For some reason those of us in ministry seem to think that only businesses can be organized.  We believe that doing things our way is much better than setting up a game plan.  If we’re honest, we know that our way of support-raising is actually adding a lot of stress to our family, our ministry and our own lives.  So what should change?  Well, we need a game plan.  2008 here we come!

2008 Resolutions:

 

1. Promptly call/send a thank you note to all who gave end-of-the-year donations (or everyone if you’re super ambitious) – oh, and a form letter thank you does not count!
2. Update supporters every other month with a newsletter starting today.  
3. Finally sit down and get all your donors into an excel sheet database so that you can print labels! (Let us know if you need help setting this up.)
4. Set reminders to notify you when your next newsletter is due. (Many donors we’ve spoken to get very annoyed when they haven’t heard from their missionaries!)
5. Set up a game plan for reaching 110% of your support needs. (Make this a priority so that it doesn’t haunt you later. )
6. When writing support letters, tell the recipient of your letter that you will be calling soon to answer any questions and to see if they will be able to begin supporting you.  You would be amazed to see how that helps people make a quick decision!
7. Stay true to your promise and call them! 
8. Set apart at least one day in every month to work on support-raising needs (this is part of your ministry too!) 

 

So lets go!  Share this with your family and prayer partners and ask them to hold you accountable to these goals.  

 *Here’s to 2008!* 

You can’t be prepared for every one of them. Sometimes all you wanted to do was just visit a church while on vacation, not do a presentation about your ministry. But presentations, whether 5 minutes or 60, are a part of a missionaries’ job description and nothing is worse than an unprepared, unorganized, and boring summary of what the Lord has called you to do overseas.

Here are a few tips for turning your presentation from drab to fab:

1. Know what you’ll say. Have a general script focusing on your ministry, your goals, and your needs. Create it for a long presentation (about 30 minutes), but highlight certain key points that could be taken out for a meaty 5 minute presentation as well.
2. Be animated. Have the family participate in telling stories. Recycle the jokes that are guaranteed to get a laugh (your kids may roll their eyes, but your audience will think you’re brilliant). Tell interesting and off the wall facts about your host country that your audience can share with others at dinner parties.
3. Fake it. Even if you aren’t typically organized, practice your script enough times to make it look like you know exactly what you are going to say, exactly how the presentation should go, and exactly how much time you have.
4. Don’t abuse your time frame. No one thinks you are as important as you do, and people are annoyed when you hold them hostage just so you can talk about yourself. Always leave room at the end of a presentation for questions. Leave them wanting more.
5. Use visuals. Pass around those unique Mayan vases you picked up at the local market, show pictures, distribute materials on your ministry. People like to touch and feel, it makes them more connected to the world you came from.
6. BE PASSIONATE!!!! For goodness sakes, you have just given up your entire lives to go and serve this ministry overseas, and you need to convince your audience why this was an opportunity you could not possibly miss out on. Make them want to move there with you, or at least visit for a few weeks. Tell stories about what the Lord is doing there, and mean it! Get your audience so excited about your work there that they will be eager to contribute.

Relax. Take a deep breath and enjoy your presentation. If you can’t enjoy it, no one else will. All you are doing is sharing with your family what you do for a living. This isn’t an audition, and this isn’t going to ruin your ministry. All you are doing is sharing with your friends how the Lord has blessed your life. It’s the best possible thing you could talk about, so enjoy it!

www.writersedgeinternational.com

Though it is sometimes necessary, nobody likes to be put on the spot – especially when it comes to being asked for money. People typically walk away from a situation like that either feeling too stingy, or too generous just because they didn’t know how to handle the awkward conversation. Next time you are campaigning for more money try this approach: email (or write a letter) to a potential donor with your needs and how they might fulfill them. Give them a specific amount of money you would like them contribute each month, and tell them that you will call them in a week to discuss if they can actually give or not. This gives people time to figure out what they can afford to give to you, and allows them to formulate an appropriate response. Either, “Lisa and talked it over, and we are able to contribute $60 a month to your ministry,” or, “You know, we would really love to help, but Lisa and I are really struggling right now. We are happy to get your updates, and we will contact you when the time is right.” No one leaves feeling manipulated or cheap, and chances are that they will email you with their answer before you even need to pick up that phone! Remember, unless you make people aware of your needs, they won’t know how to help and often times people are thankful for this opportunity.

www.writersedgeinternational.com

Everyone appreciates a thank you. No matter how big or small the gift is, people enjoy it when you express genuine gratitude for what they have done. You have probably already figured out how important it is to thank your donors be it a personal note, a phone call, or even a small thank you gift. But have you learned how to thank?

