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The Fundraising Masterminds Podcast
106. The Beggar Mentality: The Mindset That’s Killing Your Fundraising
00:46:00
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- [00:00]
A
You're listening to the number one podcast for nonprofit leaders getting your nonprofit fully funded. This is the Fundraising Masterminds Podcast.
- [00:11]
B
A mega ministry had made a decision that they were not going to allow their field reps to actually ask people for money. And what stopped that approach was they had enough people who said to them, jason, I appreciate you wanting to get together with me again to talk, but what is your, your role? Are you just a professional visitor? It wasn't the organization understanding. It was the donor.
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A
Well, welcome back to another episode here at the Fundraising Masterminds Podcast. My name is Jason Galasinski, and with me, my co host, Jim Dempsey.
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B
Hi, Jason.
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A
Well, Jim, we are 10 days away from the next cohort, starting at the Perfect Vision dinner mentorship program.
- [00:59]
B
No, this is the spring dinner season that we are getting ready to start.
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A
Yeah.
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B
So we go 21 weeks. So we give a good head start, making sure that everyone has sufficient time to prepare.
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A
Well, if you've been thinking about joining the Perfect Vision in our mentorship program, now is the time to get enrolled. Only 10 days left. I, I. There may not even be space.
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B
I haven't checked today, but in fact, I got a report recently that said we are pretty close to capacity, which is really neat.
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A
So if you're thinking about, you know, you've been listening to us for a while, you've been thinking about, yeah, I think this is the time. You know, now is, you know, now is the time.
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B
Yeah.
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A
Well, today we're going to be talking about the beggar mentality. This is the mindset that is killing your fundraising efforts.
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B
Oh, it's one of those mindsets that can definitely get you down downward spiral.
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A
Now, the idea behind this episode is that there is a hidden mindset that is hurting your fundraising efforts.
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B
Yes.
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A
It's not really the fear, scarcity, and this is often overlooked as maybe humility or piety. This mindset keeps you focused on small things. It keeps you stuck. And so we really wanted to address this issue because we see it a lot as we talk to different people. Fundraising kind of comes from people, and I have some people in mind. I won't say their names, but I have some people in mind who. Jason, I know what you do. I know that you raise a lot of money, but fundraising is awkward for me. You know, it feels icky to me. It feels like a necessary evil. Like, and they don't really want to do it because they kind of like, well, you know, I just like to do my thing, and God knows how much we need. And so you know, I just, you know, we just keep doing our thing and we're just trusting God. And so it can have a false sense of humility in the sense that it can feel like you're trusting God for big things, but in reality they're actually not trusting God at all.
- [03:05]
B
Well, Jason, I think here, and we're going to discuss this more in detail in just a minute, but there really are roots of insecurity and a sense of a poor self worth because they start this I'm not worthy kind of mindset and it really is wrong. And we'll address that in a minute.
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A
So let's just talk about. Well, what, what do you mean by the beggar mentality?
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B
Yeah, well, the beggar mentality is a guilt ridden mindset that treats fundraising like an apology. The downplaying of vision, avoiding bold ass and hoping pity will fund this mission. You wouldn't want to help me, would you, Jason? That's the kind of mindset the sorry to bother you, but but or we can't pay the rent. And so as a result we need your help or please donate now or something bad is going to happen. Anything you give, any pennies will give. That's all part of the beggar mentality and it is an absolute abomination.
- [04:21]
A
Well, I mean, because I guess it's terrible because on this, on the one side, and we know some people that have this and they're really, they have a great heart, you know, they have a great mission, but they just have this beggar mindset which is, you know, I'm, I'm, I would rather stay focused on what God has called me to than to take the time to fundraise, you know, because I'm not called to fundraise. I'm called to help the least of these, or I'm helped. I'm called to do this, you know, important work. And so they're, they're kind of like, they have this mindset of like, and they, they use George Mueller as kind of an example, but they kind of misunderstand George Mueller, but they kind of have this idea of like, well, God knows my needs. He knows what, you know, what, what we're going through. And so we're just going to stay focused on what we, you know, can do and we're going to stay focused on the mission.
- [05:16]
B
Or almost asking is a sin to a degree. But this is, this is a mindset essentially that asking for money is not ministry, that I'm doing ministry, but then I have to ask for money to be Able to do it once again. Kind of getting into that necessary evil mentality as well too. It borders on those same kinds of things. But it is definitely a wrong perspective of what ministry is.
