May
27
2011

Finance Fridays: Church Planters and Communication

An article by Matt Comments

I spend a good bit of my time working with church planters. At the end of my first phone call with a planter I ask them all to do the same thing: put me on their email list. I do this because I am geeky about church plants, and love to watch what happens with them. I enjoy getting updates on how God is moving in a church and praying for their struggles. I greatly enjoy it when a planter’s email hits my inbox, and I generally devote a few minutes of prayer on their behalf right then and there. Unfortunately, I may only receive three of these messages a month. What is even more unfortunate is the fact that I am on the email list of at least forty different church plants.

Earlier this week Jeff Brooks wrote about the most deadly error in fundraising: assuming donors don’t like to hear from you. I will let Jeff explain this:

There’s no evidence that it’s true. In fact, the evidence shows us that decreasing donor contact almost always leads to not only less revenue but worse donor retention.

In other words, you’re a lot more likely to drive away donors by not communicating enough than you are by over-communicating.

And:

Here’s what you can expect when you communicate less with donors:

It’ll cost you a lot of revenue in the short term.

It’ll erode your file in the long term.

Worst of all, if you think fundraising is sucky and annoying, your fundraising will be sucky and annoying.

Now, let’s talk about this for a minute. First, I understand that Brooks is speaking primarily to the secular non-profit world and not to the church context. I also realize that planting a church is hard, time consuming work, and there are a million things that you can do that are far more important than cranking out a newsletter, writing a thank you note, or making a phone call to a donor from another city. And while I understand the many reasons that cause these types of communications to happen infrequently (at best), we need to remember that we are stewarding the resources given to us by many… and as stewards, we need to be giving an accounting of those resources. For denominations, mother churches, and sending agencies this accounting comes in the form of spreadsheets and P&L Statements. For individuals, this accounting takes the form of stories, conversations, and vision casting.

The people that are supporting the calling that God has placed on your life want to know that the sacrifices that they are making on your behalf are truly making a difference in the lives of those that you are ministering to. While a monthly prayer letter is a good start when it comes to communicating with your donors, you need to spend time understanding how best to communicate with them, in a way that they can best hear your message.

This will take effort.
This will be work.
But in the long run, a ministry with a fully funded budget can do far more ministry than one that is just scraping by.

How do YOU work to ensure that those who are supporting your ministry are well communicated with?

Just as a bonus, I want to mention two guys who are doing this well:

Dan O’Leary is the Lead Pastor of Arise Community Church in Mt. Sinai, New York. Once or twice a month I am reading an update from Dan celebrating their victories and praying with them through their challenges.
Will Turner is in the very early stages of planting Redemption Church in Philadelphia. Twice a month I have been hearing their story, and I am excited by what God is up to in Philly.

Keep up the good work guys!