Make it Transformational: A Blog for Champion Discipleship

After a month of consulting with many organizations about their fundraising banquets I have found that quite a few of them don’t follow up with everyone who attends their events.

Oh this would be great with Felicity Donor!

In a recent blog, Felicity Donor of the Third Sector, stated that charities should not waste their money on fluffy thank-you letters to donors. She also mentions that she doesn’t want to be patronized with a soft, fluffy letter thanking her for her help because she wants to make sure all of her contribution goes to the cause rather than money being spent on her.

Many of you agree and some of you partially agree with Felicity. You save money on sending thank you letters by sending them to a select group. You only send letters to those who give financially. You have said you don’t have time to thank everyone. Because they didn’t fill out a card the night of your event, you say you feel awkward about connecting with them. And the greatest majority have said I never thought about connecting with those who didn’t give much less what would I say to them?

Whatever your reasoning is, saving a dollar, only connecting with a select few, not having a plan or not having a clue who you should connect with, there is no excuse for not connecting with everyone who took the time to hear about your cause.  You not only owe it to yourself,  but to those who gave of their time to see what God might be up to in relation to your cause and even within their own lives.

As we shared in our fundraising banquets workshop, the good seed you sow in the lives of your attendees will produce a harvest. However, it is up to you to cultivate, fertilize, water and then allow God to bring the increase.

If you need help understanding how you should connect after your fundraising event, check with your local Mission Increase Giving and Training Officer about setting up a consulting call today.

Remember…The harvest is ripe in relation to your cause, and it is up to you to connect and equip your champions to make a difference.

Yesterday, the youth pastor at our church emailed  this CNN article to a few parents and asked what we thought about it.  The article reviews several new books about teens.

It begins with the review of a book titled “Almost Christian. “ Based on in-depth interviews of 3,300 American teenagers between the ages of 13 and 17, the author argues that Christian teens have adopted a diluted, self-serving, and easy to abandon form of Christianity that has been unwittingly passed on from their parents.   

I found myself drawing parallels to Transformational Giving (TG) and the P/E/O grid which Eric Foley deftly describes in this blog posting.  According to the article,  

“The study included Christians of all stripes -- from Catholics to Protestants of both conservative and liberal denominations. Though three out of four American teenagers claim to be Christian, fewer than half practice their faith, only half deem it important, and most can't talk coherently about their beliefs, the study found.”

The champion is called to be the primary means of advancing the cause (TG #6 , right? And yet most Christian teens are clueless to articulate what they believe.  Do you think perhaps it’s because they were never equipped or taught specifically how to do this? 

Watch this video,’ Starting With Why’, by Simon Sinek, for a reminder of why we need to effectively articulate our beliefs to inspire others to action.  Then go one step further – and consider how you can train your champions to effectively articulate their beliefs about your shared cause.

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In the next interview, Barbara Lewis, author of the Teen Guide to Global Living remarks,

"I see an increase in youth passion to make the world a better place," she says. "I see young people reaching out to solve problems. They're not waiting for adults."

Champions  want to be directly connected to the cause thru meaningful experiences.  Hmmm.  Can you say PEO map?  It doesn’t even dawn on us as we continue to talk about our organizational needs and woes,  that our newcomers or champions are restless and wondering how to avoid the lecturing staff member to spend more time with the teens or the moms or the immigrants, for example. 

As a next step for our champions, we’ve gotta offer more than a tour of our facility or an invitation to our next fundraising event!  Go one step further – sit down with your passionate champions, get to know them and how they want to be involved in the cause, and train them via pre-thought and intentional volunteer experiences that will allow them to make a difference while gaining greater understanding or knowledge of the cause. 

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The last interviewee, Elizabeth Corrie, program director of the Youth Theological Initiative at Emory University in Atlanta, Georgia, suggests that,

“the Christianity some are taught doesn't inspire them "to change anything that's broken in the world."  Teens want to be challenged; they want their tough questions taken on, she says. "We think that they want cake, but they actually want steak and potatoes, and we keep giving them cake."

As ministry leaders, we get fooled into thinking that we should simply ‘make nice with’ and please our champions.  For heaven’s sakes, don’t ask or expect too much from them, we assume.  And yet the reality is that engaged champions desire steak and potatoes -  or accountability and growth opportunities.  If you’re afraid you might drive your best donor away by challenging him/her too much, just remember that individuals typically donate more after they have completed a difficult task.