User:Kevin fundraising notes

Ways of getting money:
 * 1) Donations from general public
 * 2) donations from individuals (regular or one-off)
 * 3) legacies
 * 4) giving from trusts
 * 5) corporate giving
 * 6) sales
 * 7) training
 * 8) rents
 * 9) fees for trips

Personal fundraising

 * Best point comes from Landsdown. 90/10 Rule: 90% of income comes from 10% of prospects (A few contribute the most) (p31). Splitting goal into Rule of Thirds (p33,35). This contradicts Cunningham (30/30 Plan p88) who suggests getting a team of 30 to each support one day a month. Rule of Thirds's says you will be missing the people who can and will give more!
 * Need to know how much to live on
 * Need to be really sent - to have a body of people that truly recognise that you are to be sent, you have a valid cause and you are a character-ful person who will bear fruit.
 * Prepare communication
 * Start the process of asking, with boldness, building relationship first and then at the right moment asking.
 * Be always thankful and appreciative
 * Communicate clearly and frequently. Clear, simple and frequent are better then infrequent, poor quality or artistic but vacuous.
 * Schedule 'asks' regularly but not all the time.
 * Different people like to give differently. Remember to give people the chance to participate!!! Find and match needs to donors.

Books key points:
 * Johnson, Paul I., More than money, more than faith, ISBN 1-4141-0930-X
 * church validates call of missionary. Churches role to send. Churches identify servant people to send. Be a good servant and get sent!
 * Living by faith - the not asking principle is a fantasy rather than scriptural. Only principle in bible is "Worker is worth his wages". Church body giving to support someone is the cheif idea in Bible.
 * The living by manna principle is often taken out of proportion (Cunningham outlines it p81 but for a short period)
 * Communicate well and clearly. Write often - even little handwritten encouragement notes mean much.
 * Be bold in asking - you are worth your wages! Good points on communication and how to go building up funds so you can be 100% supported when sent.
 * The Thermomete (like need 1000 or 10x100. Have 600. Use picture of houses to represent rent. 6 full houses, 4 empty. Get people to fill a house
 * Morton, Scott, Funding your ministry
 * stewardships book

Ministry fundraising

 * Fundraising is always relational and not impersonal. Not technique but truth. Face to face is the very best
 * For YWAMers ministry and personal fundraising can be a double burden. Probably there are two different pools of donors, personal then ministry. There may be some overlap. Do YWAMers fear donor fatigue because they have to ask the personal pool to fund ministry?
 * Many YWAM teams and center do not have a pool of donors for the ministry and need to develop one

How to develop a ministry donor base

 * Start communicating frequently and well. Lots of stories and relevant information for donors.
 * Work out what you want to raise.
 * Be very specific about the projects - make sure it will cost what you say. Make sure you can finish if you start. Don't be vague. Be very precise.
 * Is the project relevant to the donors - would they be interested in sponsoring it? Is it on track and relevant to your goals?
 * How can you explain the project in emotional terms that donors can identify with?
 * Finding donors and soliciting them...
 * Several visits
 * Final ask
 * The better we do our job (clearly showing where and why a donors money can be spent to make an important difference with in the donor's interests.

Rule of Thirds (Landsdown, 35)

 * 1/3 of your gifts will come from 10 donors (one donor will give 10% of the whole)
 * 1/3 of your gifts will come from 100 donors
 * 1/3 of your gifts will come from all the other donors.

Thus a gift table could be made

Brian Sloan once said that when you have the top thirds in place a public appeal for smaller donations goes very well. I think this is where the "10 euro's a month" appeals come in. But if you start there you will only raise about 1/3 of what you need! (This is this authors experience recently!)

I recently took a look at the donations for the Alternatives ministry of YWAM Brussels and made a gift table from it:
 * 31 donors in total
 * First third: 2 donors. One contributed 20% of total the other 12%
 * Second third: 4 donors
 * Final third: 25 donors. 7 smallest donors each contribute <1% of total given. Thus 1/4 of all donors produce 7% and another 1/4 produce 50%!

Areas to work on

 * 1) communication
 * 2) * good and clear and regular
 * 3) relational asking
 * 4) donor care
 * 5) * understanding donors
 * 6) * thanking donors quickly and personally (doing this well can lead to future gifts)
 * 7) * explaining how gifts used
 * 8) * communicating what giving was each year
 * 9) Fundraising improvement
 * 10) * Measure your performance (varied metric - not total volume - long term donors etc.)
 * 11) * Mystery shopper!

Misc ideas

 * Do we know why our supporters give? Have we ever asked them? What information might this offer us?
 * Fundraisers should be givers. Good principle. It gives integrity. Also helps to say "I put X of my own money in this. I think it is good".

Books
 * Landsdown, David, Fundraising realities every board member must face, ISBN 978-1-889102-32-0
 * Burnet, K., The Zen of fundraising, ISBN 0-7879-8314-4

Unread but recommended books
Not read but recommend by authors above
 * Griffiths, Michael C., Who Really Sends the Missionary, ISBN 0802494986
 * Griffiths, Michael C., Get Your Church Involved in Missions!, ISBN 9971837846
 * Fiedler, Klaus, Story of Faith Missions, ISBN 1870345185
 * Ellinwood, Frank F., Questions and phases of modern missions Dodd, Mead & Co (1899), ASIN B00086JTBM