I wasn’t entirely sure what I should write about when I started this blog post but I knew that at some point I want to write about my experience of fundraising. So I guess, while its still fresh in my mind, my blog post today will be about fundraising and what that process was like for me.
My original thoughts about fundraising were not particularly positive. My parents fundraised my whole childhood and it felt like a pretty process to me at times so I decided as a little kid that I would never fundraise. I had never studied fundraising from a Biblical perspective either so I didn’t even know if I thought it was a good thing to do or not. As I stepped into college I pursued a degree that would guarantee me a job in any country in the world without having to fundraise. I graduated as a mechanical engineer and have done quite well in my 5 engineering jobs over the last 3 years. During the last three years of working, I have been paid well and I have enjoyed working hard and being compensated well for it - it’s a good feeling. Though I started out with a pretty bleak perspective on fundraising, I have come to appreciate the process and the impact of the process on me.
Fundraising is a barrier to entry that excludes around 90% of people who would be interested in serving missionally. It kinda makes sense why. This statistic came from the fundraising book, “The God Ask,” which was a part of the curriculum for fundraising prep. So I guess only 1 in 10 people are crazy enough to even attempt all this, let alone successfully raise their funds. That was an encouraging thought to consider as I first started this process.
Fundraising was extremely unnatural for me, especially at the beginning. It was, and is, extremely hard for me to ask people for money. Fundraising was a very humbling experience. You are asking people to support you financially so you can do the work that you believe God is calling you to. This is such a vulnerable place because by asking people to support you, you’re saying that you cannot do it by yourself. Asking people again and again to invest in my work was so good for me. It helped me realize on a deeper level that I can’t do this work on my own. I need all the people who are supporting me and I definitely need God’s help to do anything of significance with my life.
In the first two weeks of fundraising I made it past 40% of my budget! I was sure that I’d be done in a month or two at the most. Those first few weeks were so faith building and encouraging right at the beginning of fundraising. Then came a time where I was still working 40-50 hours per week setting up appointments, meeting people, writing thank yous etc. but not seeing any results financially. Then it was a lot harder to have faith. When you’re working as hard as you can for weeks on end without seeing results it can be extremely discouraging. Because of my engineering degree, I love to look at numbers, analyze them, and project how much time and work various tasks should take so I can plan out how and when to accomplish them systematically. I can visualise God chuckling at me as I perfected my spreadsheets and calculated my timeline for fundraising. Fundraising, at least for me, was NOT linear, nor was it predictable or simple.
During that month and a half of working my butt off and not seeing numbers results, I felt discouraged and even questioned at times whether I would ever be fully funded. I thought to myself, “In my appointments I keep telling everyone about what I’m going to be doing in SE Asia but I’m not even sure if I’m going to get past the fundraising stage!” I like to think of myself as a pretty consistent person; I do what I say I’m going to do. Through fundraising though, I discovered how inconsistent I can be. I doubted and had all kinds of ups and downs throughout fundraising even though I’m normally a pretty even keel kind of person. This realization helped me to recognize a little bit more how much I need to depend on God because He is constant and stable and I am not. Not only am I dependent on my supporters but I’m also dependent on God.
In the last month of my fundraising window (month three) the funds started steadily streaming in. I continued to work hard to the end and got to 100% funded right in the last week of fundraising. I felt God telling me that He would fulfill my funding needs at the beginning of fundraising and He did, despite my doubts and struggles during the process. I would not be particularly excited to fundraise intensively for months on end again, but I am so grateful for the opportunity to have experienced it. There were so many encouraging meetings with amazing people during the process. Many of the meetings I had were actually quite fun and provided a great excuse to hang out with people who I had not seen in a long time.
My new thoughts on fundraising
My thoughts on fundraising changed drastically over the course of summer 2021. I learned that fundraising is very Biblical, I now have no question of that. Jesus relied on others to fund him as did Paul. Realizing that a number of Paul’s letters were in part fundraising letters was mind-blowing for me. It’s clear and laid out plainly in the Bible that fundraising is a good, Biblical thing that God-fearing people participate in whether they're the ones raising funds or funding those who are raising funds. This is a hard lesson to learn in light of my American values of Independence or “making it on my own.” I’ve proven I can make it on my own since graduating college and it has been a challenge to humble myself and fundraise for my wage.
There are a lot of great things about fundraising. For one, it allows all your supporters to be a part of the work that you are doing. This is exciting because they get to be involved in and see how and what the church is doing and what the church looks like in other areas of the world. You get to invite your supporters to join you in your adventure and work across the world. Another reason fundraising is great is because of the accountability it provides. When people are giving you the money you need to live it makes you really think about how you spend the money you receive and the time you have. It also provides a great opportunity to maintain your focus and purpose for going in the first place. I get to write a newsletter and a blog every month to update my supporters on my work. That monthly communication is such a great reminder of why I chose to go in the first place and a great way to keep myself focused on my work so I can share my progress with my supporters. Another reason that fundraising is great is that when hard times come along, as they inevitably will, it will be comforting to look at all the names of the people supporting me and to remember that they believe in the work I’m involved in and that they believe in me too! There’s a lot of weight in knowing that there are hundreds of people invested in the work I’m doing and backing me up.
If you are thinking about fundraising, consider this: Why do you want to go? If your “why” is important enough to you I think you’ll be able to accomplish the task of fundraising to get there. God definitely needs to play a role in your decision making process as well, as He is the one who will ultimately make it happen. Additionally, think about the great story you’ll have to tell afterward!