For a summary of what I’m hoping to accomplish in this blog series (in the second week of every month of 2018), I recommend reviewing my explanation here.
It’s the part of our job that very few of us love. I don’t think there are very many of us who get into this support-based ministry gig because fundraising is one of our life goals. However, it’s the part of our job that empowers us to do the thing we are called to do, and oftentimes God uses this portion of our work week to bless us immensely. Whether it’s the ability to trust in God’s provision, grow in our communication skills, work hard to build healthy relationships, or grow in our professionalism, this part of our jobs makes us into better ministers.
Support raising is a job never finished. With the way Impact Campus Ministries does fundraising, it’s incredibly hard work up front, often taking 1–2 years to reach fully-funded status. Once this is done, the hard work is mostly over, but continual and consistent maintenance is needed to stay at a healthy place for your ministry financially.
How do we do it? Well, 90% of good fundraising is done by sitting down, face-to-face, and getting to share your heart and vision for the ministry work you do. Forget the slick presentations and infographics; you don’t need a lot of smoke and mirrors to impress people or trick them into giving. You simply need a great story and vision of how you feel God is calling you to do ministry. We have opportunities to share that vision and ask people if they would be willing to come alongside us as financial supporters. We have supporters of all kinds. Some give large annual gifts and some give $25 a month. We all enjoy having supporters who really power our ministry by being $200 monthly supporters or more. Sometimes, these same people will even show up and give above and beyond their commitments for special campaigns or year-end gifts.
The generosity of others is always a great lesson and encouragement to people like us. It affects us and makes us different people as a result. I know for me, it makes me less and less cynical and more gracious and generous with my own time, money, and other resources. I am thankful for this.
And so one of the things I do every week and month, as we consider A DAY IN THE LIFE, is support raising. I have to make sure it’s something I engage on a regular basis. Whether it’s running a crowdsourced campaign on Facebook to raise funds for a trip, or shouting out to all of my alumni to ask them to consider to giving back, this is an effort that is constantly needed to do what we do.
I suppose it would be a real missed opportunity not to offer a link so that you — YES YOU! — can become a part of our support team. You can go to this link and sign up to give a one-time or recurring gift. You can choose to support the work of my family directly by finding my name, you can choose to sponsor the work I do with students by finding BEMA Ministry on the “Ministry Team” tab, or you can even support the wider work of our organization by selecting the General Fund.
I recently just got back from a summer of support raising. This is my very brief video diary about fundraising, recapping the experience for you to enjoy:
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