A new way to ask for support

Via YouTube, of all places, a personal appeal from a guy who was heading to Japan (and since posting the video late last year actually is in Japan now):

He has a number of these addressed to some of his close friends that he posted. I like the idea, but I’m not sure how certain potential donors will think of it. Younger generations will probably be fine with it for the most part; my one concern is that, being in such a public forum (you may be able to restrict access, making the video private to your friends), it may seem like an attempt to guilt a person into giving from the perspective of certain personalities.

As I already said, though, my own personality finds this creative and commendable.

Staying put and looking forward

So our house didn’t sell, and the contract on the house up north expired. Thus we will continue, gladly, working for the ministry we’re with for the next year as our new support allows.

We were hoping this year could be a more relaxing time, a year when we wouldn’t have to think about fundraising — for the first time in five years. But I quickly realized that if we completely ignored support this year we’d be at the same spot in six months as we were last year. I don’t know what to do with this knowledge, the knowledge that I “should” or “have to” keep on raising support this year. Sure, it’s expected that missionaries will spend 10% of their time every year maintaining full-time support, but when you’ve never gotten to full support the pressures are greater.

On top of this we lost $140 per month of support in the last two months of 2007. Two long-time (relative to our time in ministry) supporters gracefully discontinued their giving which totaled $200 a month, and we picked up new support to the tune of $60 a month from friends in Germany.

Last Friday we had dinner with friends on furlough. The friends relayed a very promising overseas possibility, serving in the same community they work out of for one or two years. This opportunity, though I have few details at this point, sounds very interesting to me. The regular support we do have now will go farther in this 10/40 window community, and we’re confident we could raise the necessary additional funds for an international short-term service such as this. The timing could be very good for us as well. I hope to hear back from the contacts our friends gave us this week; I sent them an introductory email on Monday.

More mission trips = less long-term funding?

Distracted this morning by our looming need for a significant amount of new funds, I began to wonder if the growth in popularity of and participation in mission trips contributes to fewer fully-funded long-term mission workers. I was thinking of someone who has committed a one-time donation, attaching a disclaimer that “it won’t be very much” because of the number of people in the family going on short-term trips. In fact, I think this has happened more than once in my experience. People are contributing regularly to friends and family members serving on short-term teams. It’s not uncommon for people to be a part of a recurring trip multiple times, or even helping out with.

Mission trips, done well, are a good thing. They involve people who might not otherwise be involved in a cross-cultural, missional experience. They deepen people’s faith and help create a world vision. And they spread the the love and worship of the one true God. Short-term mission trips also continue to grow in popularity, if my involvement with both ShortTermMissions.com and my own church are any indication, although no one in the industry really knows the numbers of short-termers in any given year.

It seems we Americans are averse to most anything that looks remotely like a long-term committment. Many of us hop around from one job/town to the next job/town without much regard for an intentional incarnational presence where we live — engaging the people and culture around us. Stereotypically, we are a very mobile people. This does have advantages, such as a willingness to move quickly when opportunities arise. But does it also equate to less potential and actual funding for those willing to commit to necessary long-term ministry, especially among unreached people groups? Are people becoming more accustomed to giving one-time gifts — as required by mission trips — instead of making monthly (or quarterly or yearly) pledges?

Some people would respond by saying if people are led by God to give, it doesn’t matter how much they give to other trips or causes already. I agree that God leads people to give, but thinking about and devising strategy before taking on a task is also Biblical (as in Proverbs, paraphrased, “who builds a tower without first planning it out?”). Thus we get into the philosophical discussion on whether it’s better to actually ask or “just pray.” Isn’t “just praying” more than we need to do though, if we really believe the Spirit is the one to lead people in giving?

Letting go, letting God

I’ve eluded to this in previous posts already: I’m at a loss as to how to continue raising the rest of our support. We’ve been at it since November 2002 now, although the last couple years I haven’t put much effort into it.

I don’t know if this is because I’m somewhat jaded at the whole process — at the lack of actual giving in comparison to expected or hoped for giving (which raises inevitable questions of faith). I open my address book and just stare at the names, wondering what on Earth I should do next. Maybe it’s because we simply don’t know the right people. Maybe God has some other creative (see previous post) ways for us to subsist in the ministry other than relying solely on personal support.

