Do the Word

Every so often I run across an organization that I feel like really embraces the principles of Transformational Giving…without having ever heard of Transformational Giving.

Voice of the Martyrs is my paradigmatic example.

I connected with Voice of the Martyrs in 2003, teaming up to do Bibles Unbound (which this month, I’m delighted to report, tallied its millionth Bible sent out by Bible mailing champions! Woo hoo!).

When I connected with them, I discovered they were already operating a champion development program utilizing many of the principles that we teach in Transformational Giving (TG). They had never embraced traditional/transactional fundraising (ttf) to begin with. And they were (and are) active around the world in creating owners of the cause of the persecuted church…so much so that Seoul USA, the organization my wife and I founded, now operate Voice of the Martyrs/Korea. And in 2010, Lord permitting, we’ll be launching Bibles Unbound/Korea.

I have a similarly warm spot deep in my heart for Teen Missions International.

My only interaction with TMI came a decade ago, when my wife enrolled our two eldest children in the program one summer.

I hadn’t thought about TMI since then, until I stumbled across a year-old article about the organization the other day on Christianity Today’s website.

When I read the article, I was struck how TMI had accomplished in our two kids the very kind of transformation we talk about in Transformational Giving.

In fact, it’s hard to read the article’s description of TMI without thinking about Transformational Giving:

At Teen Missions, campers give up virtually their entire summer for evangelism. They spend two weeks in Merritt Island, Florida, learning the work of a missionary before heading into the world in teams of about 25. They are schooled in evangelism, construction, and Bible studies. They don purple construction hats as they work the ground with hoes and wheelbarrows. They practice public speaking and learn to share their faith in ways that transcend linguistic and cultural barriers, such as through puppet shows. After their mission trip, they return to Merritt Island for a few more days to reflect on their experiences before heading home at summer’s end.

Whereas churches often mistake participation in an annual short-term mission trip for maturity in the cause of missions, TMI utilizes short-term mission trips as an opportunity to build into youth not only participation but also engagement and ownership with the cause of missions as a whole, not only with a particular field.

For TMI, what happens before and after the short-term mission trip is as important as the mission trip itself. I know that personally, since Daniel and Christine would write home to us about the obstacle course (designed to build teamwork), the mosquitos and lack of air conditioning (designed not only to equip campers to survive on the field but to give them a taste of how life just is in quite a bit of the world), and how they were required to clean their plate just like at home (an intentional practice in both places designed to help kids comprehend not only hunger and the value of food but also the importance of graciously receiving hospitality wherever you go).

Besides, Daniel and Christine got their first training in sharing their faith and doing public speaking at TMI boot camp.

Daniel’s trip to France and Christine’s trip to Canada were like icing on the cake. But unlike in many short-term missions programs at churches, the trip itself wasn’t mistaken for the cake.

In fact, even the fundraising the child must do to go to TMI is transformational:

Campers also raise their own camp and travel fees, plus enough for another child (from $2,500 to $4,000) that funds 34 international boot camps where, for instance, an African child can train to be a missionary in his or her own country.

The article on TMI is living proof that there’s really nothing new in Transformational Giving. It is truly nothing more or less than an effort to apply biblical principles to discipleship, including giving.

That being said, what’s sad is the degree to which we Christian organizations have clung (and continue to cling) so tenaciously to traditional/transactional fundraising (ttf) strategies such that Transformational Giving seems risky, or novel, or impractical. I praise God for organizations like Teen Missions International and Voice of the Martyrs which were TG before TG was TG, and which remind us of the power of grounding our development efforts deep into the pages of scripture.

Just went through the rabbit hole (courtesy of a tip from Katya Andresen’s blog) to see what P/E/O looks and sounds like in a radically secularized context.

Story Innovation Labs is offering a free downloadable e-book entitled Storylistening through Social Media.

See if any of this sounds familiar:

THE CROWD THAT LISTENS—politely, patiently, credulously—HAS DISPERSED FOREVER.

Talking to just anybody isn’t what marketing is about anymore.

Brands need to know the influences of their audiences and the relevance of what others are publishing/saying about them.

ARE YOU STILL IN THE BUSINESS OF DETAINING THE UNINTERESTED? Why?

What if you could NURTURE A COMMUNITY around what you do, instead?

Engagement can be beneficial. Wise conversation curation can transform an ebbing sea of increasingly inattentive “consumers” into a thriving, engaged, interacting “community.”

…and lays out strategies for dealing with each group and equipping individuals to grow from one group into another.

It’s definitely not P/E/O (unlike A/F/F/F/F, P, E, and O are different in kind, not degree, plus the A/F/F/F/F architecture is decidedly focused on connecting customers with the organization, whereas P/E/O connects the champion to the cause, with the organization as the stage/platform), but it’s certainly interesting enough to make the e-book worth downloading and scanning through. (The foe/fiend conversion material certainly has resonance in TG, not to mention the New Testament.)

I have to admit to having mixed feelings any time I see analogs of P/E/O pop up in secular marketing. On the one hand, there’s a degree of vindication in being able to say to ministries, “Look, even secular nonprofits and forprofits are turning away from the strategies we Christian organizations are clinging to dogmatically!”

On the other hand, there’s always a sadness in seeing secular nonprofits and forprofits coarsely approximate what only we can fully embody, by the grace and power of the Holy Spirit and the plan and purposes of God.

True confessions time:

When I wrote the cookie book with Amy Karjala and Rebekah Farquhar, we decided to build the story around a small, local youth ministry because I felt that local ministries would have a much harder time thinking up Participation/Engagement/Ownership opportunities to utilize in coaching their champions in contrast to international ministries!

Having co-founded an international ministry with my wife, and having spent no small portion of my development consulting hours collaborating with international ministries, it had become second-nature for me to think of international ministries as having a distinct P/E/O advantage, since international ministries have a far more exotic palette with which to paint.

Now, however, one of the most popular questions I receive by email or when I teach comes from individuals working an international ministries, who say to me, “I see how P/E/O can work for a local ministry, but our champions are spread all over the country, and our work is on the other side of the world. I don’t see how P/E/O can work for us.”

I think I should have written the kimchi book instead of the cookie book!

In any case, if you’re looking for a real-life example of how a small international organization creates long-distance involvement opportunities for its champions, check out the website of charity:water.

They’re a secular organization, but most everything they do would port over with little difficulty to a Christian ministry.

I’m not wild about the “a-thon” approach that crops up here and there on the site (“From birthday parties to school-wide events, jog-a-thons to getting the Dean of Students to shave his head, throwing an event or party can be one of the best ways to help raise awareness and funds in your school community”), but the cause-oriented downloadable PDF for students to use in their schools is a nice touch. So are the banners and the Twitter backgrounds which champions can use in their own sphere of influence (instead of your organization setting up its own Twitter account and trying to build a sphere of Twitterfluence).

By far my favorite elements of the site are the stories from the field (written, note, not by staff members but by owners of the cause) and the Google Earth images. Google Earth is a fascinating tool for international ministries to prayerfully contemplate incoporating into their champion development efforts.

Finally, there’s a great statement of the cause–and it’s pure cause. It’s not organizational needs. It’s not “our vision”. It’s a statement that can be understood completely with reference to itself…rather than with reference to the organization in question. Christian ministries would do well to emulate the form, especially since more than a few ministries I run across have an exceedingly difficult time distinguishing the cause from their organization. (I just read a piece from a ministry, in fact, that defined the cause as supporting their organization!)

Finally, be sure to check out charity:water’s events page, which is a veritable catalog of ways owner-level champions can recruit new participants to a cause. Exceedingly well done…and engaging from any distance.