Make it Transformational: A Blog for Champion Discipleship

Don’t you feel good when people are attracted to your cause?

From the world’s perspective, when people have an attraction to your cause then you are said to be doing good!

Doesn’t it feel good to be good? But is feeling good (measuring success the way the world views it) the measure we should live by? Good equals success?

Jim Collins writes in his book “Good to Great,” that we shouldn’t settle for good, but that we should strive to be great.

My pastor put it this way last Sunday, “We should always choose BEST over GOOD.” He stated that, “good is the real enemy of best.”

In sports being good is nice, but only those who are great make it to the highest level their sport might provide. I’d like to remind you today that reaching greanesst is nothing you really can do on your own anyway. You simply don’t have the ability within yourself to do it.

Striving for man’s applause, and interest in your cause, is setting the measurement of success far too low. This measuring tool only reaches to the level for that which is good.

However, when we look to please God himself then we can achieve greatness. It isn’t that our organization does everything perfect, but that our attempt to please God in all areas does.

Wayne Cordeiro in his newest book, The Irresistible Church, states, “An irresistible church is not a perfect church. Rather it is one that is constantly aligning itself to pleasing God. It is a people who position their hearts carefully and deliberately with the tenets of the kingdom so that God is pleased to work in unrestricted ways. God is irresistibly drawn to a church where every activity, every plan, and every leadership decision clearly displays His heart.”

So my challenge today is to ask you, “Where is your focus and who are seeking to please?”

When you can answer this correctly, and walk out its path, then God the Father will be pleased and you will become great!

March’s MIF workshop, The Transformational Ask: Your Ask Is A Gift, has generated high registration numbers and – from those who have already attended - a handful of success stories! 

What’s exciting about these success stories is that – within days of attending the workshop - ministry leaders are implementing new concepts related to formulating and then ‘making’ the Ask.  These efforts are leading not only to donations for the cause but – perhaps more importantly – the realization that the Ask really can be a gift!

Take a look at the email below from Anna at The Resource Distribution Council, a Tacoma, WA ministry which distributes food to 36 food banks, hot meal programs, and shelters.  Thanks, Anna, for letting us share your experience to encourage others!

As you read about her experience, notice that Anna:  

• Knows something about this champion - besides her giving history or capacity!  She knows Kendra’s* personal experience with the cause, how long she’s been involved, her particular interests, and something about her spiritual maturity. 
• Has a clear goal in mind for the requested funds.
• Clearly communicates the need for funds – and the impact of ‘beefing up our program for delivering to shut-ins.’
• Communicates a vision - a future state of the program - to Kendra instead of focusing on current services provided.  For a refresher on casting vision, take a moment to read this blog posting.

After you read about Anna’s experience, consider registering for this workshop if you haven’t already.  And remember: you, as a Christian ministry leader, have the opportunity to bless others by challenging them to greater involvement in and giving to your ministry!

 Here’s what Anna emailed:

The week before the workshop on major donor asks, Kendra*, one of my favorite very sporadic donors stopped by and gave us a check for $1,000. Her mother, for several years, volunteered in our offices.  Kendra doesn't donate to us because she believes in our cause. She has told me several times that she donates to us because we have always been good to her mother. During her visit she told me that she had another $3,000 she would like to give to a church. I thought, "Man, it would be nice to use that money but I have no clue how to ask her" so I kept quiet.

However, her words "You have been very good to my mother kept ringing in my ears." I kept thinking how much I would like to beef up our program for delivering to shut-ins. We now deliver to Kendra's mom twice a month. I kept thinking it would be great to have a stock pile of Ensure, and Depends. Food especially designated for seniors would also be a wonderful thing. 

On top of that, we now give space to a pet food bank and let them serve clients during the week. We could deliver food for their animals. Pets are so important to seniors and shut-ins.

I thought in my heart, "I know Kendra owns this cause." So, I called her and told her everything I just explained to you. I told her that I had never asked someone for money like this before. But, if she had not given that money away, would she reconsider us.  We would us it to purchase specific items for seniors and shut-ins. Not only did she say yes without hesitation, she told me that when that money ran out to call her again. I thanked her for being the "charter champion" of this cause.

Here's the kicker. She told me that she had a church picked out to give that money to. However, she hadn't felt peace about it and was hesitating. She decided that it must have been God's will that she mentioned it to me. Now, if I had jumped at the ask when she was in my office. If I had not explained the cause, she would have just clutched her wallet closer to her chest. Instead of feeling used, she knows she is being a servant of our Lord.

It was a wonderful experience for both of us. This journey with you is truly transformational.

 *Name has been changed.

The story starting to come out about Vanguard Public Foundation’s recent implosion is stunning if for no other reason than it provides a cautionary tale to all of us. I appreciate Rick Cohen's effort over at Blue Avocado (http://www.blueavocado.org) to unravel the events that have lead to the downfall of one of the leading foundations. (Check out his investigative report Decline and Fall of the Vanguard Foundation here.)

