Make it Transformational: A Blog for Champion Discipleship

I recently attended a workshop and here are a few thoughts from the presenter:

• “Since your schedule is limited, you should only spend time with potential high-capacity givers.”

• “Don’t waste your time with Aunt Maude who can only give you $25 a month.”

• “Send birthday cards; send newspaper clippings of their kids; make regular contact… you’re trying to build a friendship that will lead to an Ask.”

Don’t get me wrong, the presenter was great.  He was funny, engaging, well-spoken and full of energy.  I liked him a lot, I really did.  And what he was teaching was exactly what I expected to hear in the secular development world.

Except one thing. 

I was at the CLA – the Christian Leadership Alliance Conference.

In fairness to the presenter, he did talk about the role of prayer, helping donors understand that they are stewards of God’s resources, and his love for the Lord was absolutely evident throughout his talk.

But, at the end of the day, I felt like this session was simply a focus on money and how to get more of it.  At one point the presenter asked and answered his own question:  “And how are you going to be judged?  By the amount of money you raise, by the bottom line.”

A few thoughts in response …

• Your schedule is limited.  So gain God’s direction on who you should approach about the mission and vision, and the opportunities you should provide to those individuals to help them get more involved (beyond just financial giving) in the cause for their own growth.

• Aunt Maude is not a waste of time.  Maybe Aunt Maude’s $25 a month is as big a sacrifice – or even bigger – than the family who gives $250 a month.  Or maybe Aunt Maude’s monthly giving is not helping your ministry grow much, but maybe it’s helping her grow and bringing her life more in line with the kind of generous and sacrificial life that Jesus lived.  (And I would definitely argue that if we don’t know how to use Aunt Maude’s $300 a year to help make a difference connected with our cause then a greater issue exists.)

• Build genuine life-long relationships with people, period.  Even if they don’t give financial gifts, a genuine investment into another person’s life is never wasted inside the kingdom of God.  Jesus built relationships with many people who had nothing in return to offer him.  The end result?  Transformation for them.

• Finally, God's metrics are differet than those of this world.  As we live and work in this life, we must remember that, first and foremost, we are called to walk as Jesus did, and that what we do is ultimately playing out for an audience of One. 

Call me naïve but I just believe that things should be different.  I don’t think biblically-based development means simply praying, and then going out and implementing secular practices of raising money.

How about you?  What do you think?  Maybe you attended this same workshop?   

Christian Leadership Alliance is a great organization serving the needs of Christians and the ministries they have been called to throughout the nation.  I was fortunate enough to not only attend, but to teach a workshop, at the San Diego conference this past week.  So many great people from wonderful Kingdom building organizations, together learning and growing in order to enhance their respective missions for the Lord.

It was awesome!

Since coming from the Christian non-profit development world to MIF more than 2 years ago, I have been so excited about Transformational Giving and what it means for the donors, volunteers and staff of Christian organizations who are engaging in its principles.  It truly is a breadth of fresh air to be teaching scriptural methods of raising funds to Christians wanting to follow God’s lead and disciple His people in the process.

What I found while attending other workshops at the conference was that the traditional/transactional teaching was no longer exciting to me, as it had been for nearly 30 years of my career.  Viewing it through my lens, it seemed so contrived, so formulaic and so focused on getting a check.  I kept wondering how God would bless those efforts and what He might think of the techniques. 

I was honored to be able to teach a workshop entitled “Coaching Your Champions.”  It was the first time most of the attendees had heard any of the transformational giving teaching that MIF is known for.  Many were excited to be hearing something different than the traditional/transactional process to fundraising.  Teaching they knew to be God inspired.  I was thrilled to be bringing this “new approach” to them and humbled by their realization of its impact.

Where is God in your fundraising?  Is He there as an active partner and teacher?  Are you following His principles?  Or have you put Him on the shelf of your boardroom to be acknowledged and thanked each month?

I want to encourage you to learn more about Transformational Giving from a scriptural perspective.  Attend our workshops and webinars in your area at no cost to you or your organization.  I hope you will be inspired by this “new approach.”

Have you ever written a letter that started like this to one of your champions, “You haven’t given a gift in over a year and we are going to remove you from our database if we don’t hear from you soon?”

If you have what was your motivation for doing so?

Recently as I was talking with an organization as to why they would send a letter like this out, they said because it’s a part of their appeal letters file. Their goal was to try and appeal to those who used to give financially to give again and reconnect with their cause.

I suppose if you had to categorize these in this way you could, but I would then have to ask the question…who do these letters appeal to? And do they motivate the reader to give another gift just to stay included your database?

The answer is that they aren’t appealing and they aren’t motivational!

But, as our conversation continued we discovered something far greater than a few of these champions not having given a financial gift-they didn’t need to reconnect with this cause at all. You see they were connected, but connected in different ways that the organization's database didn’t track. They actually had hosted a table at a banquet; they handed out flyers at their church, and volunteered at other events as well.

The real issue is that this organization wasn’t tracking what was truly important. They were missing their champions' transformational activity within the cause and putting their total focus on transactional data which only leads to transactional relationships. And….transactional relationships ultimately lead to letters that aren’t appealing, don’t motivate, and show that the organization doesn’t really know who you are.

My challenge to you today is to make sure you understand who your champions are, what they are involved in (which would include their giving) so you can connect with them in ways that foster their growth and maturity in your mutual cause.

If you would like to know more about how to track trasformational data, I would recommend two excellent resources. One is the Transformational Giving blog written by Eric Foley, Mission Increase Vice President of Training. Eric has included video in his multi part series on databases which began on April 9th. I believe you will find this series both valuable and inspirational. The second resource is our “Transform Your Donor Database” Webinar slides and podcast that are found on our Mission Increase Foundation Homepage. This too is an excellent resource that contains an hour teaching on the subject with Eric Foley and Tracy Nordyke our National Senior Giving and Training Officer.

It was the name of a ‘ground-breaking new angel investor fund’ - Presumed Abundance - which prompted me to keep reading this social entrepreneurship blog posting the other day.  As I continued reading, I had that weird experience where my eyes moved over the words and my mind drew immediate parallels to something else:

“The next generation of innovation is being driven by the changing relationship between founders and seed investors…” (My translation: The next generation of innovation is being driven by the changing relationship between Christian ministries and champions.) With their new Presumed Abundance fund, a team of creative angels are trying to draw investors and entrepreneurs closer than ever and make them true collaborators for disruptive change.”  (My translation: With their new transformational giving approach to fundraising, practicing ministries are trying to draw staff and champions closer than ever and make them true collaborators for radical Kingdom impact.)

As I read further, I had a growing appreciation for secular investors Kim Scheinberg and Rafe Furst as they are unknowingly practicing discipleship – and elements of transformational giving – better than many Christian ministries I know:

‘They couldn't escape the feeling that rather than presuming scarcity and creating a situation in which entrepreneurs and investors hoard pieces of the company to themselves, those groups should presume abundance and figure out what it meant to work together for real.’

1.   Did you notice that Transformational Giving Principle #2 is the anchor?  Also, they see wisdom in entrepreneurs and investors (or champions and staff?) working together as allies rather than adversaries.  That’s a huge shift – from safeguarding the projects and profits of investors (or ministry staff?) to drawing in other entrepreneurs (or champions?) not only to do work alongside them but also to receive coaching so they too could achieve their dreams and make a difference in the world.

 “Kim and Rafe are betting that entrepreneurs -- particularly the world-changing social venture types they're interested in -- are interested not only in their companies but in how they can unleash the entrepreneurial talent of others to solve problems and make the world a better place.”

2.  Do you notice the thread of Transformational Giving Principle #4?  Kim and Rafe see that entrepreneurs care about the cause and making a difference.  They’re modeling how to coach entrepreneurs to replicate themselves once successful – to make other owners of the cause.  Sounds a lot to me like coaching along PEO.