- [05:46]
A
Well, and just the whole idea of like you've got to ask for money is really the wrong way of thinking about it too because it, it kind of comes from the perspective of money is evil or money is icky.
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B
Yeah.
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A
And so it's like you want to be able to just trust that God is going to provide. You want to be able to just do your thing and then I don't want to ask people for money. That's awkward. You know, I, I would rather just. God moves in their heart somehow. They, maybe they have a dream or something and they just write a check and somehow it just appears it's more.
- [06:17]
B
Spiritual if you don't do this. I, I helped a ministry decades ago that I remember. The leader told me once we make, we need to make it as diffic possible for people to give because when they do, it means that God actually worked. So that mindset is that they're doing something to someone instead of doing something for someone. And you and I have always had the mindset that we are doing something for someone when we give them the opportunity to give. Whereas presenting needs does come across as a beggar mindset. And that could be doing something to.
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A
Them, but doing for into that a little bit more. How are you giving people the opportunity to do something for them? Yeah, by presenting giving opportunities.
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B
Well, we've talked about the principle of being a blessings broker, that we know that when God moves in people's hearts and people make the decision to give, that God will turn around and bless them. An old adage, you can't outgive God because when you give to him, he gives back multiple fold. And so we give people an opportunity to be blessed by God when we present the opportunities that our ministry has. Because when they give to our organization, they're giving to the kingdom. And when you give to the kingdom, God will bless you back. So the opportunities we're giving them are the opportunities to be blessed by God, to be part of something that God is doing and something that's going to have an impact on the kingdom. So that is so much more than just presenting needs.
- [08:01]
A
Well, it's really more the idea of being rooted in guilt rather than rooted in vision. Right, that's right. And so it's, it's funny, we, we came across this Facebook post. It was over a year ago, but it was a Person who is like trying to let people off the hook by not doing a fundraiser event because they were saying something to the effect of like, you know, we want to spare you.
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B
Yeah.
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A
The trouble of having to go to a fundraiser and getting your arm twisted.
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B
Almost like I'm giving you a gift. I remember that.
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A
Yeah. I'm giving you, I'm giving you, I'm making your life easier by not having to do a fundraiser event. And I don't want to have the guilt of you having to do all that, but just wanted to let you know that if we don't get some gifts coming in in the next month, we're not going to be able to pay a rent.
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B
Yeah. And it's almost like assuming that they wouldn't have liked the event if they came to it, that it would be a burden on them.
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A
Yeah.
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B
And they're using that guilt mindset of, you know, but we have to keep our doors open and make our rent. And if we don't make our rents, it won't work.
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A
Yeah. So, and so that's, that's kind of like they have this idea of like, we're doing you a service by not doing this.
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B
That's right.
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A
So that we don't guilt you into fundraising. But then yet at the same time, I'm trying to get you to give because we gotta pay our rent.
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B
Yeah.
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A
So it really is like that's an needs based thing. It's like, well, we need, you know, to keep our life giving ministry open. You wouldn't want this life giving ministry to die, would you? You know, so, you know, give us money so that we don't die, you know, and it's, it's just not the right approach. We've been doing development for over 40 years and, you know, we've done a lot of study between organizations that present needs versus organizations that present opportunities. Now you might, might think, well, Jason, isn't that the same thing? I mean, if you say like, I need you to pay our rent or hey, you have the opportunity to pay us rent, isn't that like the same thing? But that's not, that's not what we're doing. Right. We're not, we're not saying, just say the same need and just swap out the word opportunity for need, you know.
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B
Or the people are just going to assume that when we say need that what an exciting opportunity to help us meet our needs. Now, people don't. They're not looking at it that way.
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A
No. All right, let's talk about why the beggar mentality is killing your fundraising effort. So, Jim, we had written down a couple of things. Maybe I'll just, I'll just say them all at once just so that people know where we're going. But number one, it disrespects yourself. Number two, it disrespects the donor. Number three, it disrespects your mission. Number four, it rejects the idea that development is ministry. And number five, it feels icky because it is. So that's where we want to head for the rest of this episode. Let's go into the first one. It disrespects yourself.
