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1. All areas of your organization
need to be running a peak capacity.
If your automobile mechanic told you your car was in pretty good
shape at 88% capacity. His analysis of the vehicle informed you that
only seven of the eight cylinders were working which means the
vehicle’s effectiveness is at 88%. That is a “B” plus in a lot of
schools, but the vehicle would not run well. Think about this, if
every member of a football team operated at 91% the offense and
defense could fail because there is at least one person not doing
their job on each play. It could mean a missed block on offense or
a missed tackle on defense. It is the same way a not-for-profit
organization dependent on free-will donations. There is a need to
have all of the organization developed and operating at peak
efficiency in order to create the needed revenues.
2. Your efforts in ministry must be
personal. Most
funding appeals I see basically ask the recipient to send a donation
so we can minister to those people “over there”. The work that you
are doing needs to be vital both to the people “over there” and to
those that are on your mailing list. How does your mailing or
funding appeal apply to the priorities of the donor? There is a
statement concerning politics that you have no doubt heard, “All
politics are local.” Even national and international issues come
down to an application to the interests of the voter and the impact
locally. You need to make your organization personal even if
your ministry is primarily focused half-way around the world. The
number one thing that motivates giving is overall vision of the
goals of the organization. In an earthly sense your goals are
accomplished through the people that work in the organization along
with donors. Even though your ministry may be to people that are
very different from those on your mailing list you need to see the
mailing list as your mission field as well as those “over there”.
3. What are you doing in presenting
your organization that will distinguish what you are doing from
other appeals? We all
receive sales presentations in the mail. We sort through credit
card offers, automobile dealerships announcing a deal you can’t
beat, grocery store specials and the latest sales event at the
department store. Advertisements are present in your mail box every
day. No doubt you at times have opened the mail over the trash
can. The first thing you need to do is make sure your
organization’s presentation gets opened. The second thing you need
to get the donors attention once the envelop is opened. Please note
that I referred to this as your “organization’s presentation” and
not just a “fundraising letter.”
4. How are you going to present
your vision for ministry?
You must engage people and communicate what you are doing and get
them on board with your vision for ministry. You can make contacts
through churches in gaining opportunities to present your vision in
a Sunday morning or evening service or in a Sunday school class.
Look for independent Bible study groups where you can address five
to ten people at a time. There are groups like Mothers of Pre-Schoolers
(M.O.P.S.) that may allow time to present your vision. Visit
business people individually that may share your vision. Could you
encourage some of your present donors to have a dinner for
like-minded people in order to hear a presentation of your ministry
emphasis? There are companies that sell mailing lists. Is there an
age group that may be more inclined to support your work? Purchase
a mailing list to those people. Develop a mailing list of all
churches or at least those that may have a heart for what you are
doing and mail to them regularly. At Great Plains Christian Radio
we have literally mailed to every home in our coverage area three
times. We still have work to do in that we need to make contacts
with all of them again. Make contacts, make more contacts and do it
all again.
5. Don’t be afraid of rejection.
I have had several different positions as a salesman. I was always
told that I need to make twenty presentations to get one sale. I
was examining the data for Great Plains Christian Radio one day. I
did an inquiry of our mailing list as to how many donors we had. I
divided that number into the total number of addresses and
discovered that one of eighteen names on the mailing list has
given. Remarkable! It was almost identical to those sales jobs,
one donor for every twenty contacts. When you are examining your
budget for the coming year you may want to figure out how to
increase the mailing list in order to increase income for the
ministry.
6. Move people up the list.
There are people on your mailing list that give every month, others
are small-gift occasional donors, some are large-gift occasional
donors and there are those that do not give at all. What can you do
to move people up the list? There are no people who will not give.
There are only people that you have not found the key to provide
motivation or you have not adequately given them the vision for your
ministry that will result in a donation. Did you know that if you
did a survey you will find people on your mailing list that have not
given in over a year that consider themselves to be regular
supporters? They don’t realize it has been twelve months or more
since they have given. You have people that only mailed six
donations last year that committed to monthly giving and would be
appalled at their lack of faithfulness. However, don’t blame them.
It is your job as the manager or development director to motivate
them.
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