Finally, read this excerpt of a conversation between an entrepreneur and investor from the fund’s home page:

‘You decide how much equity I get. Then, when there comes a day that that equity has value, here's what we'll do: the two of us will find new people to invest in. You can sit with me on this side of the table, and together we'll use that money to facilitate other people's dreams. How does that sound? Would you like to be angel investor yourself someday? Would you like to be my partner?"’

2.     They’re modeling our TG mantra: Discipleship not dollars.  Their focus is growing people rather than just growing a business (or ministry). 

Imagine the possibilities - the abundance - if only more Christian ministries would embrace the fund’s tagline when working with champions: See a future together. Negotiate as allies. Presume abundance.

I always learn a lot when I travel.  I read different things, meet different people.  This last week I was in North Carolina for MIF’s first training event there.  During my travel, I had three key thoughts about Transformational Giving.  Here they are:

I-pod Church
I spent the majority of the past Sunday on airplanes to North Carolina so I decided to have church on my I-pod. I listened to a fabulous sermon given by Mike Erie, who pastors at Rock Harbor and occasionally visits my home church.  Click here to listen to the podcast from March 21st. He looked at two parables in Luke and asked provocative questions about our possible attitudes of entitlement.

When we translate these questions to apply to nonprofits, we have our own set of provocative questions.  Peel back the layers of your personal onion and ask, “Do I think that God owes my ministry financial blessing because of the good work we do? Do I think my champions owe my ministry their giving because we do such compelling kingdom work on their behalf?” I imagine and hope that this sermon might assist you in rethinking the issue of who owes whom. Might it be that you owe God a debt of gratitude for calling you to this work in the first place? Might it be that you owe your champions meaningful opportunities to grow to full maturity in your shared cause? The challenge is that providing meaningful growth opportunities requires much more effort than sending a standard receipt letter or having a jog-a-thon once a year. For more on thanking and receipting —TG style— and the broader topic of meaningful growth opportunities, attend our May workshops. You can register here.

Cause Tension
On Monday while in North Carolina for our new Raleigh office’s first training event, I spoke with an astute woman about the issue of cause. During our seminar on Transformational Giving, ministries are often surprised and challenged to hear us say that their organization is not their cause. Indeed, your cause is something only found in the Scripture (and, interestingly, nonprofit organizations aren’t mentioned even once in the Scripture). Feeding the poor, caring for the sick, and saving lives are just a few of the causes we find in Scripture. A large part of the paradigm shift required to practice TG is dependent on accurately discerning your cause and appropriately understanding how God calls you and your organization to impact that cause. The astute woman I referred to was struggling because she knows her cause is to minister to the poor in her neighborhood.   But, here’s where she struggles.  She has churches outside her neighborhood wanting to come over and help.  How can that be a bad thing?  She was appropriately sensing the tension there…that the parallel to her commitment to her neighborhood was for others to be ministering to the needy in THEIR neighborhoods.   Ah…subtle but monumental.  For a great read on understanding and impacting a specific cause, try Stones into Schools. You can read a great review here. While I’ll qualify my recommendation by saying that Greg Mortensen doesn’t demonstrate an intentional application of TG, he does get his cause.  Stones into Schools is the follow up to the well known Three Cups of Tea and chronicles his organization’s efforts to build schools (primarily for girls) in Pakistan and Afghanistan.

Make a Switch
On the way home from North Carolina, I read a large part of Switch, the Heath brothers’ (the authors of Made to Stick) new book.  Switch is an examination of how to foster and motivate change. One of their assertions is that change is stunted when we attempt to solve big, even monumental or systemic problems with equally monumental solutions. Instead, they contend that often the simplest change or solution is the most effective.  That’s why MIF has recently begun to offer one-on-one coaching calls to ministries who attend our workshops.  In these one-hour calls, our Giving and Training officers will help you discern the next simple step you can take towards implementing TG in your ministry, something that can sometimes feel like a monumental task. But, the first step towards implementing TG might very well be spending an hour with your GTO discussing what meaningful steps you can provide your champions, or searching the Scriptures with your GTO to discern the Biblical nature of your cause. I hope you'll make a coaching appointmet with your GTO today.