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B
What do you mean by that? Well, Jason, I really believe that, as I said early on, it shows a lack of self worth. It shows your own insecurities. And I, you know, I don't mean to play junior psychologist, but I think people in ministry sometimes come into ministry with some baggage and there is somewhere in the back of their mind, I'm not worthy of God's blessing. I'm not worthy to be in ministry. It has to do a little bit with the insecurity of I can't do this, that I'm a poser, that I shouldn't really be the executive director. When you go out and you share with people just from the position that, oh, please, we need this or you wouldn't want to help us, would you? Like that? It really disrespects yourself because it lets people know that it gives them that glimpse that in reality you don't believe what you're saying and you don't believe what you're doing and that you're not worthy of God.
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A
So it's a little bit of a self fulfilling prophecy.
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B
It really is.
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A
You're asking people with I'm not worthy mindset and you're really kind of showing people that you're not worthy of their gift.
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B
That's right.
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A
I, I know every person, you know, has something, you know, in their past or whatever, but just being really focused in on that, God has called me to this, right? And I'm here on this earth to do this. And, you know, his position about me hasn't changed because, you know, I made a mistake yesterday. You know, it's like I remember someone telling me the story of someone who was, you know, they adopte someone from a third country, third world country, like Africa. And you know, that person, when they adopted them into their family, they were so used to being on the street and surviving that they struggled with, you know, actually having a family that had meals every day. Right, right. And so, you know, it took a lot of time to kind of retrain them. And even though that person didn't feel like they were adopted, the. The legal status never changed. Like, they were adopted at this point in time, and nothing was going to change it. It was written in stone. And I think sometimes that whole I'm not worthy thing comes with a. Like, if there's a little bit of insecurity, like, we think, well, God's not happy with me right now, or I don't feel like things are going very well, I could be doing better.
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B
Yeah.
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A
You know, so why would God bless me in reality? You know, you're his child, and he want. He's called you to this, and he wants to bless you. You just have to, like, embrace that reality.
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B
Well, we've got to find that there's a balance out there, because we want to come before people with humility, but we also want to come before God, before those people with confidence. And if you're gonna err, I'd probably rather you err on confidence than too much humility from that standpoint, because sometimes too much humility can come across worthy in there, and none of us are worthy. I think that's what you were trying to say. Our confidence and our worthiness comes from our relationship with God and. And his sacrifice and really just believing.
- [14:36]
A
What God says about you. If God says, I've adopted you and you are mine, you are my child, that should give us a lot of confidence. And if we know that he's called us to start that homeless shelter or start that pregnancy center or start that Christian school, then we can be confident that he's got our back and he's.
- [14:55]
B
Going to provide financially. Exactly. He's going to provide for the people. Well, Jason, that's the first thing. So let's talk about the second, which is it disrespects the donors.
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A
Yeah. So disrespecting the donor. It assumes that donors give out of pity, not purpose. Right. God is not about guilt. Right. Giving should be driven by motivation, not manipulation. And so this whole disrespecting the donor thing, what do you mean by that? Can you drill into that a little bit more?
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B
Well, it essentially means that when you're before them, you're not respecting their time, you're not respecting their ability to give, you're not respecting the opportunity that God has put before them there. And so it's. It. When you start to apologize for being there, they can read right through that, and they can see this person doesn't think much about themselves and what they're doing, but they also don't respect my time and my ability to make a difference because they think that this all boils down to them begging for it and my ability to come in there and solve their problems. When my role isn't to solve other people's problems, do I. If my role. I believe my role as a donor is to make a good, strong investment. I, as we've talked about in other episodes, God has given me as a donor money to steward the resources, and I've got to invest those resources in where I'm going to have the greatest return on investment and is going to have the biggest impact for the kingdom. And so when you start to beg and you want me to just simply meet your needs. I didn't make my money to meet your needs. I made my money to invest it in the kingdom. So you're disrespecting my time and my money.
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A
Yeah. So there's a little bit of a maybe misunderstanding about how donors think about things. And we, we don't like to call them donors. We actually like to call them partners.
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B
Exactly.
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A
But there's, there's. I mean, and I kind of understand if you've never started a business or never run a business or never been in a leadership position in a business, it can be difficult to understand the business owner mindset.
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B
Right.
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A
Because, you know, they do think about things differently.
- [17:43]
B
Right.
