Fundraising Success by Connecting Faith

Two months ago I met with newer school family who had given a small annual fund gift in December. The family was thrilled with how their child was doing in the school and is grateful to the Lord for leading them to our school. They have become regular volunteers and are present at all school functions.

However, it was only seven months earlier when the parents were concerned that they could afford the tuition, much less the younger siblings who were not school age yet.

Throughout the school year, God blessed their private business and grew it to the point that they gave me permission to speak to them about a larger year-end gift. When we met together we looked back over the year and marveled at God's abundant provisions to their family that is now totally committed to Christian schooling. In the span of a few months, they went from "can we afford tuition?" to "how can we say thanks for the blessings?".

So, I encouraged the family to pray about a gift that reflects their thankfulness. I promised not to ask again, but that I would pray for them as they sought the Spirit's leading in how to respond.

The result? This week we received a gift that was almost 6 times their first gift! When I called to thank the father he told me that they feel very good about this act of worship (giving).

Further, he said that they believe this is just the beginning of giving larger and more frequent gifts.

We are called to help people connect faith and finances for their growth and God's glory.

Critical Success Factors for Development

Proverbs 15:22
"Plans fail for lack of counsel, but with many advisers they succeed."

What makes a development officer successful in their work and ministry? Is it their previous experience? Probably not, unless they came from a similar institution. Is it specific training? Again, probably not since few people go to school to become fundraisers. Is it their personality? Personality is important especially if the development person is outgoing and gregarious.

However, having guidance and support from several others may be the most important factor in "raising the fundraiser". First, if you are looking for a new development person, look for these characteristics:

1. Passion - for Jesus and for the school


2. Discipling - a desire to see God's people grow in the grace of giving


3. Teachable - A wise person knows what they don't know - willing to take direction


4. Innate skills - such as writing, organizing, recruiting, motivating


5. A bias for action - if "nothing is happening", then he or she makes something happen

Now, how to help this person be successful:

1. A clear position description including general and specific goals


2. Besides the head of school (the direct supervisor), the development officer needs a board member who has a keen interest in development and who can be a helpful sounding board.


3. A mature outside mentor can be extremely helpful in training and for on-going accountability.


4. Continuing education - reading and workshops and coaching will help keep the ideas and initiatives flowing

Development is often a lonely role. It is not in the mainstream of school operations, but critical for the school's health. Take care to choose this leader well. Then, invest in their success.

Courageous Christian Fundraising

Last week I was in Atlanta at the annual conference of the Association of Classical and Christian Schools where I was privileged to describe the daily (and hard) work of biblical stewardship.

Conventional fundraising employs techniques and methods that are tuned to efficiency and financial effectiveness. So, if selling wrapping paper is less efficient than an "a-thon", then do the "a-thon" which brings in more money with less effort. After all, the "bottom line" is getting funds right?

Does God only care about the fact that we get the funds? Or, is He also concerned about the "why" and "how" of the fundraising? The scriptures make it clear:

"So whether you eat or drink or whatever you do, do it all for the glory of God. " 1 Co. 10:31

We are obligated to make Christian fundraising Christian. Otherwise, it is secular fundraising on which we drizzle some Bible and hope that this will sanctify the method.

I have been impressed with the school leaders who told me, "I know this is hard work, but it's the right thing to do. Our job is to disciple people in their walk with Jesus." It is more difficult to look at someone as a fellow man and to walk with him to see his blessings as opposed to seeing him as a "giving unit" with a dollar sign on his head.

It takes more time, more prayer and more involvement. It results in more disappointments, but it can result in greater joy as the donor responds to the Spirit's call on his or her life.

At the end of the proverbial day, do you want to be known as this prolific fundraiser who gathered lots of funds, or do you want to be known as the one who God used to grow donors in their faith; and, who gathered the large sums?

Be courageous and see the Spirit carry you to the next right decision.

Endowment Funds for Christian schools

How can you bring up endowment when we can't even raise the Annual Fund to cover the "gap" that is required to make budget? Can't we just discuss endowment when (and if) we get caught up?

