Is Your PR Promoting Yourself? Big Mistake

Posted on October 13, 2010 by Pastor Foley

Joanne Fritz at about.com quietly continues to consistently churn out the best blog content in nonprofitdom week after week. Do make sure to read her daily–especially her review of The Dragonfly Effect, where she highlights a piece from the book that no other reviewer catches, namely, a great example of PR staff existing to promote the work of donors and volunteers, not the organizations that pay them:

The Dragonfly authors cite how Alex’s Lemonade Stand Foundation provides a “lemonade stand in a box” to anyone who fills out a simple form at its website. The “box” includes cups, banners, and balloons. Within fifteen minutes of signing up, parents get an email from the foundation’s public relations staff offering to help establish media contacts to promote the lemonade stand locally. Parents receive a press release template which they can personalize.

Did you catch that last part–an offer from the nonprofit’s PR staff to promote your child’s lemonade stand locally? That is so profoundly cool that I almost regret that our youngest child is now 16 and working at McDonald’s, leaving little time for lemonade. Well, that and the onrushing Colorado winter (there’s snow on Pikes Peak today) puts demand for cold drinks in the deep freeze.

But when you think about it, what really would PR be for in this day and age if it wasn’t for promoting the work of your champions? You’re certainly not still using your newsletter to promote your own organization…are you?

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It’s Not Transformational if No One is Giving

Posted on October 11, 2010 by Pastor Foley

Todd Eckhardt is the Director of Partner and Champion Development at World Gospel Mission in Marion, IN. More than that, he’s one of my favorite Transformational Giving minds because he’s working both in the trenches and at the frontier of TG thought. I asked for his permission to post here a recent email he wrote to World Gospel Mission missionaries and development staff. The two key points that he makes that I love are the difference between a tip and a gift (answer: it’s all in the involvement) and the reason why money is still one important measure of success in Transformational Giving (answer: because if people don’t give it means their involvement is superficial, not comprehensive). Great post. By the way, “CMS” stands for “Champion Migration Strategy”, World Gospel Mission’s custom formulation of Transformational Giving practices. Heeeeere’s Todd!

Money is not the end-all gauge to successful CMS, but it is a big part of it.  After all, since a guiding principle of CMS is Transformational Giving, then finances must be a portion of the measurement for success. If giving is not happening, then finances are part of the reflection on your successful run at CMS.

In the magazine, Outcomes, David Willis discusses what he calls a Vision for Generosity.  In this issue he distinguishes between what he calls ‘tipping’ and giving.  Tipping happens when we simply exchange information (what we have taught in the workshops as transactional giving). So tipping is the equivalent of an offering for you after a service.  Then you leave the church and that is all you ever hear from the church and their members. The offering sometimes is just a ‘tip’ for coming.  The tip is based on your ‘service’. (Pun intended.) Good service good tip, bad service bad tip.  Tough way to fund a ministry, huh?

Giving is more than this.  Giving happens when participation and engagement occur. Giving goes far beyond the dollar.  The dollar is part of it but it goes further.  It is action-based, not spectator-based.  It is relational.  We are developing people, not accounts. Your account is a portion of the fruit but not all (i.e., Transformational Giving). Remember, works produce fruit, not fruits produce work.

So is it good CMS if funding goals are not reached?  Not if giving is part of the transformation. Since giving is learned not latent and CMS is a teaching tool used to teach how giving is part of spiritual formation, the bottom line of an account can be one of several bench-marks for CMS being successfully implemented.

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What is .W Anyway?

Posted on October 8, 2010 by Pastor Foley

My interview with Sharefaith‘s Daniel Threlfall helped me realize that I’ve never mentioned the philosophy of .W, the organization which I co-founded and through which I consult, on this site. Quel oversight!, as the French say. Here’s the relevant excerpt from the interview.

Many of our readers may not know you. Tell us, briefly, who you are and what you do.

My name is Eric Foley. My wife, Hyun Sook, and I founded Seoul USA ten years ago.

Seoul USA serves as a bridge between the Korean church (both North and South) and the church in the rest of the world. We bring the gifts of the Korean church to the church in the West and the gifts of the church in the West to the Korean church. We have a particular focus on mobilizing the church around the world to support the underground church of North Korea.

I am one-third of the ministry’s Executive Team, overseeing its .W division.

.W stands for Doers Of The Word. Through .W we consult churches and Christian NGOs on comprehensive discipleship as a robust biblical alternative to secular fundraising practices.

We believe secular fundraising practices weaken the generosity of the church and its members and also keep them from reaching full maturity in Christ. This creates dependence on specialized Christian NGOs to fulfill the eternal mission God intends to be undertaken by average Joe Christians in average Joe churches.

This is actually bad for Christian NGOs as well, since it completely obscures their invaluable role as a church renewal movement raised up to support the church to grow to full maturity in Christ in all of the causes Christian NGOs serve.

Over the past twenty years we’ve consulted and trained roughly 1,500 churches and Christian NGOs in North America, Asia, Europe, and Australia.

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