Your secret weapon in fundraising!
© The Navigators
You have a secret weapon in fundraising. It is available 24/7. It doesn’t have an expiration date like a carton of milk. It does wonders in bringing gospel-workers to full funding.
I’m not talking about prayer—though that is indispensable. (I wish I were better at it.) Nor is it your passion for ministry. And it is not your sparkling personality—though you might underestimate the simple fact that “people like you!” They do!
Your secret asset is—time! When gospel workers spend time in fundraising, they get results. Or as a Nigerian minister exclaimed: “When I take time to fundraise, I raise funds!”
Gospel-workers do well in fundraising when they give themselves permission to do these two time-consuming activities:
- Make phone calls to set appointments
- Conduct funding appointments
But it also takes time to:
- Sort out your cell phone addresses
- Write a decent newsletter
- Re-write and edit a decent newsletter
- Study your giving reports
- Send a Thank You Text (TYT) to an unexpected donor
- Re-send emails that bounced (after searching for correct addresses)
- Take a donor to lunch for no reason except to listen and minister
Unfortunately, many gospel workers determine to spend as little time in fundraising as possible. A complaint I often hear is: “I appealed to three donors last month—it went well, but it took so much time!” Do you complain that evangelism takes so much time?
Why not re-calibrate how you evaluate your ministry workweek? Instead of spending as few hours as possible in fundraising, why not say, “I will spend 20% of next week in fundraising and see what results I get.”
But here is the trap. One frustrated gospel-worker said, “I spend all my time in fundraising!” And he was sick of it. When he left the room his wife confided, “Actually, we spend very little time in funding, but because it is such an emotional issue it feels like 100%.”
When you try to squeeze fundraising into smaller and smaller hours each week you are saying: “I don’t care about my giving partners. They do not deserve more than a few minutes a year.”
Really?
The Apostle Paul was in a hurry to get to Spain to preach, but he hoped to linger in Rome with his giving partners to “find refreshing rest in their company.” (Romans 15:32)
Okay, what’s the takeaway? You might be evaluating yourself unfairly. Given the few hours you spend in fundraising, you are doing very well!
Unleash your secret weapon! Give yourself permission to take more time for fundraising.
I challenge you to spend 20% of next week in wisely planned fundraising/donor ministry. Let me know if it was worth it.
Oops... I almost forgot!
I'm not suggesting that you work 20% longer hours, but identify some things you can delicate or eliminate from your job description.
