Make it Transformational: A Blog for Champion Discipleship

A few weeks ago I attended a fantastic fundraising event for a missions group that creates community outreach centers to poor Chinese immigrants.  The event featured the most remarkable dramatic presentation, where through a multimedia presentation of video, music, drama and dance, the nonprofit illustrated the plight of these immigrants, and demonstrated the simple, effective steps we can take to make a profound difference in their lives. 

It was exceptional, and at the conclusion, I was genuinely touched and was reaching for my wallet expecting a call to action in the form of a fundraising ask.  Instead, the emcee, visibly uncomfortable at the prospect of asking for money, spent the next ten minutes thanking the volunteers who made the night possible.  By the time he got around to indirectly hinting that there were envelopes on our tables if we wanted to give, all the energy had drained from the room.

In my notes to the organization after the event, I reminded them of the necessity to design a fundraising event to follow a dramatic arc.  All the rising action of the event (in their case, the multimedia dance presentation) should lead to the climax (the fundraising ask), followed by a brief dénouement.  Then it’s over! 

Any element (thanking the volunteers) that does not lead to the climax should be ruthlessly edited from the event.  (It’s a great thing to thank volunteers, but not at the event.  As an attendee, I didn’t know any of those people, but felt obliged to applaud, and my thinking was diverted from what I could do to help Chinese immigrants to the nice hors doeurves I’d enjoyed 90 minutes prior.  Once that attention wanders off, you can't get it back).

A little hazy on what you learned about the dramatic arc in eight grade English?  Thankfully, we have a wonderful example in the holiday classic, It’s a Wonderful Life.  The climax of the movie is when George Bailey decides that life is worth living after all.  He prays on the snowy bridge that God would let him live again, then returns home to embrace his children and wife.  The community barges in with money they’ve raised to help George save the Bailey Savings and Loan.  Community restored, family restored, everyone sings Hark the Herald and Auld Lange Syne, Clarence gets his wings, cue the end credits, and we all go home.  You can watch the whole thi ng unfold here, in about nine minutes. 

Note how close the climax is to the end of the movie.  Everything prior has led to the point where George can see that it truly is a wonderful life, then the movie ends.  Edited from an earlier script treatment was additional scenes where the Baileys discovered that Mr. Potter had stolen the $8,000 and retribution was administered.  This plot point, though important, was wisely deemed to not support the main point of the movie, and would defuse the impact of the climax. 

So, the next time you are planning a special event, pop some popcorn, light a Duraflame and watch It’s a Wonderful Template.