Regardless, I’ve had an amazing peace about the whole situation. There is certainly a sense of urgency which needs to be conveyed; if we don’t have significant new support (an additional 25%) by the end of the year, we’re going to be in more than a bit of a predicament. Either I’ll have to slide back to part-time at the ministry and find another part-time job, my wife will have to find some regular income to supplement what will be a greatly reduced salary from the ministry, or I’ll be looking for a different line of work.

We remain convinced of our place in this ministry now and for the foreseeable future. So I’m not really thinking about that last option right now.

With this peace, I’ve also been more casual about asking people to support us. This may be a backlash against the very formal fundraising instruction we received — friends recently told me in an interview for Propel that “It seems to us that support raising shouldn’t require you to be people that you’re not” — or it may be related to conversations my wife and I have had about relying more on prayer then strategy (I suppose this is appropriate anyway, although I’m generally a very practical person and — like D.L. Moody in this area — am not the type to spend hours on my knees.).

And, perhaps and hopefully, it’s Spirit-led regardless of the how and why.

Why people give

From Katya’s Non-Profit Marketing blog:

“People take action and give for deeply personal reasons. The more our messages resonate with our audience’s perspective, the greater power they contain. No one has ever told me that they gave because of a beautifully crafted mission statement or an attractive brochure. No one.”

I can personally point out a few notable exceptions, particularly a certain kind of business-minded male. These types, which I’ve come across at least two or three times, are extremely interested in the direction and business plan/model of an organization.

I would also add that a number of our own donors seem to give because of relationship. Katya’s examples from the aforementioned post elude to this but she didn’t say the word relationship. I’m convinced some of our donors don’t have the foggiest idea of what we do — other than “it deals with the internet” — but they give because they know us and trust us. This is somewhat frightening to me.

Her thought is on track though, and missions may be a bit of a different ball game than what she’s used to playing. People don’t generally give because of mission statements or brochures (although these surely won’t hurt, as my wife the wordsmith and myself the designer will tell you).

Stepping out, again

Not that this is only the second time we’ve done this, but my wife and I are stepping out again.

As my previous post notes, my wife recently quit her job. Consequently, I am in the M-DAT office full-time now. This is awesome, however — however, we are no where near full support. I’m working in the office on a reduced salary funded by our reserve account. This account is there to make up for short months.

And it is doing just that. The problem comes later this year, when the account will run dry if we don’t see significant new support early in 2007. My wife suggested we consider using the George Mueller approach to fundraising, although not exclusively, as we approach this second 50% of our minimum support requirement. Mueller prayed and didn’t “ask.” The more modern approach, which we like and aspire to in theory and in practice, involves face-to-face meetings and specific asks. We worked at this method for years. We met face-to-face with more than 140 people in, if I recall correctly, about 18 months. Some of those experiences I’ve already documented here.

We did this despite a slump in the economy. We did it despite not getting significant contributions from the two or three potential major donors on our mailing list. We did it despite knowing that a lot of our friends already gave to other people in this ministry (there exists a significant friend “overlap”). We jumped in knowing little or nothing would come from my wife’s childhood churches as many missionaries rely on — her churches being Southern Baptist, which rarely give outside of their own IMB. M-DAT is not part of the IMB, or any other denomination.

Here we go again! With a renewed sense of M-DAT’s importance in the scheme of Kingdom work, we step out on to the fundraising plank. I find myself questioning the existance of water under the plank, though. While there are a number of contacts on our list we’ve yet to approach face-to-face, they are spread out and travel is hard to warrant (some on the desolate plains of eastern Montana).

A few of these people I tried to contact via letters and phone calls. Success was limited at best. Other people we thought would begin giving by now have not, even with occassional reminders.

Where do we go now? With everything else so encouraging, how do we reconcile our lackluster support level? Questions of doubt inevitably creep in: Is it sin in my life? Are we supposed to be doing this? Is our budget out of line?

All of this to say we’re stepping out again. God, let there be water under this plank!