Although it is tempting to pack in as much as we can into a phone call or thank you note, it is absolutely important not to. When you call to thank a donor, do only that. Don’t use that opportunity to hit them up for more money. Don’t take the time to share prayer requests (unless asked). Do give them a short summary of where that money will go, if applicable, and thank them from the bottom of your heart. Leave it at that. They will leave the conversation or letter feeling truly appreciated and happy to give again, and certainly not squeezed for more. Your time is precious, but a donor is giving of their most tangible of possessions, their hard earned money. You must keep that in mind when you say thank you.

www.writersedgeinternational.com

One of the hardest sentences for a missionary to say is: “We need money to fund this ministry, would you like to support us?” Why is that? What is it that has caused us to find it rude to ask for money for the Kingdom? Instead, we try to protect ourselves. We hint that we need money. We ask for prayer that the money will come in when what we are really thinking is, “if you know we have the need, than maybe you will feel compelled to give.” Unfortunately for the asker, no one wants to be hinted into giving, so we are left with exactly what we asked for: a lot of people praying that the money will come in.

What we need to do is to get into our minds that we are doing something that is of eternal consequence and we really do have every reason to ask for this money. Either we are running the biggest scam out there, or we are giving people the opportunity to support something wonderful. We need to understand that supporting God’s work is not a burden, but a privilege.

So stop hinting. Ask for what you want. If you want prayer, ask for it, but don’t use it to hide behind asking for what you really need. Be bold, after all, if you believe in your ministry enough to sacrifice all you have for it, than people will believe in it enough to spend their tithes on it.

www.writersedgeinternational.com

If you lifted up your arms and hands for a few hours, do you think it would have any direct effect on your support account?

Probably not. In fact it sounds so ridiculous that you’d think it was insanity if someone actually told you there was some sort of correlation between the two. Yet in lifting his hands, Moses watched Israel become victorious.

Now change the scenario – what if you spent some time uttering words to God? Could there really be a link between our prayers and God’s acting in supporter’s lives? Put your potential donors and current supporters to prayer. Present your requests to God, and go forward boldly in faith. Remember, there is no reason to be ashamed of asking people to invest in furtherance of God’s kingdom.

www.writersedgeinternational.com

“Nice to meet you, how can you help?”

A dear friend of mine (who raises millions of dollars for his ministry) once said that the key to raising money is seeing everyone you meet as a supporter, prayer warrior or volunteer for your ministry. He rarely left a conversation without somehow directing it to how they could be involved.

Living this way helps us to see everyone as potential supporters and opens us to a much larger group of individuals than we would typically allow ourselves to reach. Don’t limit yourself to the people that you think will give. Allow everyone the opportunity to invest in your ministry. You’ll be pleasantly surprised to see how wrong you were!

~ng

www.writersedgeinternational.com

How much is too much?   

Oh the constant tension when writing an update letter.  On the one side you want to keep your supporters in the know and well, updated. Yet, on the other side, you are not sure if giving them all the details of your herniated disk operation and the family’s trip to Disney world is appropriate.   Typically your updates are mailed to those who you know and love – your home church, your family members, your parent’s good friends who watched you grow up, your old college buddies, and any other friends you picked up along the way.  So while the personal information you put on your letter may seem like it is going to an intimate group of friends, don’t forget that your home church will make copies for everyone in the congregation to read, your grandma will share the letter with her Bible study, your college friends will pass it along to other college acquaintances, and it very well could end up on some missions website without your knowledge.  Do you still want to talk about that herniated disk now? 

There are several solutions to this problem.  On top of a monthly ministry update, you could have a more intimate list of people who receive weekly or bi-weekly prayer letters or emails.  This would be the time to share with these people about the family’s health problems, how Johnny is doing in school, and any exciting family vacations or personal news.  This is sent to a list of people who you trust with the more personal goings ons of your personal life.   This is also a list of people who will be genuinely interested in knowing about these details. 

The second solution is to write one letter for a general audience.  These letters focus primarily on the details of your ministry, which is what your supporters are VERY interested in, and only gives one or two sentences about your family news.   You can feel confident about having these letters passed around to anyone because they are basically advertisements for why they should support your ministry!  These letters stick to the basics and leave out the details that Grandma’s Bible study friends maybe shouldn’t know about.  What of those who still want all the details of your lives?  Well, that is what email (or a blog) is for! 

 ~ ag

www.writersedgeinternational.com