We’re not alone…helpful resources for fundraising and ministry
This summer, I’ve got to admit…I’ve felt rather alone in the fundraising/preparing for ministry process. Asking for support – be it money, or prayer, or encouragement – requires a lot of vulnerability. Being vulnerable to strangers and new friends has never been my strong point. But God’s blessed me with some great conversations, mentors, and resources. While I can’t pack my fundraising mentors in a box and send them to you, if you’re facing the new challenge of fundraising, I can recommend a few resources. These have all been recommended to me by others much more experienced in non-profit and missions work, so I take no kudos for these awesome resources!
“The Spirituality of Fund-Raising” - “As a form of ministry, fund-raising is as spiritual as giving a sermon, entering a time of prayer, visiting the sick, or feeding the hungry.” - Henri J.M. Nouwen, The Spirituality of Fund-Raising. Go to the Henri Nouwen Society web site and request a free copy of Nouwen’s talk on fundraising. Packed with Scripture and focusing on how fundraising builds relationships and opens doors for others to participate in God’s work, this is a little gem of a book! Go to: http://henrinouwen.org/home/free_booklet/
TnT MPD - an incredible, free program for managing your relationships with ministry partners. Through this downloadable software, I can list my 200-some contacts and their addresses, how I know them (i.e. Pastor Mark recommended I get in touch with Mr. Smith), whether or not I owe them thank you notes or follow-up phone calls, and if I’ve already sent them a newsletter. I really appreciate this program - it helps me stay organized and focus on building relationships, not keeping endless records. “The hope in sharing TntMPD with you is that you, a fellow missionary, will have more time to do what God has called you to do.” Thank you TnTMPD! Check it out at: http://www.tntmpd.com/
“Getting Sent: A Relational Approach to Support Raising” – Pete Sommer’s book on fundraising is definitely a handbook…it includes consistent Biblical references on God providing for our needs, as well as step-by-step instructions on how to talk to churches, prioritize individual contacts, and follow up. At times, the process, as Sommer describes it, seems a bit non-relational…but nevertheless, he makes solid points and demystifies this strange process of asking people to support you.
Gmail – Did you know that you can archive, flag, star, and sort emails in Gmail? And that you pretty much never run out of space? So when you’re sending, say, your 60th PDF newsletter to another friend, Gmail barely winces. Plus, a calendar, and online chat… pretty slick web-mail. Perhaps soon, I’ll similarly rave about Outlook. Not yet.
Excel – it’s not nearly as complicated as I thought to make spreadsheets that total up your expenses. Yessss!
MTS Travel – This awesome travel agency for humanitarian/missions/students rocks. I’ve travelled enough (and bought my own tickets enough) to know a treasure trove of airplane tickets when I find one! These folks got me to Swaziland (yep, there ARE planes going into Swaziland) through a great travel agent. Going to France was certainly simpler, so I didn’t need a travel agent. After two days of fighting with airline bureaucracy and getting it into my head that because I’m no longer a student, I really can’t use studentuniverse.com, my mom recommended I check out MTS Travel. Sure enough, they had a ‘reserve your own ticket online’ option, and it was the same price as the super-discounted (but unattainable, at least for me) studentuniverse.com ticket. No frills, no hidden charges, no bureacratic games. MTS Travel is my missions/humanitarian airfare hero! Look into it at: http://www.mtstravel.com
PDF995 – Last, but certainly not least, the PDF writer! Microsoft Word is a great program…and so is Publisher. But the formatting gets all messy when you email finished newsletters, letters, or casebooks to folks. Enter a free PDF writer. Download this awesome program, and when you’re done with your Microsoft Word/Publisher masterpiece, click “print”…then, instead of actually printing, you’ll select the “PDF writer” option, and voila! You have a smooth-looking and formatting-error-proof document! Download it at: http://www.pdf995.com/