In short, a flashy, over-the-top businessman sweet-talked and defrauded the foundation while the board went to sleep. Reading though the financials, it’s incredible to me that the board didn’t see they were bleeding cash like they were.

There is an amazing amount of things to be learned from the whole sordid affair, but among Cohen's observations were two big points that stand out in light of this month's focus on board governance (BTW -if you haven't registered for our free workshop The Board's Greatest Gift, now might be a good time). The principles seem obvious in hindsight, yet somehow we manage to overlook them. Each of them on their own, are recipes for disaster, but combined add up to some serious flaw's in the foundation's structure, and reinforces some of the key points in our board workshop.  (My comments below in italics.)

• “Non-attentive trust in the CEO is not a healthy governing model: With warning signals in abundance, observers suggest that the board was even a little mesmerized with the CEO and his celebrity friends. And board meetings were reportedly very rare.” If the board get’s so enamored with celebrities or with a “superstar” CEO that they forget THEY are the legal owners of the nonprofit, they are doomed to failure.  The old adage “Trust but verify” works not only for nuclear disarmament, but also for keeping your nonprofit from going up in a mushroom cloud as well. The board ignored the financial situation of the foundation, trusting in the celebrities to carry the vision, their “superstar” CEO to pull off the miracles, and the flashy to-good-to-be-true salesman to raise money.

• “Some have suggested that Vanguard's moves to turn over some decision making to community leaders left donors disengaged, and resulted in board members who were less attentive to grantmaking decisions and governance responsibilities.”  Second big DUH! When the board relinquishes control over their responsibility to safeguard the vision of the organization and turns it over others (especially those with personal self-interest in changing the vision) the organization is doomed. Donors saw the vision creep and withdrew. There’s nothing wrong with including the community in the process, but boards need to guard against letting the community become the (sole) owners of the organization just as they need to guard against ceding control to the CEO.

I’m sure there will be a lot more information coming out about what transpired along with additional dissection of how they failed, but there is one cautionary part of the tale so far that all of us need to remember – watch out for pride. 

Look at how many times Cohen highlights “even progressive foundations” or asks “are progressive groups vulnerable” as if they are somehow immune from the siren song of riches. Others are stunned that this could have happened to this foundation, once championed as a pioneer and new model for philanthropy.   But this isn’t about left/right, progressive/conservative – both groups could equally share in the same type of pitfall.  Rather, it’s about the overwhelming sense of pride and superiority, the “We know what’s best” and “We’re on the moral high ground therefore we’re above X (x = seduced by riches or making mistakes, or needing to have safeguards, or regular board meetings) that stands out the most. 

In their pride, they had it all figured out. And it was that exact same pride that allowed them to buy in to a charlatan’s scheme and ultimately topple one of the largest foundations. 

Pride DOES go before destruction, and a haughty spirit before stumbling.

May the Lord keep it far from us.

A while back, I posted on the topic of elevator pitches and how to strengthen them.   The hat-trick for a successful pitch?  Make sure it’s cause-focused, vison-focused, and easy to understand.  Here’s an excerpt from that posting related to the vision piece:

Help your listener catch the dream of where you are headed and what you aim to accomplish in the future with respect to your cause; help them clearly see that you need their help – working alongside you - to impact the cause and get to this future place.

‘Casting vision’, as we call it, is all about painting a simple, tangible picture of where your ministry is heading with respect to a cause.  It generally conveys a highly aggressive goal which would require divine assistance – and help from the listener or reader – to achieve it.

Vision statements should be clear, compelling, magnetic, and external in focus.  The heart of any pitch, be it in an appeal letter, at a fundraising event, or in a one-on-one conversation, should be about the ministry’s God-given vision of the future.  It helps the listener, after all, to answer a common pressing question: How can I make a difference in my neighborhood, community, or world?

Here are some effective vision statements to get your juices going: 

-           'To the moon and back in this decade' (President Kennedy talking about the cause of space exploration)

-          'Every book, ever printed, in any language, all available in less than 60 seconds' (Amazon)

-          'Organize the world’s information and make it universally accessible and useful'  (Google)

-          ‘A “dad” in every home’ (The Playmakers, a youth mentoring organization which trains athletic coaches to disciple inner-city boys)

Of course, a catchy vision isn’t all that it takes to get the commitment of champions to work alongside you to impact the cause.  Every organization with a vision for the future needs a solid strategic plan to take it from its current state to the future place. 

To learn more about casting your vision to ‘newcomers’, register and attend an upcoming fundraising banquet workshop.   Even if you are not immediately planning a fundraising event, you will gain invaluable ideas about how to effectively communicate your cause to newcomers.

Last Tuesday I began explaining the Four P’s of communicating our vision based on the book, Managing Transitions, by William Bridges (Perseus Publishing, 1991, 2003).   The Four P’s must be communicated.  If not, vision is empty and abstract and virtually impossible for people to wrap their arms around.   A partial review of the first two…   (1) We must communicate the Purpose behind our vision.  Communicating purpose to our people means answering the question, “Why are we doing what...

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