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A
They are a different breed of people. In my Bible study at Chur Church, we have four people, four men in my men's group who all run businesses. And I can tell you with certainty that just the way that they think about everything is completely different.
- [18:01]
B
That's right.
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A
Than if you were in a Bible study with, you know, people who worked at Walmart or people who worked at coffee shops or whatever.
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B
Or people who work in ministry.
- [18:10]
A
Yeah. Or people who work in ministry. So it's just taking some time to, you really get to know your partners and how they think about things will really enlighten you in understanding. So it's. I don't, and I don't mean to make it sound like a class system, because it's not a class system in the sense of like, well, you've got the upper class and you've got the lower class and the, you know, the lower class just think this way and the upper class think this way because, you know, it's. It's not so much about a class system as much as it's just the way that certain people think about the world. Right.
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B
So entrepreneurs just, they're willing to take risks, they're very independent, they have confidence generally and they're thinking outside the box. It is, it's just a different mindset.
- [19:01]
A
Right. So if you're a. Just bear with me for a second. If you're a coffee shop owner. Right. And you started a coffee shop, most owners of businesses, you don't see them working at the business. Right. A really good business owner is going to be more focused on creating a system. Right. So that other people can be hired.
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B
Yeah.
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A
And they can train up people in certain roles.
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B
They work on the business. Yeah.
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A
And they're focused on, you know, working on the business system and refining how processes work so that you can have the opportunity to have a job with a clear definition and a clear paycheck and a clear role and responsibility. Right. So a business owner is more focused on the bigger picture. Right. And as a result, you know, they're making strategic decisions. Right, right. And they're thinking, okay, big picture, you know, we're going to make, you know, a million dollars this year. I need to spend, you know, $200,000 on this. I need to buy this equipment. This equipment is going to help me save a little time here. I need to bring in like 15 employees. We're going to pay them this much.
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B
A month span, you know, our reach and marketing.
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A
Yeah. And, and, and they're, they're just thinking like a little bit bigger on strategy and, and like what they're trying to accomplish. Right, right. As a business versus like an employee, they just have a very specific job. They come in at 8 o', clock, they leave at 6 o', clock, they do a certain job and they leave.
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B
They're working the fry station or the cash register, whatever it is.
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A
And you're not thinking about the big picture. You don't care. I mean, if you tried to think about the big picture, you would probably be fired because you'd be like, that's not your role. Right. You just need to come in and do a job and lead the best.
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B
Cashier you can be.
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A
Yeah. And so, you know, translate that into ministry. Right. You've got the person on the ground. You're, you're the one on the ground, you know, feeding the homeless. So you're on, you're the one on the ground, you know, running the shelter. And so you, you're in the day to day, right. You're thinking about, I gotta get this done, I gotta do this. I got all these things going on, I gotta keep everything working. Right. So but then you, you approach a donor and they're, they're not thinking of the day to day, they don't care about what you do, that your air.
- [21:14]
B
Conditioner just went out.
- [21:15]
A
They're thinking about it from a bigger picture like a business owner would. And they're thinking like, if I write you a check for $25,000, what's the impact that that's going to have on you? You've got to be able to communicate to them, Mr. Donor, if you give me a $25,000 check, I can very confidently say that we're going to be able to rescue 10 more people off the streets this month because it's going to enable us to, you know, buy new beds, it's going to enable us to do this, it's going to enable us to do that. And, and so they're making an investment into your organization, on the enterprise, not.
- [21:54]
B
In a specific detail within that enterprise.
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A
And so, so many times, you know, as a non profit leader and just general, we, we think that our donors care about our needs and, and that they care about, you know, making our life better. Or don't you know how hard I work at rescuing the least of these. And you know, and the reality is, is that the donor is coming from a different perspective. They're coming now we're talking about major donors, right. We're not talking about certainly the average person who maybe gives you a $25 donation. They might be pulled into like a little bit of empathy, like, well, I feel sorry for you. So here's $25 dollars. But the major partners, the people who can make a big difference, they're making an investment and they want to have confidence in their investment.
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B
The 25 person is making a purchase. The mega donor, major donor are making an investment.
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A
Right. So going back to your point, it disrespects the donor. When you have this attitude, what you really mean is you think that major partners think the same way that you do, but they're kind of, they're thinking about things on a totally different level. So you gotta learn to think like them and you have to be able to present the opportunity in a way that they would want to understand it.
