Gardening

Mar 21, 2023

You’ll be successful if you faithfully do the best you can with what you have

tropical fruit

Before you get to enjoy your harvest of fruit and vegetables you first prepare the soil, then you plant seeds. But that’s not all, you have to make sure you tend and water often, otherwise the young plants will wither and die.

If you want to harvest fruit and vegetables tomorrow you don’t plant the seed today. You have to begin the process weeks or months in advance.

So what?

I’m not actually talking about gardening, I’m talking about fundraising because the same principles apply.

The preparation you do today will reap a harvest in the future, but you have to faithfully ‘water’ the relationship – sometimes for years.

What you do today will make a difference tomorrow. Do nothing today and guess what, that’s the harvest you will get. So plant some seeds!

Want some Seed ideas?

  • Air “support” spots (ask me if you need a script)
  • Work on your Supporter Database (details here)
  • Build a monthly communication plan (watering)
  • Appoint someone on your team as “Supporter Champion” to make sure the watering gets done regularly.

God is able to supply all our needs – but in my experience He rewards faithfulness not slackness J

Grant

Record Your Donor Details

Here is a simple Excel spreadsheet for recording your donor details.

Download

Read a little more on CRM systems.

CRM Software

There are literally hundreds of  options for a CRM (Customer Relationship Management) system for your ministry. There are some free options but usually they are limited to a short time or a small number of records.

One truly Free option worth exploring is TNTConnect

 As CRM software is a rapidly changing field you are probably best to do your own search.

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