What does your family think about your fundraising?

• Consider you a spiritualized beggar

• Embarrassed and hope you don’t appeal to their friends

• “Okay” with your decision to go into ministry but don’t understand what you do

• Assume you will be poor all your life and that they will have to subsidize you 100% behind you in your choice to go into gift-income ministry

Do you fear sharing “your donors” with your ministry organization? Won’t the organization steal them?

Here is a refreshing story about the YWAM El Paso-Juarez, Mexico ministry. The staff were struggling to raise the remaining $1,200,000 for a new Children’s Home to rescue kids off the street. What to do?

Leaders, you do a dis-service to the staff you lead when you don’t talk about fundraising. Perhaps you are well funded, and perhaps you execute wise fundraising plans. But your followers are not well funded, and they feel guilty if they even think about taking time to do fundraising.

Last week a giving-partner, Gary, wrote to say he “reads every one of our newsletters.” Realizing that I do not read “every one” of the ministry newsletters I receive, I asked him why he takes his valuable time to read my newsletters.  In his own words:

After being trained in ministry partner development, many staff from around the world go gangbusters in setting face-to-face appointments. And many see their donor income double within 12 months. The Goliath of Fund-raising has been slain!

The Mombasa Solution is needed!

The Mombasa Kenya Nav team under Timm and Carol Njuguna, gathered Thursday mornings to work on funding—together! Their agenda:

• Share successes and disappointments on funding since the last meeting

• Study scriptures and pray

• Phone prospective donors to set appointments

I was on the phone last week with a potential giving partner who told me about encounters she and her husband have had with missionaries. Here are two conclusions from our conversation based on her experiences.

Lately I've been asking people this question: Was Jesus a joyful person?

My friends are puzzled and they want to say yes, but then I ask, "What proof is there that Jesus was joyful?" What do you think?

From my study so far, here are three answers and a fourth surprising one! 

When missionaries are emotionally drained, fundraising and donor ministry become overwhelming! Phoning even one potential donor is impossible. "Our hearts are right, but we are out of gas--elephants are standing on our air hose!

Though painful lessons over the years, God has impressed on me these seven life management skills: