To Leaders Who Want To Raise More Money

The numbers don't lie and you are still in shock. You just received your year-to-date budget reports and only a few weeks are left in your fiscal year. The total giving this year is about the same as last year. While this isn't a crisis, you can't help feeling exhausted. In the quiet of your office you can hear your mind whisper the questions. After all that work and all the new things we tried? After all those newsletters I personally wrote? After all that work on those fundraising events? What are we missing?

The surprising answers have nothing to do with working harder or launching new programs. In fact, in a big way you are the answer to your own questions. Here's a few specific thoughts.

1. IF YOU DON'T GROW, NEITHER WILL YOUR MINISTRY.

I find that most people in leadership roles in ministry serve because they are called and have a heart or passion for the work and vision. They have a can-do attitude and can get things moving. Their God-given sense of calling makes them available and ready to serve Him.

But, as the years go by, a lack of skills or growth in some key areas can hold the ministry back. John Maxwell calls this is the "Leadership Law of the Lid," which says that an organization will never go higher than the leader is able to grow their skills. Casting vision, building relationships, and growing a culture of giving are all leadership skills that can easily fail to thrive if not carefully grown.

We humans are very good at self deception. Without being completely aware of it, we will find ways to do everything but actions that create a culture of growth toward a vision. We will fill our days with "good" things to do, frustrated there isn't enough time to do the very "best" things to do. All while avoiding anything in the world that smells like something awkward or uncomfortable.

I know that is true is because I can sit in my office with a list of people to call and talk myself out of calling every one of them. So if that's true of me, someone who is driven and committed to what I am doing couldn't this be true of you as well?

Knowing this about yourself and your team members will help you live free of frustration and bitterness and be much more intentional about growing your skills as a leader. The good news is that it is actually possible to learn to connect who you are with the work of development and grow a culture of generous giving to your ministry vision.

2. IT'S NOT HOCUS LOCUS, IT'S WHERE YOU PUT YOUR FOCUS.

Focus less on the idea of raising money from the community and more on helping people catch a vision for the impact your ministry will have on the lives of people you serve.

You can start by sharing the amazing news that your ministry is located in this region. Your story is about a ministry that is emerging and changing the lives of people in your community. Use language that describes how God is working through your approach to impact people. You're looking for people willing to get engaged in growing the awareness that God is using your ministry in a transformational way in the lives of individual people.

Explain how you are working to see your ministry become a force to be reckoned with in your community. Help others understand you are trying to grow relationships that grow the reach and influence of your ministry. Talk about moving forward or advancing toward your vision more than fundraising or needing money. Commitments come through people getting committed to your vision, and that happens through your growing influence in the community.

3. ASK MORE QUESTIONS, GET MORE INFLUENCE.

The key to your growing effectiveness and impact is knowing that the primary currency you're after is not money, but influence.

In order to do this, you have to take personal responsibility for sharing your plan for the future. I once worked with a leader who was a visionary, and was very good at working strategically inside the organization. I took the personal responsibility for truly clarifying our vision in the form of a plan. I didn't feel like what was being communicating was really was landing very well in our community so I started taking more ownership in crafting how we were going to communicate our vision.

I began by interviewing our key leader. I asked him to take an hour with me and let me interview him about our vision and began to craft that into a really clear and concise message. Then, I worked through the editing process with the leader. I wanted the two of us to be exactly on the same page on how we were communicating our vision.

He began to trust that I was "getting it." He knew I wasn't going to be out there somewhere off-script, but that I would be telling his story. You must do whatever is takes to pull the vision out of your heart or the people around you and get it on paper!

Then, I started spending most of my time face to face with people building relationships. I spent a lot of time asking people what their vision was and trying to find out what they knew about our organization. Then I would introduce a small glimpse of our vision and where we were trying to go. Then I would ask how they would do this work if they were in my shoes. I focused more on the growing currency of influence than the currency of money, and the influence and reach of our ministry began to expand rapidly, along with the generous giving we desperately needed.

As we coach leaders through Development and Leadership Coaching, we have three effective questions we teach them to ask on their first meeting with people of influence or prospective donors:

* What is your vision for this ministry?
* What advice do you have for me?
* Who do you think I need to be talking to?

When you ask these questions, be sure they see you taking notes because that let's them know you are taking them seriously. Also, this gives you the opportunity to follow-up later and tell them you heard them. When they give you names of people to connect with, be sure you reach out to them. It is your follow-up efforts, more than anything else, that build the currency of influence.

4. KEEP BUILDING YOUR SKILLS

Leadership has been defined as "getting the right things done through others." If you are a leader seeking to grow giving and enable your ministry to move forward toward its vision, then the process of getting the right things done begins with you. Keep building your skills in growing relationships and influence, and God will use the people you are connecting with to accomplish miraculous things.

BUILD GIVING. UNLOCK HEARTS. GET MOVING.

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