Your Lapsed Champions: Those who are "of us" |
Jul 30, 2009 |
This week I'd like to continue our discussion about lapsed champions. (You can check out last week's post where I touched on the great value of a champion covenant).
One of the interesting conversations from the MIF labs this month on lapsed champions was discerning not only who has lapsed (that seemed to be the easy part), but of those who have lapsed, which ones are really "of us" that you need to fully invest your time in reconnecting with (this phrase "of us" is taken from 1 John 2:19 where Paul calls attention to those people who seemed to be believers just like them, but showed themselves not to be because they parted from them).
In other words, how do you determine which people were merely participants (came to one event, played in your golf outing, gave a random donation, but didn't take any steps beyond that and never fully attached to the cause) versus those who began engaging with the cause in such a way that they were seeking to understand it better, showing interest in using their gifts (financial AND otherwise) to have greater impact, and showing commitment and growth in their involvement? You should know that the former wouldn't consider themselves lapsed while the latter certainly might and has a reason why they stopped being active (which would be important for you to know).
The challenge in all this is that for far too long we've only been tracking the transactional data of our champions - you know, recency, frequency and amount as it relates to a financial gift. We're super good at figuring out who's lapsed based on these criteria. But, since being "of us" isn't defined as giving recently, frequently or a certain dollar amount, we have to not only change our thinking, but change our databases!
In fact, one of the principles of transformational giving is that "Champions connect with each other and with organizations not according to the amount of their giving but by the degree of comprehensive personal ownership they are exhibiting in the cause." So we're definitely not on the right path if all we look at is transactions - these won't be your best indication of people's interest and commitment to the cause (although I admit they might be helpful, but only as a one piece of a larger picture).
So, before we can even begin to talk about HOW to reconnect with lapsed champions, we need to address this problem of what we know and don't know about our champions in the first place. It's all good and fine to reconnect with someone who has lapsed, but if you're failing to see and track how they're growing in relation to the cause, it's likely they're going to lapse again out of a simple failure of being able to provide a meaningful connection to the cause and them getting tired with continuous appeals for money.
Stay tuned for my next post when I'll pour over the question of what transformational data is and how we can begin to track it and use it for growing our champions into fully developed advocates for this cause God has put on their heart. THEN maybe we can get into the HOW part of reconnecting with champions!