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B
Yeah. And, and it is going to make a difference on the enterprise and not in the enterprise. Right.
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A
So all right. The third thing is that it disrespects your mission.
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B
Yeah.
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A
So what do we mean by this?
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B
Well, it, what it does is when you're going before people with a beggar mentality, the idea is that I don't care enough about my organization to present it with vision and present it with exciting opportunities. It is so insignificant that I need to beg for things. It minimizes the value of your organization. When you come in having to beg people, it says, my organization isn't worth it. It and doesn't have any value, so I need to come in and beg for your money. And that's the bottom line.
- [24:01]
A
Fourth thing is it rejects the idea that development and what we mean by development is a certain way of funding your ministry.
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B
Right.
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A
It's not fundraising, but it's development. It rejects the idea that development is ministry in and of itself.
- [24:20]
B
Yeah, it's. It really brings it down to the idea that it's all about transaction. The transaction. I come to you, you give me money. That's the transaction. When development is not. We know that fundraising can be that way. It can get down to just the transactional activity. We want it to be about development, which means that we are immersing people in the ministry. We care about them. We care about their needs, what their interests are, where our organization is going, and that turns it into ministry. And it's. That makes it transformational and not transactional.
- [25:06]
A
Yeah. And it really is rooted in, like, the fifth point here, which is it feels icky.
- [25:11]
B
Well, it feels icky for a reason, Jason, because it is, you know, I mean, it gets down to, you know, the fact that you are in front of someone begging for money. You know, when the President United States chooses someone to be an ambassador of the country, they don't send someone who's down on their luck, and they don't send them with a $50 in change and makes them fly there on their own dime. When someone is chosen to become an ambassador for the United States, they are given all the might and the force behind the United States of America. When we go before a major donor as representatives for God, representatives of the kingdom, we need to represent the kingdom well. And that means we need to go before that person with confidence that we work for the Father and that we are, as you said earlier, his children. And we have the full force of his inheritance as children of God. And so when you go before someone begging, it essentially reflects that the kingdom of God is beggar, that God is on his last dime. And if I'm not out here begging, God's not going to give me money. And nothing's further from the truth. God provides for us in every way. Maybe not exactly the way we want him to provide, but he provides for us in every way. So the fact that it seems oogie and that we kind of have to wipe our hands after we get done. Begging is a reason feels icky. Because it is icky. Yeah.
- [26:56]
A
So the five things that we just talked about, just to recap are, you know, why the beggar mentality is killing your fundraising efforts or even killing your ministry is because, number one, you're disrespecting yourself. Number two, you're disrespecting the donor.
- [27:11]
B
Yep.
- [27:11]
A
Number three, you're disrespecting your mission. Number four, you're rejecting the idea that development is part of your ministry, when in reality, if you do it correctly, it actually is part of ministry.
- [27:24]
B
It's ministry.
- [27:25]
A
And number five, it feels icky. And that's because it is. Yeah. So it really just boils down to what we say all the time, which is you're thinking about it, like, fundraising, and you're not thinking about it like free friend raising.
- [27:40]
B
Right.
- [27:41]
A
And so often, I mean, just Google, just get onto YouTube and search for fundraising versus fundraising. Fundraising masterminds. We have several podcast episodes where we go into a lot of depth on what's the difference between fundraising? What's the difference between fundraising. I'm not going to go into it a ton on this episode, but this is a topic that comes up a lot.
- [28:04]
B
Yeah.
- [28:04]
A
And it really is. Is like, the big difference between our mindset of biblical development versus icky fundraising.
- [28:13]
B
Y.
- [28:14]
A
So, anyway, let's go into some solutions here.
- [28:17]
B
Yeah. I think we did a great explanation of why we don't want the beggar mentality. How do we escape? Escape it?
- [28:26]
A
Yeah. Well, number one, you need to stop sneaking on the ask. So a lot of times, you know, we have this idea, like, well, if I do a fundraising banquet or I do an event or I do an appeal or whatever, we think that we have to kind of sneak up on people and kind of, like, subtly kind of work it in sneakily, and that people are just gonna intuitively know what that means.
