Grants and Training |
Dec 9, 2009 |
The Mission Increase Survey showed that the vast majority of you really value our relationship. However, we also uncovered some warts, and I wanted to address those. Some of you commented that our grants are hard to get. That is true; it is partly intentional, and partly a temporary result of our growing pain. Mission Increase used to be an easy mark to get a grant, but as we have grown to serve over 1000 ministries we just can’t fund all the requests we receive.
A few mentioned that there are a lot of hurdles to overcome to get a Mission Increase grant. We agree, and we are looking at some new ways to streamline our granting process. We plan to implement some of your suggestions over the next few months. Watch for some new things to appear on our website that should simplify the granting process.
A few of you mentioned that filling out our profile was not easy. The profile you complete and keep up to date is the KEY resource our staff and board use to determine if and how we can provide a cash grant to you. It is not meant to be hard--nor is it meant to be easy. We need and use all the information you provide. Completing a profile actually helps your organization prepare and track vital information that every foundation and donor desires to know. It is important that each org learn to gather and report this type of data—-it makes you stronger.
The biggest gift we offer is available to all of you, but it is not a cash grant. The workshops and consulting we offer are grants to your organizations. These may not be cash, but these gifts made to help you develop new skills produce more income than we could ever award in grants.
We know that each of you could use a cash grant to go along with the training. In fact, one ministry in Colorado that regularly attended workshops applied for a grant and was denied. They were a little upset with us. We understood, but we encouraged them to keep coming to training. After a while, they returned to training; shortly thereafter, they wrote a letter to us explaining that the best gift they ever got from a foundation came when we denied their grant and offered them training. They, like hundreds of others, have taken the training and put it into action and raised far more funds than we could provide.
As a foundation, we are unusual in that our purpose is not to award money. It is to see you learn new skills, put them into action, and raise more needed funds. We combine training and grants to produce fruit on your trees. It is amazing to see how well this is working. Just in 2009 alone, all of our trainees combined will raise over $60 million dollars more than they were raising before they began training. We don’t take credit for this. You are the ones coming to training, putting these principles into practice, and producing the abundant harvest.
I tell the Mission Increase board that we don’t take credit for all this growth. We don’t turn you into diamonds. You already are diamonds, though some of you are diamonds in the rough. Our training and coaching just helps makes you shine a little brighter as you reflect the glory of God. You are the ones putting this training into action. God is the one who provides the increase. That idea of “increase” is why we at Mission Increase exist. We want all we do to help produce more fruit on your trees.
Thanks again for all you comments on our survey. I look forward to 2010 to all that God will do through your ministries.
