Stewardship isn't expense management, it's investment management

The myth of stewardship

Posted on Monday at 3:13

As I travel the world working with a variety of para-church and church-based ministries, I am convinced the issue posing the greatest challenge to Christian philanthropy is a systemic misunderstanding of biblical stewardship. This malady is equally resident in both charitable institutions (including the Church) as well as in the lives of Christians. Today I want to address how the Church and Christian ministries get this wrong. How their concept of stewardship is a myth.

The lie that our rest comes from money and stuff sucks the very spiritual life out of us.

Rest for your soul…

Posted on Monday at 2:31

In Matthew 6:19-34, Jesus warns us that our natural inclination is to place our trust in the stuff of the here and now rather than Him. We believe that we can safeguard our lives and our future if we can just have an ever-increasing portfolio… if we can just have more. As a result, we give priority to our finances to give us our security, believing our money will deliver a promise it can never keep.

A healthy culture is essential to effective leadership

Embracing the ‘soft side’ of success

Posted on Wednesday at 2:50

Leadership and culture deal with what I call the “soft side” of success… the intangibles of things like character, trust, values, camaraderie… while execution deals with the hard side of success… the nuts and bolts of process and transactional behavior.

Reaching lapsed donors by telephone is the most effective means to reactivate them.

Fundraising Fundamental #6: Donor reactivation

Posted on Monday at 7:53

This last look at the fundamentals of fundraising speaks to reactivating donors who have lapsed in their giving. Most organizations will count as current a donor who has given in the most recent 12 or 18 months. Through years of testing, we’ve come to understand that you must look at the TYPE of donor first to determine when they are “lapsed” because a one-time donor is quite different from a multiple-gift donor.

Why is the charitable tax deduction so important?

Posted on Wednesday at 6:59

With the release of the 2014 Budget by the White House today, once again the charitable tax deduction has been targeted. For the sixth year in a row, the Obama Administration has made capping the charitable deduction at 28 percent a part of their budget policy.

Fundraising Fundamental #5: Donor cultivation and retention, part 3

Posted on Thursday at 8:17

Fundraising communication is an art, whether it is a newsletter, a direct mail piece, or online communications. It isn’t journalism, and it isn't a report. It’s life on a page, giving the donor a reason to continue supporting your organization as she understands how lives are transformed through her gifts and prayers… and clearly presenting the opportunity she now has to invest again.

Three words changed everything that first Easter morning...

The three words that changed everything

Posted on Thursday at 1:20

I've often wondered what it must have been like to be in the garden that first Easter morning. I can just imagine that the morning dew lay fresh on the ground. The cool air carried the fragrance of the garden as the guards stood in the quiet stillness making sure no one would try and steal the now dead body of Jesus.

For the one-time donor, it’s really not a relationship yet. It’s like you’ve been on one date…

Fundraising Fundamental #4: Donor cultivation and retention, part 2

Posted on Wednesday at 4:31

As we continue to look at the most fundamental parts of a successful fundraising program, I want to continue to discuss donor cultivation and retention. In my last post, I talked about how donor cultivation and retention is both an art and a science. The big question is how do you marry the art with the science in a way the leads to a successful program?

The top 10 fundraising mistakes (slide deck)

Posted on Wednesday at 10:32

Download the slide deck (PDF 4.9 MB) I presented at the 2013 National Religious Broadcasters convention earlier this week.

Rick Dunham

Cultivating a multi-year donor is essential to a successful fundraising program

Fundraising Fundamental #3: Donor cultivation and retention

Posted on Thursday at 3:14

While many organizations believe that they are focused on donor cultivation and retention, the hard truth is most are more concerned with how much money is generated in the current month. This is a short-sighted view that directly impacts the nature of both the offline and online communications and can directly impact long-term giving.