- [28:50]
B
Or if you're going in to meet with people, you kind of beat around the bush where you don't actually ask them, but you hope that at some point they're gonna say, well, Jason, what are your needs? We've spent an telling me about things. Why don't you just tell me what do you need from me? And. And you've got to. You've got to speak and lead boldly. You've got to present your case with boldness.
- [29:17]
A
And, I mean, if you think about it like, you know, Jim and I, if we went out to lunch together. And you just told me about all of crew and what all the, you know, issues that you're having or the programs that you're having or not issues. But if you told me, you know, all the exciting programs that you're having and just all that stuff, I would be thinking, wow, that sounds really neat. You know, like, I, if you, if you don't actually say, you know, Jason, now that I've got you here, I've actually, I actually have an opportunity I would like to present you that I think you might be interested in. Right. You know, that is going to shift the conversation to saying, oh, you want me to get involved? You know, and there's a specific way that you think that I can respect you.
- [30:02]
B
I, I respect your time and I respect the opportunity you've given.
- [30:05]
A
Yeah, yeah. So if you, if you and I just met about, and you were just telling me all the great things, but in your mind you're thinking, I hope that he understands, you know, the important work we're doing and that he would just naturally, you know, pull out his checkbook. I mean, if, if he was listening to God, he would just pull out his checkbook and write me a check. Well, if you never really asked or made an opportunity available, then I don't think people are gonna just do that. I mean, maybe there's an exception, but it doesn't seem to be the norm.
- [30:37]
B
Well, Jason, I remember in the 1990s, a mega ministry that if I mentioned your, their name, you would know it in a heartbeat, had made a decision that they were not going to allow their field reps to actually ask people for money. All they were going to do was go out into the, the streets and talk to people about the things they were doing and never asked for money. And what stopped that approach was they had enough people who said to them, jason, I appreciate you wanting to get together with me again to talk, but what is your role? Are you just a professional visitor? And that always stuck in my mind that the, the, the, the, it wasn't the organization understanding, it was the donor. They had to say, hey, my time's too valuable. I, I need you to get to the bottom line. What I, I, you know, it's nice that you're wanting to meet with me and tell me, but my time's too valuable. Either you need something or you want something or you don't. Yeah, yeah.
- [31:43]
A
No, that's good. And speaking of asking, you want to ask towards opportunities, not needs. Now, we talked about this for a little bit before So I don't know if we need to go into it, but donors don't respond to needs. No, they respond to opportunities. So you got to figure out a way to present it in an opportunity for them. And again, you're not just flipping around the word need and opportunity. You know, like, we need to pay rent so we have an opportunity for you to pay rent. It's not that. No, but it's more focused on the opportunity to. To make an investment in the impact that you're going to have, that outcome.
- [32:20]
B
Right.
- [32:20]
A
You have to think about how do these needs work together to create a specific outcome.
- [32:25]
B
Right.
- [32:25]
A
And then you present that outcome.
- [32:27]
B
That's right.
- [32:28]
A
Third way we can escape the bigger mentality is to believe that development is ministry. Absolutely. So, Jim, help me understand this. So, you know, I'm looking at fundraising. I know you want to call it development, but aren't they just. Just the same thing? I mean, you're just. You're just softening what it is. It's still asking for money either way. So, like, what. How can you. If. If you're saying fundraising is icky, isn't development icky, too?
- [32:55]
B
Absolutely not. In fact, it's the furthest thing from the truth. The difference is, is I. That I said earlier, fundraising is doing something to someone. Development is doing something for someone. So in other words, you are. When you go in and just simply ask them for money, that transactional relationship, it's just an exchange of money, so you are extracting money from their pocket is really all you're doing to meet your needs. Development is about genuinely developing a relationship, finding out what the person is interested in, what motivates them, what excites. Excites them, and what can. How we can parlay that into something that is going to be an investment in the organization and investment in eternity, which essentially makes it doing something for someone together. When we find that intersection of their desires and the outcome, and that is going to also help us further our mission. That's when you succeed. Yeah.
- [34:05]
A
And the reason why it's ministry is because you respect them enough to know that they have. They have the money set aside. That's for ministry. They just don't know where to put that money. And so you're giving them an opportunity to make an investment in the kingdom.
- [34:22]
B
Right.
- [34:23]
A
And you're doing it in a way that respects them as a person through a ministry mindset. Right. So you're another thing that people just don't realize is that development is ministry because donors are people, too.
