Make it Transformational: A Blog for Champion Discipleship

Thank you to all of you who responded to our Mission Increase Foundation Survey last week. Hundreds of you responded, and we will take your evaluations and recommendations very seriously. I thought you might be interested in the results. 

We contracted with the Sagamore Institute out of Indianapolis to manage our survey. Jay Hein at Sagamore ran the Faith Based Initiative in the Bush White House, so we know our survey is in good hands. He and his staff are keeping all your replies confidential. This means that we will know what was said, but not who said it. Dr. Amy Sherman, who works with Jay, will be following up with a few organizations to dig deeper into the data and help us hone what the results mean. 

Our purpose for the survey was to measure and evaluate the effectiveness of our granting and training. You are our best evaluators. We have been running our foundation for ten years, and we truly wanted to know what we do that is helping you the most. I like to say, "We exist to help you produce more fruit on your tree." 

So how are we doing? Here's what you said: 

• Most of you heard about a training from a friend or colleague. Relational peer connecting really is the best medium to spread a cause. 
• You highly value the training we offer. 
• You see the training we offer as different in kind from other training. 
• Many of you would like us to offer more training topics. 
• The majority of your organizations will raise more money in 2009, despite the down economy. 
• You are more confident in asking and communicating with donors. 
• You are implementing many of the things you learn in training. Many of you have started doing fundraising events, house parties, grant writing, and champion coaching. 
• You would like more video or webinar training. 
• You would like more one-on-one time with our staff--which we are going to be offering. I'll talk more about that tomorrow. 

Thanks again for responding to our survey. We are listening and planning to implement many of the things we have learned from you. 

Dave Farquhar

President

Mission Increase Foundation