Do the Word

Enter the first nascent heresy of the nascent Transformational Giving age.

Be very on your guard. Even as it traditional/transactional fundraising (ttf) begins to publicly hemorrhage and die, here begins to emerge the next battleground for Christian development.

Roger from The Agitator cites, approvingly, a post by Seth Godin about clout which posits that in a world of equal opportunity Tweeting, some Tweeters may be more equal than others by virtue of their extensive use of social networking and thus the size of their networks.

In other words, just as for years we’ve paid special attention to major donors because they have more money than anyone else, we’re now entering an age where we will be encouraged to pay special attention to major social networkers because they have more influence than anyone else.

Writes Godin:

If you knew which of your followers had clout, you could invest more time and energy in personal attention.

Adds Roger from The Agitator:

I’m happy to report that at DonorTrends we’ve taken an important first step in helping you find the most “cloutful” among your donors, activists and volunteers. It’s our new identification and screening service called SociaLeaders ™ and it gives you an inexpensive way of spotting those folks who are the  heaviest users of social networks like FaceBook, Twitter, LinkedIn, etc.

I say, “an important first step” because as Seth noted in an exchange of emails, quantity of friends is not the only, or even most important, factor that yields clout.

Of course, Seth’s right, and what SociaLeaders ™ does provide is an important starting point for zeroing in on likely “missionaries,”  “recruiters” and potential “super donors” who warrant  further communication and investment in cultivation.

As we’ve reported before, our DonorTrends surveys of donors and what we call “donor superstars” — the category where we find missionaries and recruiters — show a disproportionately high use of social networks.

To encourage Agitator readers to begin finding out who your social network leaders are, DonorTrends is offering a FREE 500 name test.  Just click here to get the ball rolling.

But ye have not so learned Transformational Giving.

Let me be emphatic:

TG is not compatible with the substitution of influence for wealth as a criterion by which we determine how we categorize our champions and how we allocate our time for coaching.

TG Principle 10 currently states:

Champions categorize themselves not according to the amount of their giving but by the degree of comprehensive personal ownership they are exhibiting in the cause.

I see now it needs to be formally augmented as follows:

Champions categorize themselves not according to the amount of their giving or influence but by the degree of comprehensive personal ownership they are exhibiting in the cause.

Why do we spend more time coaching some people than others in TG? Is it because they have more money? Because they have a larger network of influence?

By no means.

We spend more time coaching some people than others in TG because some people are more ready to own the cause in their sphere of influence, regardless of the size of that sphere.

Never, ever lose sight of the fact that our goal is neither the growth of our ministry nor even the spreading of our cause. Our goal is that those within our sphere of influence might be brought to the likeness of Christ in relationship to the cause Christ has given us to champion.

That means that we are not to find the most influential people and train them but rather we are to train the people we influence the most.

Wherefore putting away lying, speak every man truth with his neighbour: for we are members one of another. (Eph 4:25. KJV even.)

As Paul says in 1 Corinthians 1:26-31,

Brothers, think of what you were when you were called. Not many of you were wise by human standards; not many were influential; not many were of noble birth. But God chose the foolish things of the world to shame the wise; God chose the weak things of the world to shame the strong. He chose the lowly things of this world and the despised things—and the things that are not—to nullify the things that are, so that no one may boast before him. It is because of him that you are in Christ Jesus, who has become for us wisdom from God—that is, our righteousness, holiness and redemption. Therefore, as it is written: “Let him who boasts boast in the Lord.”

May you always coach the lowly and despised of this world. May you always speak truth with your neighbor.

May you never chase Tweets.

Had a great meeting this morning with Mission Increase Foundation National Senior Giving and Training Officer (SGTO) Tracy Nordyke and Colorado SGTO Suzanne Dubois to stake out new Transformational Giving (TG) territory in preparation for January/February’s workshop/lab series on Engagement.

The question:

How can ministries coach champions to move from participating in ministry projects to being comprehensively engaged with the cause?

Or, in TG vernacular:

How can you coach champions from P to E?

One of the realizations we had today was just how much Engagement in TG is like engagement in man-woman relationships and marriage and, you know, such.

Consider two possible paths a relationship might take:

A couple goes out on a date. They like each other. They go out again. They still like each other. They think, “Hmm… What more can we do?” So they decide to sleep together. They still like each other. They think, “Hmm… What more can we do?” So they move in together.

In TG parlance, we have an expression for this:

P + P + P + P ≠ E

In other words, no number of Participation projects combined together can ever equal Engagement.

Now, consider a second relationship path:

A man and a woman go out on a date. They like each other. They go out again. They still like each other. They go out on four or five more dates. They really like each other. The man begins to think, “This woman really is becoming a major part of my life. I want her being in my life to be the way my life normally is from now on.”

So they get engaged.

