Mission Data International, the internet-based ministry we began fundraising for, required us to attend support-raising training, a “boot camp.” My wife had actually met the guy who gives these boot camp seminars, Steve Shadrach, while at John Brown University, and we were looking forward to it.
The seminar required an enormous amount of preparation. More hours were spent in preparation than at the seminar, in fact. We even had to raise a minimum portion of our cost for going to the seminar, just to scare us even more before we got there.
The training was very practical. It was a whirlwind of information and interaction with our peers. Steve gave us a myriad of stories to draw from. Most were very encouraging — although not all. Whenever he talked about some major donor in his past, someone in the class would ask for that donor’s phone number.
I’ve recommended the seminar to a number of people since going myself. However, some of the boot camp program set us up for disappointment, it seemed. We did everything right, everything by the book, except for that pesky request that we both quit our jobs and raise support full time. Nonetheless, we got all the right responses from people — they told us outright how our passion and excitement for the ministry was obvious — except willingness to give from enough people.
