If your ministry is flourishing and growing and you are happy with the results of your fundraising activity, great! Why not share with us what you are doing so others can learn. If however, your ministry needs more donations to facilitate growth, then read on… The best advice I can give you is this:
Find a ministry that is successful and copy what they are doing.
This is R&D
Most often it is called Research and Development, but I prefer Rob and Duplicate 🙂 When Jesus called His disciples he chose a group of fishermen as some of His first candidates. Fishermen who weren’t catching fish. Luke records He told them to:
“launch out into the deep and let down your nets for a catch” Luke 5:4 NKJV
Peter replied “Mate, you’re a carpenter and we’re the fishermen, you hammer in the nails, we’ll catch the fish” What Peter actually said was:
“Master we have toiled all night and caught nothing; nevertheless at Your word I will let down the net” Luke 5:5 NKJV
What’s my point? Well, when I suggest how to go about successful fundraising I constantly have people say things like “it’s different here in (name a place) and that won’t work here“. But these are the very same places who need support from UCB Asia Pacific. So if the current way isn’t working, its a good time to try something new.
Start by asking… Who are the successful Christian Media ministries? I’d say Rhema in NZ, Vision in Australia, UCB UK in the UK are three top examples. They started off small, with just a very small team and a big vision. They prayed hard, studied who was successful and applied those principles to their efforts. And I suggest you could do a lot worse than copy what they are doing.
How do they raise support?
- Build a database of friends – They get names from everywhere they can and record them diligently
- Communicate regularly – They have a plan and they work the plan through messaging mail, email, WhatsApp, txt, and on air
- And finally, look how they use The Word for Today devotional
My challenge is for you to do your own R&D and then apply what you learn to your ministry. As always we are here to help. I’ve been involved with fundraising for Christian Media since 1986 and I’m happy to share what I’ve learned along the way.
Grant Kennedy is Projects Manager for UCB Asia Pacific. He has held management roles with Rhema Media in New Zealand and Vision Christian Media in Australia, in the areas of promotions, marketing, supporter care and fundraising.