Do the Word

A funny thing happened to me on the way to the showers after I finished teaching the Mission Increase Foundation free workshop on Engagement in Colorado Springs last week.

I had made my usual number of harsh and derogatory comments in the workshop about the school of fundraising known as friendraising (like I’ve done on this blog here, here, here, here, here, here, and, um, here), when what to my wondering eyes did appear Betty Barnett, author of one of the couple books with the title, Friend Raising.

(The other prominent book on the topic, Friendraising, was written by Hildy Gottleib, who has not yet showed up at any of my workshops or flamed my blog. Interestingly, she just made a fabulous post on Ken Berger’s blog–you really need to read it–about how we should be measuring collective improvement in communities rather than individual organizational effectiveness. But I digress.)

Betty was so incredibly gracious  that it didn’t feel near as awkward as most of the rebukes I have received in my life. She noted that she agreed with everything I had taught, that what I had taught was congruent with the principles she wrote about in her book, that we really should be looking for points of commonality and upbuilding rather than difference, that the term “friend” has biblical resonance, and that she would like to ask that in the future I draw a distinction between abuses/misunderstandings of the term “friendraising” and the system she describes in her book.

And then she gave me a copy of her book and indicated she’d like to stay in touch so that iron can sharpen iron.

You can’t ask for a more pleasant Galatians 6:1 moment than that.

So I thanked her for her kindness and indicated that I would of course read the book and share with her and others what I thought.

So this I will do.

By this point you’d think I would have learned to just not say anything at least until I’ve read the book, but…

You know, on the cover the subtitle reads “Building a Missionary Support Team That Lasts”. And in the nicely ample forms that Betty provides in the book’s appendix, there’s a form titled, “Thank you for your support of my ministry!”

One of the apparent differences between Transformational Giving and Betty’s Friend Raising approach (based on my exhaustive study to date of the cover and one of the forms in the appendix) would seem to be that Friend Raising involves the missionary/ministry raising supporters, whereas Transformational Giving involves the missionary/ministry supporting champions to develop their own ministry in the cause in order to help them grow into the fullness of Christ.

Which would explain why Coach Your Champions is subtitled “A parable about how cookies changed ordinary donors into champions” and why my appendix (well, the one in the book, that is, not the one beneath my sternum) has champion coaching forms in it.

I’m just saying.

But of course it would be foolish to judge a book by its cover.

Even if we at MIF are preparing to teach a workshop (in March) on how thanking champions is unbiblical.

It’s January 8. The flimsiest of our New Year’s resolutions have succumbed to reality. At the YMCA where I work out, the New Year’s resolution-swollen crowds are already beginning to thin (faster than the individuals themselves, interestingly).

It’s time for New Year’s Resolutions That We Really, Really Need To Do.

My recommendation at the top of the list for you, dear nonprofit leader?

This year, embrace Transformational Giving as your development strategy with reckless abandon.

I’m indebted to Seth Godin for the persuasive logic here (and Seoul USA‘s Amy Karjala for the link):

Often, someone will riff on a concept or approach that characterizes the revolution that we’re living through online, and heads will nod. “Sure, that sounds great [insert idea here… like Free, or social media or permission or ideaviruses or empowered consumers or treating people with respect, etc.] within reason.”

It’s the last two words that make it a lie.

The last two words allow you to weasel your way into failure. Within reason means, “without bothering the boss, without taking a big risk, without taking the blame if we fail, without alienating our current retailers… be reasonable!”

And so you do it half-heartedly and you fail.

And who beats you?

The people who did it without reason.

Look. Here’s the score (from Ben Gose’s December 10 Chronicle of Philanthropy article):

• 93% of charity leaders say their organizations are feeling the effects of the economic downturn
• 80% have lost financial support
• 40% of charity leaders say their group’s financial situation has worsened over the past six months.
• More than 40% say their groups have laid of staff

Do you really think this calls for a tweak?

A dabble?

A bit of an admixture of traditional transactional fundraising and Transformational Giving?

You’ve officially found yourself alive in a year where continuing to abide by the “safe” status quo presents more danger to your organization than to cast yourself into the river of radical change.

(P.S. Have a cookie. By the time you’re done with it, everything will be right as rain.)

Engagement…

…as in Participation/Engagement/Ownership

…as in the sine qua non of Transformational Giving

…is  is the subject of the free Mission Increase Foundation bi-monthly workshops that I and our Giving and Training Officers will be teaching around the country this month. (Do sign up, hear?)

As I’ve been preparing to teach on this subject in Colorado Springs today, what keeps coming to mind is the world’s funniest joke…and why this has everything to do with Transformational Giving.

In 2002, UK’s Laugh Lab held a contest to determine the world’s funniest joke. 40,000 jokes and 1.5 million ratings later, here’s the winner and still champion:

Two hunters are out in the woods when one of them collapses. He doesn’t seem to be breathing and his eyes are glazed. The other guy whips out his phone and calls the emergency services. He gasps, “My friend is dead! What can I do?”. The operator says “Calm down. I can help. First, let’s make sure he’s dead.” There is a silence, then a shot is heard. Back on the phone, the guy says “OK, now what?”

I can’t tell you how many times I’ve had that same phone call with ministries attempting to implement Transformational Giving.

“We want to do Transformational Giving,” the call goes. “Can you help us develop a Signature Participation Project?”

“Why do you want to start by developing a Signature Participation Project?” goes my reply.

“Because we need a way to acquire a lot of new donors at a low cost who we can then ask to support our ministry.”

(Blam! Gunshot sounds. Ministry returns to phone after shooting champion. “Now what?”)

Dear ministry interested in Transformational Giving:

Please begin with Engagement and work back to Participation. Only when you know what it looks like for a champion to be fully engaged in the cause can you develop a Signature Participation Project as the first step to getting them there.

If you begin by trying to develop a Signature Participation Project and then ask, “Now what do I have them do? And when do I ask them for money?”, you are still mired in traditional transactional fundraising.

See you at the workshop this month. Or if you’re unable to attend, try the book. They say the book’s always better than the movie, anyway.