Do the Word

Yesterday’s post on the ‘TG Ten’–the ten biblical principles that undergird Transformational Giving–becomes even more provocative when juxtaposed against the other TG Ten, namely the principles that undergird traditional (or what I call Transactional) fundraising.

Call me out if you think I’ve created a straw man here. Otherwise, please excuse me while I go shower.

Principle 1: Transactional fundraising utilizes solicitation tools, techniques, and strategies in an effort to maximize the donations made to an organization from a limited pool of resources.

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Principle 2: Transactional fundraising is Darwinian in nature, favoring survival of the fittest organizations that excel in the competition for limited dollars. For religious organizations, God is called on either to bless and guide the nonprofit’s fundraising efforts or to spare the nonprofit from having to engage in fundraising.

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Principle 3: Transactional fundraising utilizes various forms of giving to the donor (e.g., recognition, premiums, friendships, power) as helpful tools toward the goal of prompting the donor to give more to the organization.

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Principle 4: Organizations acquire donors for the purpose of raising support for the organizations’ efforts to impact the cause.

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Principle 5: Transactional fundraising relationships between donors and organizations are organizational support relationships where friendship and likeability are cultivated as helpful catalysts to increased giving.

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Principle 6: The organization understands itself to be the primary means of advancing the cause, with donor referrals of qualified personal contacts highly valued.

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Principle 7: The relationship between organization and donor is fundamental. Relationships between donors can provide important benefits to the organization, including referrals, credibility enhancement, and presentation opportunities.

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Principle 8: The culmination of each donor cultivation cycle involves the donor giving a gift in response to organizational solicitation, followed by the organization expressing appropriate thanks and supplying compelling reporting of how the organization utilized the donor’s gift.

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Principle 9: Giving is understood to be latent in donors, activated and maximized through an effective combination of solicitation tools, techniques, and strategies.

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Principle 10: Donors are categorized and attended to by organizations according to the actual and/or potential recency, frequency, and monetary value of the donors’ giving.

The Radical Fundraising in Radical Times seminars will be unleashed amongst the unsuspecting citizens of Korea, Seattle, Portland, Arizona, Colorado, San Francisco, and Los Angeles in but a few short weeks. Even the TG 10–the ten biblical principles that compose the paint box for all things Transformational Giving–have received quite a spiff.

Not that the principles themselves have changed. In fact, they’ve borne the first two years of the test of time pretty darn well, by God’s grace.

What has changed, however, is that the original TG10 were written from the vantage point of the nonprofit, astonishingly utilizing the traditional/transactional/objectionable appellation of ‘donor’ to refer to that amazing bundle of God’s gifts, grace, and activity know as the individual Christian. This revised list refers to that individual more properly by the name ‘champion’.

Here are the new TG 10:

The Ten Principles of Transformational Giving

Principle 1: Every act of giving is first and foremost a statement about the faithfulness of God.

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Principle 2: Transformational giving is based on the abundance and trustworthiness of God, not a theology of scarcity.

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Principle 3: It is better to give than to receive.

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Principle 4: A champion connects with an organization for the purpose of enhancing their mutual impact on the cause, not only to support the organization’s impact on the cause.

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Principle 5: A Transformational Giving relationship between a champion and an organization is primarily a peer-level accountability relationship, not merely a friendship or a mutual admiration society.

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Principle 6: The champion, not the organization, is called to be the primary means of advancing the cause within the champion’s sphere of influence.

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Principle 7: The relationship between champion and champion is as important as the relationship between champion and organization.

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Principle 8: Giving is not the process but rather one vital result of the process of a champion being comprehensively coached to share the cause effectively within his or her sphere of influence.

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Principle 9: Giving is learned, not latent.

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Principle 10: 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.

You know the intrinsic problem with fund raising?

It’s that we try to mediate meaning, instead of equipping others to make meaning.

What I mean by this is that we identify a good cause, we share it with people, we ask them for money, they give it to us, and then we send them a letter saying, ‘Oh, you should have seen little Timmy’s eyes light up when we gave him that new computer we bought with the money you sent us!…’

That’s meaning mediation. That makes us the middleman. The meaning goes through us. Instead, let champions communicate with champions. Let champions ask other champions. Instead of jumping in and doing the work, stand on the sidelines and coach. Offer them tools. Challenge them. Most of all, set them loose and stay out of their way.

Go back to the rich young ruler story in Mark 10:17-27. Jesus looks on the rich young ruler and loves him. How many people are in that scene? Two? Ah – but what about the poor? What about the people who buy the rich ruler’s possessions? What about the entire network of souls that the young ruler will touch if he follows Christ’s command?

Jesus doesn’t tell the man to abandon all that he has and then follow Jesus. He tells him to get in touch with some folks along the way.

If the man does what Jesus tells him to do, the man will actually be building a network. Then what was at first a two way communications loop between Jesus and the man will quickly become an n-way network drawing together people who have probably never spoken before in their lives: Jesus, the rich young ruler, the poor, potential buyers of the rich man’s possessions, and many, many more whom they meet on The Way.

‘One thing you lack,’ said Jesus. ‘Go your way, sell whatsoever you have (presumably to somebody; several somebodies in fact), and give to the poor (whom you probably have never yet met), and you shall have treasure in heaven: and come, take up the cross and follow me.’

And don’t be surprised if there are some other folks following along behind you as well.