I got a message today from a supporter who needs to stop her monthly donations. I'm thinking of my friends in ministry who raise support–missionary support or raising funds for the ministry as a whole–and you’re on the field, you’re doing the work, and you get a message like this.
The temptation is to shrink back. The temptation is to say, "Well, people are hurting (they are) and so I feel bad asking for money to support the ministry." But I want to encourage you that this is not the time to pull back.
The money belongs to God.
It’s not yours.
It’s not your donor’s money.
It’s God’s.
The king’s heart is in the hand of the Lord,
Like the rivers of water; He turns it wherever He wishes.
Proverbs 21:1
Things are being moved around, yes. Some donors will leave you. But some will also come to you. Coming or going, we’re still called to relationship. We’re in this together. The resources belong to God, and He will move them around from time to time.
You still have to do your part.
You still have to be ready to receive.
You have to make it easy for people to give.
You need to ask.
Not only ask–more than ever, you need to tell stories.
Fundraising is part of discipling and leading and ministering to the people God has given you for this season. You pray together, weep together, celebrate together.
If you feel bad about asking for money, ask yourself a few questions:
- Do I only talk to my people when I need something?
- Am I sharing the ministry with them without asking for money? (stories)
- Do they ever get to see the smiles I get to see?
- Do they ever experience the joy and fulfillment I feel on a day when I absolutely know that God is with me, and that God loves without reserve the people He’s called me to serve?
If you haven’t been telling stories, sharing the work, sharing the joy, then start now. We grow closer by sharing stories.
We are fundraisers, but it’s not the only thing we are. We are brothers and sisters in Christ. We bear one another's burdens. We share one another’s joys. We celebrate all that God is doing and look to Him with eager expectation.
We find solid ground to stand on when we remind each other of God’s faithfulness. Don’t just say He’s faithful, share the story of how you know he’s faithful. This is the word of your testimony. We are always called to glorify the name of the Lord. Stories help us to see how He is moving and working in the world today.
We need that.
There is a time to ask - and yes, you can ask in tough economic times. But at any time, you must tell stories. And you must tell stories before earning the right to ask.
Share the stories. Share them with boldness and confidence in the Lord, as you trust Him to turn hearts and resources where He wishes.
If you struggle to tell stories, you’ll struggle to raise funds.
In the Mission Writers course:
- Learn the exact stories that every ministry, missionary, and nonprofit needs to tell.
- Master the fundraising story calendar.
- Develop and practice essential storytelling skills to increase funding for your mission.
- Build your story library and your confidence.
Details at MissionWriters.org
Support the show
Mission Writers is an online course and group coaching experience where you’ll develop and practice essential storytelling skills to help increase funding for your mission. Get started now, for a year of coaching at over 60% off the regular price.
Kay Helm 0:00
Hey, before we get started, I want to let you know that Mission Writers is now open for enrollment just until August 5th. So if you're interested, go to MissionWriters.org, and that'll get you signed up. You can find out more about Mission Writers at the end of this episode.
Kay Helm 0:18
Hey, can we get real? There's a lot of uncertainty in our world today. And I want to encourage you, especially if you are a support raising missionary, or if you're raising funds for a ministry or a nonprofit, this is not the time to shrink back. I'm Kay Helm. And this is the life and mission podcast.
Kay Helm 0:48
I got a message recently from a supporter, she'd been giving a little over three years, and she called me up and she said, Hey, I've lost my job. And I need to stop support. You know, we all don't like to get a call like that. First of all, because something bad happened to one of our donors. That's that's a priority, right? There's the well being of people we know in love, right? But we think too, in today's world, right? Inflation, COVID, war, all kinds of economic uncertainty and uncertainty about a lot of different things. And we wonder, even if we don't consciously wonder about it, it can be stressful thinking about, you know, are people going to stick with this? Are? Are we going to maintain that level of support that we're used to? Are we going to lose ground? Well, that's what I'm talking about today.
Kay Helm 1:42
I'm not worried because God has already called me into a new season of business, and I'm instigating calls with supporters now to the supporter actually already knows my schedule for transitioning out of ministry. But during this transition, I'm thinking of my friends in ministry, who raise support, missionary support or raising funds for the ministry of the whole, no matter what you're raising funds for. It's stressful. And if you're on the field, and you're doing the work, and you get a message like this, the temptation might be to shrink back. The temptation might be to say, well, people are hurting. And they are. And I feel bad for asking for money to support the ministry.