- [34:36]
B
That's Right. Well, it's really realizing because you know, when you are a ministry leader with things that have to be achieved, the idea could be in a cannibalistic mindset or a mercenary mindset is that I'm just going to you to get money to meet my needs. Ministry flips that and it said how can I accomplish those things that I need accomplished? By helping you accomplish what you want accomplished. So that it is a win win situation for both of us. And in that it makes the relationship transformational.
- [35:17]
A
So how is it helping them to accomplish what they want by meeting my needs?
- [35:24]
B
Well, if God has placed on people's hearts a desire to see people come to Christ and I have an organization like cru, that sole purpose is to see people won to Christ and to see the Great Commission fulfilled. That is a perfect balance. Because you found someone who has a desire to win people to Christ. If I run into someone whose sole desire is to save babies from the horrendous abortion industry, that doesn't necessarily resonate and sync with crew because CRU's not about saving babies lives. We save people for eternity, but we aren't rescuing people from abortion. So that's a mis Q that doesn't sync the two together. So we are constantly trying to find, find that, that, that cue together.
- [36:24]
A
Yeah. So it's, it's more respecting them of like they're in the workforce, they're doing what they're doing, but they have a heart for reaching people with the gospel or they have a heart for missions or they have a heart for that and they really want to get involved in that. But they don't have the time, they don't have maybe the resources. But they get to do it.
- [36:44]
B
Yes.
- [36:44]
A
By partnering with you.
- [36:45]
B
That's right.
- [36:46]
A
So you become an extension of their mission.
- [36:48]
B
Yeah. And guess what, Mr. Donor, you have a heart for this. Guess what? We do that. That's what our mission is. I think we are a perfect match together. Yeah. So that's exactly what that is.
- [37:02]
A
All right. The last thing for getting rid of this mindset is replacing guilt with gratitude.
- [37:07]
B
Yes.
- [37:08]
A
I'm gonna let you take this one.
- [37:09]
B
Oh, absolutely. Well, first of all, remember that beggar mental reality is guilt. Guilting people into being part of something. But when you flip that and make the gratitude side of things, it's that we are giving back to God from that. And so we are coming with a, a an attitude of gratitude and we are presenting them with what an opportunity you have have to be blessed by God and from that standpoint both of us get to have an attitude of gratitude. I'm grateful for God using you, Mr. Doner, to bless our ministry. And you, Mr. Doner, are grateful to God for providing the opportunity to help you fulfill that burden that God's placed on your heart. So that whole idea that isn't this neat, that together we get an opportunity to help fulfill the Great Commission.
- [38:15]
A
I've got one more story for you. There's a. There's a guy, a friend of mine, who has three kids, and they have a heart for missions. Okay? And. But they're. They're really busy. Their kids are in school, they're in college, but they really. They really love what we do in Zambia, and they love that we take people on. And. And he's asked me many times, he said. He said, jason, let me know the next time you take a team over to Zambia, because God has really placed a burden on my heart for missions, and I really want my kids to have that same burden.
- [38:52]
B
Right.
- [38:53]
A
You know, so I want to give them, you know, that burden. So. So I could call him with the, you know, hey, I don't want to bother you again. I know that, that we've talked about this in the past, and, you know, you said that you didn't have time, and. And I feel bad that I have to call you, you know, or I could call him with just, you know, believing that what he said, knowing that this is important to him and saying, hey, I know that this is important to you, and I just wanted to let you know that there's an opportunity coming up next summer. We're planning a trip, and I know that, that you have a full schedule, so I'm letting you know a year in advance that this is happening. Would you be interested in this opportunity?
- [39:36]
B
And I don't want to deny you.
- [39:38]
A
The opportunity to be involved if he says, you know, it's not going to work out, this timing isn't right.
- [39:43]
B
Whatever.
- [39:43]
A
That doesn't mean that he doesn't have a heart or whatever. That's right. That just means he needs to pass on the opportunity.
- [39:50]
B
That's right.
