9 Incredible Missionary Fundraising Steps (+Free PDF)
In this article and video tutorial, we are going to help you figure out where and how to start missionary fundraising. Not only that, but we are going to give you a list of 9 missionary fundraising steps to help you take a person from a friend to a financial supporter.
When missionary fundraising, it’s often a hard thing to figure out where and how to start. “There is so much to do, so much money to raise, what do I need to do first?” These thoughts occur when fundraising for a mission trip as well.
Here are 9 missionary fundraising steps to help you know where to start, and what comes next!
Missionary Fundraising Steps Video Tutorial
Here is the 9 Missionary Fundraising steps video tutorial.
9 Missionary Fundraising Steps
Here is the full break down of steps from the missionary fundraising steps video.
1. Make a list of 50 people
This is the first missionary fundraising step. Make a list of 50 names. I would even go as far as to say that 50 is the minimum. Think of as many names as you can think of. Friends, family, parent’s friends, your friends families.
You definitely want to know the people you send letters to, but you would be surprised that some people you don’t well might be some of the ones who give the most.
2. Handwrite Fundraising Letters
Remember the first missionary fundraising step? Perfect, next is you will handwrite letters to all of the names you have on your list. It’s going to be a lot, so get started soon!
Handwriting letters like this isn’t easy. We went ahead and created a resource for you teaching you the best tips for writing missionary fundraising letters.
Click on the image to check out our resource teaching you the best tips for your missionary fundraising letters!
3. Follow Up
The next missionary fundraising step is to follow up with the people who received a letter from you. Give them some time to read and pray about what you asked in the letter.
After you have given them some time, go and ask them if they received the letter. This will help remind them of the letter, but also make sure they got it.
Do this in person. It is extremely more intentional than sending a follow up email or text.
When you Follow Up:
The next 3 missionary fundraising steps are specifically things to remember to do when following up on you missionary fundraising letters.
In your letter you already asked these questions, but for the majority of people they didn’t reach out with their answers to the questions. Asking these questions in person, will help you to get the answers.
4. Ask them to pray for you
When you ask them to pray for you, it is extremely unlikely that they will say no. To be honest, most probably wouldn’t even think twice about.
Hopefully, they will actively plan to pray for you. This easily helps you to segue into the next step.
5. Add Them to your Newsletter
When they say yes to praying for you, ask them for their email address. Don’t stop there because that might be sort of weird, but go on to tell them about your newsletter where you plan to regularly update them on ways they can be praying for you.
Click in the image to see how you can best enhance your missionary fundraising newsletter!”
6. Offer to Meet
For some people, this missionary fundraising step can be intimidating, but don’t avoid it. If you really wanted to, you could invite them to dinner at your home, or offer to buy them coffee.
If that’s a little bit intimidating for you, feel free to leave it more open ended and say something along the lines of, “If you want to meet up to talk about it let me know.”
Just know, it is less likely they take you up on it.
When you Meet Up with People:
The next two missionary fundraising steps are specifically for when you are meeting up with someone. There’s a lot we could say about follow up meetings like this, but for the sake of this video, we are going to highlight these two steps.
7. Answer Questions
When you meet up with people, you want to come prepared and ready to answer any questions they may have. At the same time, some people may not know of what questions to ask.
If that’s the case, be ready to just talk about what it is you’re planning to do, and how you will go about it.
One important goal of this meeting is to provide as much clarity as possible for these friends, specifically in terms of what you are planning to do and how you are planning to do it.
8. Financial Support
Most likely, this will already have come up. You’ll be telling them about how you plan to do what God is calling you to, and that’s where you will most likely have the opportunity to talk about it.
Many people have differing opinions as to the best way to go about asking for money. In some sense, there will always be a little bit of discomfort.
When I fundraised, we would leave it open ended the majority of the time. We would say something along the lines of,
“We would love for you to pray about potentially joining our fundraising team and giving monthly to help enable us to serve the Lord in this way.”
Or something along those lines.
More often than not, people would give answers even to that question to help provide clarity on their interest.
9. Write a thank you note
The last missionary fundraising step is often overlooked, but incredibly important in continuing to be as personable as possible.
At the least, write thank you notes to those who not only tell you they will give, but follow through and set up their financial support.
Not only that, but I would also encourage you to write a letter to anybody you meet with to talk about your calling, wether they give or just agree to pray for now.
I know all of these missionary fundraise steps can be a lot to remember, so we went ahead and created a template for you to use when beginning to fundraise.
This template allows you to keep track of all of the names of people you have reached out to, and not only that, but also give you actionable steps to help you know what is next along the way.
You can download your PDF for free now here!
I hope these tips on how to fundraise for your mission trip were helpful to you. If you are interested in more resources like these, be sure to follow along, as we will release content like this every week aimed to help missionaries fundraise.
Check out our course, Modern Fundraising for Missionaries, when we teach you everything you need to know about missionary fundraising in our digital age. Don’t wait, join the wait list now!
