wrongly assume that we foundations exist to give them money to carry out their work—so we’ve learned to ignore them.

One of the exceptions is the e-newsletter I get every month from Rudy Carrasco, an example of which you can read here.  Rudy mentions his organization's events and his speaking engagements, but he also includes links to items that directly impact his cause, which is Christian community-based development.  Rudy assumes if you are on his list, you care about these things too, so he wants to share them with you.  Then he includes a Bible verse and a cute photo of one of his kids. 

Does Rudy’s approach work?  Well, I can tell you I forwarded his email to foundation colleagues all across the country because I wanted them to read the “better vision for short-term missions” link.  These colleagues now know Rudy and his organization not because he did such a great job representing his organization, but because he pointed us to useful and stimulating information on the cause.  And because he does this consistently, I look forward to each of his e-newsletters, which is not something I can say for many organizations.

Mission Increase’s upcoming March workshop, ‘Grant Writing: It’s a Partnership’ suggests that traditional granting activity is not unlike a game of Twister whereby we twist and contort our non-profit programs and priorities in the hope of convincing the foundation board to give us money.     The March workshop digs into a wholly different type of grant writing centered on transformational partnerships which glorify the Lord, reveal His purpose and provision, and deepen the impact on the shared

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