- [39:51]
A
But you know how I. I literally just had this phone call, like a few days days ago with someone, and, you know, he said, you know, thank you so much for calling, because I do have a heart for this. And you reminded me by your phone call that I do want to accomplish this someday. I want to take my girls on a mission trip. So thank you for the opportunity, letting me know. I'll get back to you about the schedule. You know, I think we might be able to work it out because you called me so much in advance, you know, so I was respecting him by, you know, not just, just sneaking up on the last minute and trying to guilt him into going, but just giving him the opportunity on his schedule, on his time frame, you know, presenting it in a way that he would be interested. Right. So that's, that's what we mean by that.
- [40:33]
B
That's right. I, I know that I've struck the right cord when I start to, when people will thank me for giving them the privilege to give. And that happens so often. I would say probably 9 out of 10 times people will thank me for giving them the privilege. And that's the way we need to go, that I'm giving people a privilege.
- [40:55]
A
Yeah. Well, of course, one of the best ways that we train this mindset, you might be thinking, wow, this episode really got me thinking. I really need to do some serious adjusting in the way that I think about development or fundraising. And if you're there, don't worry, there's lots of people that are still in this mindset. But one of the best ways to just, if you're looking for like an intense track over 21 weeks to just, in a 21 week period, just flip everything around and just get like an infusement of new mindset. I would say the perfect vision in our mentorship program is definitely something that you're going to want to check out. We actually have a new cohort strategy starting in like ten days. So we're like ten days away from starting a brand new group.
- [41:45]
B
Ten days away from a new mindset.
- [41:47]
A
Yeah, ten days away from a new mindset. In like six months from now, you could be completely operating from a development mindset the way that we're talking about, and you could have a bunch of new partners engaged. Because we focus on getting the right people plugged into your ministry. We focus on teaching you how to present opportunities instead of needs. We teach you how to do this in a compelling way with a compelling vision. And this is the, really, the whole point of the Perfect Vision Dinner. And Jim, you know, we've, we have the privilege of being able to work with anywhere from 50 to 100 organizations a year. And we don't take our privilege lightly. You know, it is, it's, it's really fun. I enjoy taking people from one side of the spectrum to the other and then just being able to see all the light bulbs click. But this program is really great because not only are you going to understand it conceptually, but we're actually going to require you to do certain things. So it's a very action oriented thing. So you're going to learn how to have the mindset. You're going to learn why this dinner is so important. You're going to actually get tools to make it happen. We're going to actually plan and execute a real vision dinner for your organization. We typically raise like no less than six figures, so our bare minimum goal is a hundred thousand dollars. So it's going to pay for itself for sure. And it's also going to result in, you know, 100 to 150 new partners coming on board because we typically have 50 to 60% new people jump in. So if you're looking for an infusement of capital, you're looking for an inf. Infusement of mindset, you're looking for an infusement of new partners. The perfect vision dinner program is definitely something you're going to want to check out. And you can scan the QR code on your screen to make that happen. There's also a link in the description and in the comments that you can click on. But just remember, we're 10 days away. I believe the class starts October 27th and so enrollment closes on the 24th. Class starts a few days after that. That and once the door is closed, that's it for another six months. And we won't be open until May the next year. So now's the time. If you're interested in this, click on the link, fill out the application, and one of our team members will reach out to you. Well, Jim, as we just wrap up this episode, I know we've talked about a lot of things with Mindset. What are some questions that could really help someone think about whether they're in this mindset or not?
- [44:17]
B
Yeah, Jason, this really calls for something self reflection. And those questions are, first of all, do you believe that your leadership is worth investing in? That's a big one. Are you honoring your partners with a bold vision? Are you presenting needs or presenting opportunities? Do you see development as a holy calling or a necessary evil? And last, are you asking with confidence or are you cringing?
- [44:50]
A
If you answered yes to any of these questions, then you might be on the path for. For thinking the right way. But if you answered no to any of these questions, you might be struggling with the beggar mentality. Absolutely. And it might be worth taking a look, taking a step back. Right. And really analyzing what, what do we. What. What is the reason why our mission exists?
- [45:15]
B
Yes.
- [45:15]
A
What do we want to accomplish in the next five years? How are we going to accomplish that? What are the things that we can do to really make that happen? And then really start to think through are those things that we're actually doing or are we just way off track in somewhere and really taking a hard look at that is going to help you to kind of reassess. Well, that's it for this episode of the Fundraising Masterminds podcast. Thanks you so much much for joining us today. We will see you on the next one.
- [45:43]
B
Take care.