I don't think so. Here are a few reasons to begin to think, plan and act in this direction:

1. Prudence - it is good stewardship to plan for lean times. Remember Joseph's planning during the seven years of abundance (Ge 41:46ff).


2. Donors - many donors do not prefer to give to "keep the lights on", but want to build future capacity for the school.


3. Future - schools have longer-term plans that require larger amounts of money. This could be funding annual scholarships (the annual earnings of the endowment could fund scholarship for that year). It could also fund other initiatives not covered in the operating budget.

There are two arguments I have heard against funding endowments:

1. Accumulation - building more storehouses for grain only to have this taken away.


2. Current period starvation - money invested for the future may dissuade donors from giving for current-period needs; they believe they have done their part.

To both of these I say, come to the Lord humbly and ask for direction. He will guide if there is too much accumulation; He will direct the monies to be used for other purposes. We must trust the Lord that He is working in donors' hearts and telling them where He wants them to invest.

Our job is to make our schools worthy of investment, communicate with donors and trust them to follow the Lord's leading. We cannot and should not attempt to engineer the giving.

If endowments are in your future, what should you do today?

1. Ask the Lord to assemble some people to help you think about the future needs of the school.


2. Pray for a vision for the school's future that balances current and future needs.


3. Remember that donors want to see us continue in our mission. That means that they may be more forward-looking than we are.

Stewardship is Nurturing Spiritual Seedlings

While we in the stewardship world do not believe in using techniques to "move people along" to becoming generous toward God, it can be helpful to employ a semi-structured conversation that opens up the dialog to explore some critical background.

My friends, Scott Rodin and Gary Hoag in The Sower come to the rescue again when we have the pleasure of a face-to-face meeting.

"The Christian leader must focus on nurturing each person through personal interaction and correspondence, caring more about the spiritual preparation that the giving...Face-to-face visits scatter the seeds of truth...But how does a leader approach this important work?"

"When calling on someone, regardless of his or her connection to the ministry, approach with intentionality. say you are calling to set up a meeting to hear what God is doing in their life and to share what God is doing at the ministry. Use these five P's to remember the purpose of the visit."

1. Person - Learn about who they, not just what they do.


2. Passion - Find out what facet of God's work they are passionate about.


3. Permission - Seek permission to share about your ministry.


4. Participation - Share how stewards participate in the King's work.


5. Pray - Encourage them to pray about their response.

I had the opportunity this week to have this type of structured conversation. It doesn't feel as rigid as it may look. Remember that we care about the soul of our donor friends; we want them to experience the joy that comes when we release God's "stuff" right back into the Kingdom to do more life changing.

In that sense, this is ministry and discipleship.

Give it a try and tell me how it impacts you.

Young Stewards: "A Day of Service"

Is there an age that is too young to teach stewardship?

We tested this idea in April during an all-school Day of Service. The goal of the day was to share our blessings (time, talent and treasure) with many agencies within a 20 radius of the school. Also, we wanted to share Christ's love by going into the community and witnessing through serving.

One hundred parents and teachers joined in as we carpooled to 16 locations - all 320 of us!

Our students blessed the homeless shelters, Salvation Army, food bank, clothing bank, senior center, soup kitchen, retirement home, and others.

Here's how one of the parents described the day:

"I just wanted to express how much we appreciated the Day of Service. It was such a blessing to see first-hand the Kindergartners and First graders at the Friendship House in Wilmington. It was equally rewarding to hear how much my girls were blessed by blessing others at Shoes to Share and the New Castle Senior Center. We've always tried to instill in the girls how giving back is part of being a Christian and showing Christ's love. But, to have the entire school involved and seeing it on the kids faces and hearing the testimonies of their parents--- it made such an impact on our school family, I can't imagine what an impact it must have made on our community! I pray that this will become a yearly event and that the people of Delaware will not only see Tall Oaks as an impressive academic school, but as a school where God is alive and working in the lives of our staff and students and parents."

Biblical stewardship is a way of thinking, not merely an activity that we do. Please contact me if you would like to hear more about this stewardship day.