Kay Helm 2:27
But here's something that you need to know. Fidelity charitable did a study on the pandemic's effect on giving, they found 54% of donors plan to maintain their giving levels 25% plan to increase their giving. Yes, I said increase. What's more, 40% of the donors they surveyed, said that they were not shifting their donations to another cause. They were sticking with organizations and with people, right, that they already knew and trusted. So your donors that you have a relationship with, there might be circumstances, there might be seasons. But overall, this was a very encouraging report. Now inflation might be a little different than the COVID situation, because it's affecting people's pocketbooks directly, right, the subsidies and the things that we're helping people have largely been withdrawn, inflation is going to affect people's giving their ability to give, because they're spending more on essentials. And it's going to affect your ability to deliver services and your own ability to do what you need to do. Because the cost of things is, is risen. So we know, inflation is going to have an effect. We want to look at things realistically. And there are things you can do in your fundraising, to help people in this time to give in in creative ways. There are things you can do. Like you can even ask people to increase, there will be people who can increase their giving, and there are going to be people who are going to decrease their giving.
Kay Helm 4:09
I want to encourage you though, my big message today is this is not a time to pull back. That money belongs to God. It's not yours. It's not your donor's money. It's God's. Proverbs 21:1 One says the king's heart is in the hands of the Lord, like the rivers of water. He turns it wherever he wishes. I love that verse. I did some research on tributaries and on irrigation a few years ago, and I'm doing this off of memory but but there was a word picture associated with some of these verses. Where were the channels that he talks about in this verse in another translation, it talks about channels of water, and I just Got this mental picture of God kind of sticking his finger in the dirt. And there's a stream and he kind of just sticks his finger in there. And he just draws a line out, he just makes a little, you know, little ditch there with his finger, right. And he just channels off some of that water, and he brings it into another place and, and that's when the deserts have running water and the deserts come into bloom, and he, and he channels that he moves those things around. And so I just, I just think that's a beautiful picture. And things are always being moved around. And some donors are going to leave, but some will also come. So coming, you're going, we are still called into that relationship, we are in this together. And that's the beauty of that support raising type of situation is that none of us really works independent of one another. The resources, though, belong to God, and He will move them around from time to time. But for us, those of us in the field, those of us doing the work, we still have to do our part, right.
Kay Helm 6:05
So so when you're thinking about your fundraising, you still have to be ready to receive, you still have to make it easy for people to give, you still need to ask. And not only ask, but more than ever. You need to tell stories, you need to share testimonies of what God is doing through this Ministry that he's giving you. Remember, fundraising is a part of the ministry. It's not like the evil necessary, you know, sidecar to ministry, it's not that kind of thing we don't want to do, right, it's a part. It's an essential part of the ministry that you're doing. It is a part of discipling and leading and ministering to the people that God has given to you for this season. You pray together, you weep together, you celebrate together, you do the work together. So if you feel bad about asking for money, I want you to ask yourself a few questions. Because that kind of that uneasy feeling, it can be from our attitudes about money. It can be from, you know, wounds we have around money, it can be from things we've experienced with money. But as far as the kind of the fund raising activities, I want you to ask these questions.
Kay Helm 7:23
Okay, number one, do I only talk to my people when I need something? Do I only talk to my people when I need something? Number 2 am I sharing the ministry with them without asking for money? In other words, am I telling stories? am I sharing with them? Just Hey, this is what happened. When that in that cool? Look what God did. Look what happened. Look what happened as a result of your gift. Looked what happened as a result of your prayer. Look at what happened as a result of you showing up? am I sharing the smiles I get to see if I'm out on the field, and I'm 1000s of miles away from my supporters? Do they get to see the smiles that I get to see the little comments that made you smile, the little things where people appreciated something, sometimes we forget to celebrate the win. We're so immersed in the needs. And the needs are great. I'm not meant as minimizing anything. But But we've got to celebrate those wins, too. Am I really celebrating this with the people that are in this with me, right? Do they get to experience to the donors ever get to experience the joy and fulfillment that I feel on a day when I absolutely know that God is with me? And that God loves without reserve the people he's called me to serve? am I sharing that? So ask yourself those questions. And and you might have some more that you'd like to ask, Hey, if you've got them, share them with us. Ask yourself those questions. And if you have not been telling stories, if you've not been sharing the work and sharing the joy, then now's a good time to start.