Notice what happens in this “P to E move” known as engagement:

There is a conscious, explicit, intentional moment at which the man moves beyond a series of dates and encounters and recognizes that there is a gradual change in his identity that is developing due to his relationship with this woman, and he desires to formalize this into a state where his normative identity is no longer singular but as a couple.

No different in Transformational Giving. No different at all.

Most ministries, sadly, prefer to sleep with their donors. They fear making a commitment–after all, that may cost more than it generates in revenue! So they reduce everything to a series of Participation activities: banquets, fundraising letters, emails, newsletters…solicitations. Even when they “do lunch” with a donor, it’s really foreplay for an ask. Seriously. They’re looking for the least they can give in order to generate the most in return. Interestingly, they find themselves attracted to donors who think the same way.

And when the relationship doesn’t work for one or the other party, they do just what cohabiting couples do in real life: They split up, move out, and look for another partner who really cares and really understands their needs.

But in TG the move from P to E is an explicit, covenantal move. The champion has touched the cause through the synecdochic, E-in-P core of the Signature Participation Project. Something touched them that won’t leave them alone, and now they want to go deeper.

So what’s a ministry to do?

Most ministries see no alternative to leading the champion through another project, and another one after that, each designed to bring the champion one step closer to that form of charitable whoopie known as writing a check.

But there’s an alternative, you know:

An explicit covenantal relationship with a champion (an engagement!) in which we pledge to support the champion–to equip them via experiences and education to grow in the likeness of Christ in relation to the cause.

Like an engagement, it’s important to enter into it at least a little starry-eyed, believing that this champion the Lord has given us can do greater things than we have done, by the grace of God. Heck, that’s even biblical.

Interesting what happens when you get engaged to somebody. You stop thinking, “What’s our next date going to be?” You stop thinking in discrete chunks of time. You recognize that not every encounter between the two of you is going to be positive. You even fight sometimes, and then you make up. You start dreaming together about changing the world even.

And you make an exclusive commitment to each other.

In charitable terms, that doesn’t mean that you become the only nonprofit the champion gives to. But it does mean that it’s wholly appropriate to say, for example, “Look–if you’re serious about wanting to make a difference in ministry to North Korea, you’re going to need to stop spreading your giving around to four or five different NK ministries. And it’s not about the money. It’s about you making a commitment to let us coach and train you in a particular way of thinking about this cause so that you learn, first, to think like us, and then, next, you take our thinking to the next level with the next generation of champions in this ministry.”

And–by the way– can you see where this precious engagement is leading?

Love. Marriage.

Then lots and lots of babies, otherwise known as moving from Engagement to Ownership.

A shout out to Joanne Fritz for pointing out the article in the Cleveland Plain Dealer that asks:

Is now a good time to start a nonprofit organization?

Well, is it?

If you’re contemplating starting a nonprofit or becoming a missionary and you find yourself thinking, “Somewhere out there, there must be a foundation or some folks with money willing to support me to work on this super important cause that I really love and am quite good at,” then please know that now is a really bad time to start a nonprofit or become a missionary.

And so is next year.

And the year after that, should Jesus tarry.

That’s because the day has come and (thankfully) gone where running a nonprofit or becoming a missonary meant finding people to pay us to do the meaningful and super-important work we love.

(For those holding out hope for a major donor prince to come, Tom at The Agitator affirms in his post last week that large gifts are the ones likely to rebound the slowest in the current recession. And as we’ve chronicled before, the new mantra for traditional transactional fundraisers is “it will take more resources to raise smaller and fewer gifts”.)

So why do I say “(thankfully) gone”?

Because scripturally, Ephesians 4:11-13 outlines a clear relationship between Christian workers and the body of Christ.

It is, indeed, a support relationship. But it’s the opposite of the relationship that’s typified Christian workers and the body of Christ in the modern (and now moribund) nonprofit era.

In the modern nonprofit era, the body of Christ has been called upon to support (professionalized) Christian workers who do the heavy lifting of the faith.

Contrast this with Ephesians 4:11-13, where Christian workers are called to support the Body of Christ, developing ordinary Christians in the causes close to God’s heart, training them to walk in the works He has prepared for them (not us) to do since before the foundation of the world.

High calling, that.

And, fortunately,  the nonprofit world–the secular perhaps even moreso than the Christian, sadly (for evidence, see Manny Hernandez’ post on transitioning from social media cloud to nonprofit org)–is catching up with it.

So if you find yourself thinking, “There is a cause close to God’s heart in which He has grown me to maturity in Christ; I want to coach the people in my sphere of influence in that cause, equipping them by the grace of God to also grow to maturity in Christ, and serving as a supportive platform where they can give and serve impactfully in a mutual accountability relationship with me,”  then now is a great time to start a nonprofit or become a missionary.

This site isn’t a bad place to start learning to do that.

Here‘s where I’d recommend you begin.