Psalm 8:

O LORD, our Lord, how majestic is your name in all the earth! You have set your glory above the heavens. From the lips of children and infants you have ordained praise because of your enemies, to silence the foe and the avenger. When I consider your heavens, the work of your fingers, the moon and the stars, which you have set in place, what is man that you are mindful of him, the son of man that you care for him? You made him a little lower than the heavenly beings and crowned him with glory and honor. You made him ruler over the works of your hands; you put everything under his feet: all flocks and herds, and the beasts of the field, the birds of the air, and the fish of the sea, all that swim the paths of the seas. O LORD, our Lord, how majestic is your name in all the earth!

The Essence of Stewardship

When asked to describe "development", how do you answer the question? For most of us, I suspect, it begins with a explanation of the needs of the school and how we can raise money from our various constituencies. And, yes, our school is worthy of support; that almost goes without saying.

"Listen" to one of the leaders of the biblical stewardship movement, Wes Willmer:

“Stewardship is God’s way of raising people, not man’s way of raising money.”
Wesley K. Willmer, God & Your Stuff (Colorado Springs: NavPress, 2003), p. 9.

I need to hear this. You see, it's not so much the "what" of development and fundraising (auctions, appeals, golf outings, etc.), it's the "why" and "how" that is critical. Be sure that the Lord cares very much about how we "do" fundraising; it reveals so much about how we think about ourselves, the donors, and how God works in providing for our school.

For instance, when you think of ways to "close the gap", does your mind race to the people who have the most wealth, or the ones with the fanciest car? These are the people who SHOULD be willing to give because they have so much, right?

Some of these donors need to be "raised", but not just asked for a gift. Other donors are well on the path to living like they know the Provider, and they are naturally more generous. The approach we should employ is different for each, but it should always be with their spiritual growth in mind.

In these days when we are planning for the next school year, take some time to evaluate and pray about the essence of stewardship and how that is manifested in your actions.

Prayer and Practice: A Summer Stewardship Project

I have been blessed to meet many other Christian school administrators over the past decade. God has raised up godly and capable men and women who have much to contribute to their schools and local communities. They have taught me and supported me in growing into the position I hold in my school. I suspect many of you have done this for the "youngsters" who move into leadership roles.

Here is an idea to consider for this summer: find a "prayer and practice" friend with whom you can spend time.

Recently, I was approached by a long-time friend in Christian schooling to do some "visioning" together. He has lots of experience that is different than mine and I have some background that could be useful to him. In our first meeting we ranged over a number of issues and we were able to find a few areas where we could be helpful to each other. We agreed to come back together on a regular basis to discuss further how we could begin to enhance our respective schools.

How can you do this? Think of a person who you respect and who you could meet with on a regular basis. Summers are less structured times; we can think a little more creatively without the normal pressing schedules. Call and meet for coffee; a non-school venue is conducive to out-of-the-box thinking.

Lastly, pray with and for your friend asking the Lord to reveal His ideas to both of you. No need to worry about competition. There are plenty of students available if our parents get the big idea of Christian schooling.

Stewardship Can Begin at a Young Age

Like many middle-aged administrators I find myself behind the curve when it comes to the latest advances in technology. Telephone and email are my standard electronic modalities. The "smart phone" is a recent acquisition, but many of its features go unused.

However, I know that I must stay up with the times and take advantage of the constantly-improving technologies. My latest foray is to develop a social networking strategy to link up this blog with Advance Christian Schools so that we might be able to connect with and help more school leaders.

So, right under my nose, I find one of our own students who is very proficient with Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter, etc. and I have asked him to share his abilities with me. Of course, he can set up the accounts and do the automatic links and feeds, but he started with me asking really good questions:

1. What is my passion and objective for this networking capability?


2. Who are the people I am trying to reach? What messages do I want them to receive?


3. What is my end goal or action I desire for these interactions?


4. What does success look like?

Wow! This interaction sounds a lot like the kind of questions we want our upperclassmen to be asking.

My young protege is unleashing his passion (social networking), using his provision (vast computer skills), and applying them to a Kingdom purpose (connecting and equipping leaders).

Look around your school and see if the Lord has placed a young gem right under your nose.