Kay Helm 9:11
Share a testimony without an ask. call somebody up and pray with them. No expectation of anything in return. If it's been really rough, say that. But also recall the times when you saw a miracle when you soared when it wasn't so rough. Look back on the things that God has done. And recall those things. And we can remind each other of God's goodness, right when we share those stories. So sometimes your stories, maybe with COVID and all the stuff and maybe it's been a struggle recently, but you can go tell Hey, remember, three years ago, when we finished building the school house or Hey, remember when we finally got that thing done a few years ago? Hey, I'm looking forward to new ventures like that. Looking forward to when we can celebrate the next thing. Share the old stories again, look, especially with people that have been with you for a while, you look back and reflect on that time reminding them of how they were a part of that. That's a great story. That's a great story to tell. And you're allowed to do that. You don't have to constantly come up with new things, honestly. Right? All through the Bible. Look at all the times that God's reminding his people tell the stories of the time I did this, tell the story of the time I did that. So we can do that. Right? Ask people, you don't have to be the only storyteller. Call up your supporters call up your donors and say, Hey, tell me about a time when you really felt God's presence. Let them share. You listen, listen to their stories, pull stories out and have them build relationship. It's just a great time to build relationship.
Kay Helm 10:59
Okay, we grow closer by sharing stories. We are fundraisers, but it's not the only thing we are. We are also brothers and sisters in Christ. We bear one another's burdens. We share one another's joys, we celebrate all that God is doing and we look to Him with eager expectation. Here are some starters. Okay? If you don't quite know how to start this conversation. If you don't quite know how to start a story. Just start with this. I remember when or the first time I saw God, something was the time when something right? Or I never thought I'd see. Okay, fill in the blanks. Just use those as starters. Or when you're in conversation with somebody say, tell me about or do you remember when create story starters. In a time of uncertainty, we find solid ground to stand on when we remind each other of God's faithfulness. Now, when you're storytelling, especially in written form, don't just say he's faithful. Share the story of how you know he's faithful. You see, see, that's the difference. We can say he's faithful. But when we share the story, we know he's faithful. This is the word of your testimony. And we are always called to glorify the Name of the Lord stories help us to see how he's moving, and how he's working in the world today. And we really need that. So let's build each other up.
Kay Helm 12:48
There is a time to ask and yes, ask in tough economic times, ask in times of uncertainty, ask. But at any time, you must tell stories, and you must tell stories before you ever earned the right to ask. So always be telling stories, okay? Don't just tell stories now. So you can get to the ask, okay, don't do that. But we always need to examine our hearts right and our motives. But don't fret God's got you. Share the stories, share them with boldness and confidence in the Lord, as you trust him to turn the hearts and the resources wherever he wishes towards you towards somebody else. wherever he's moving those resources. That's okay. Our job is to share the stories and to ask. So don't stop asking. Don't stop telling stories. You need both. You need all of that. Okay? Don't stop reporting. Just keep that communication rolling. Keep that encouragement. Going. And if you don't know what to say, tune in here. Shoot me an email connect at life and mission.com. Let's get connected with Mission Writers. I'll
Kay Helm 14:09
have a little more information about that. So I hope you found this episode encouraging. If you did, would you please do me a favor and let somebody know about it? There's my ask, okay, would you share this please with somebody or write a review in your favorite podcast app? That would be really awesome because that's how I build my business. That's how more people get access to these resources and to this type of encouragement and this type of tips. So if you found it helpful, I'm sure you know somebody else who would also find it helpful. So if you'll share that that's my ask today. Take care. tell those stories. Until next time, I'm Kay Helm, and this is the life and mission podcast. Find your voice telling your story. Change the world.
Kay Helm 15:21
Mission writers is a one year course where you'll develop and practice essential storytelling skills to help increase funding for your mission. You'll learn the exact stories that every ministry missionary and nonprofit needs to tell. Develop your storytelling and direct response copywriting skills, learn the fundraising story calendar, build your story library and know when and how to tell your stories. You'll do that with coaching calls. I've got a course library that's already beginning to fill up with lessons and you'll have the community support. You do not have to do this alone. But you do need to tell stories in order to raise funds. I have a free video workshop that you can get at my website. Kay helm.com. That's kyhelm.com Scroll down the page about two thirds of the way down, hit the purple button, and it will take you to sign up for that video of the three stories that every ministry mission and nonprofit needs to tell