7 Brilliant Missionary Fundraising Tips for 2023
In this article, I’m going to give you some tips to help you reach your missionary fundraising goal faster, more efficiently, and in a way retains your patrons longer.
My name is Tyler Smith. I have worked as a full time, self supported missionary, and now I work as a freelance Digital Marketer. If you are looking to learn more about missionary fundraising, then this video is for you.
7 Brilliant Missionary Fundraising Trips | Video Tutorial
Below is a video of some of my favorite missionary fundraising tips.
7 Missionary Fundraising Tips for 2023
It was Labor Day weekend and we were sitting on the couch. My wife, Karissa, leans over and shows me a message from fellow missionary friends asking if we would want to come serve with them overseas.
My stomach instantly knotted up, as I became nauseous with anxiety. Then began the 10 month journey to the Lord calling us overseas, and us learning more about missionary fundraising. In reality, we didn’t even start until sometime after March of the next year. We had already told our bosses we were done at the end of June.
Some people would probably say we were too naive; and to be honest, we probably were. Thankfully, God is sovereign over new missionaries naive towards fundraising. God has equipped us with missionary fundraising tools that I am incredibly excited to share with you today, so let’s get started.
Understand Your Calling
Chances are, that if you are reading this, you are either currently a full time missionary or have already begun your missionary fundraising process. At the same time, I know there is a chance that you have possibly just begun the process of becoming a full time missionary. If this is you I want to ask you some questions.
‘Who have you told about this calling?’
‘Do the Elders at your church affirm this calling?’
‘How has your family responded?’
‘Do your closest brothers and sisters in Christ affirm this calling?’
Hopefully, most of the answers to these questions elicit positive answers. If most are negative, it doesn’t necessarily mean not to go, but I would definitely encourage you to continue reaching out to those around you and praying.
2. Share Your Story
There often seem to be two types of people when fundraising your support. The first person is, “The Salesman.” It is pretty self-explanatory, but this is the person who sees everybody as somebody who is going to give to their calling. There seems to be no boundaries, no empathy for people who may not have the financial availability to give, they will ask everyone and never take no for an answer.
We’ve all had that friend who has their ‘side-hustle’ and they are always trying to make a sale and it’s hard to tell if they actually care about you or if they are just wanting to use you to make a profit. The second person is the extreme introvert (me). This person is very paranoid about becoming “The Salesman.” In fact, that might be their worst nightmare.They try not to talk about it because they don’t want anybody to feel pressured.
Which posture is correct? Neither one. The calling of full time missions and support raising is one that will change your whole life. It will easily come up in conversation organically as you talk with friends and family.
That’s not to say you shouldn’t initiate meetings with people in order to share with them the work that God is calling you to do, but when you are sharing, maybe have goals that are different from gaining a new patron. Maybe your goal is having a new person praying for you and the work you are doing, or having an additional person following your journey.
On your missionary fundraising journey, I think most often it is completely alright to offer them a chance to join in with financial contributions, but when we make that our main goal it often comes off as impersonal and uncaring.
3. Build an Audience
The idea of building an audience most likely sounds extremely vain when reading it. You might be thinking, “I’m not trying to be a social media influencer” which is true, you are not. This is an idea that comes from marketing.
The goal of building an audience is not in order that you might show people how great you are and how good of a Christian you are. The goal of building an audience is so that you can build trust with new potential patrons. This concept applies to marketing, as well as missionaries fundraising.
Chances are if you are a missionary for 10+ years, many patrons will come and go. Traditionally, the only way to gain new patrons was to take months off traveling through the states support raising.
There still might be some needs for that, but building an audience allows people to follow along the work you are doing, communicate with you, and see what they would be giving their money to, without having to wait on you to come and visit them. This is the goal of building an audience.
4. Prioritize Communication
You might be thinking, how do you build an audience while being so busy? Here’s how: consistency in content. Traditionally when missionaries are fundraising, most people only send email updates quarterly.
I would strongly urge that you send updates weekly or bi-monthly at the minimum. As well as, touch base with new subscribers to your email newsletter. If you don’t communicate often, then how would people know about the work the Lord is doing through you? How would people know how to pray for you?
If we do actually prioritize prayer in the work of the Lord, that means we realistically need to communicate often enough in order that people know how to pray for you and the work you are doing.
5. Use Digital Content
As everybody knows we live in a digital age. Not only that, but we are becoming visual people more and more. Oftentimes this is viewed as negative by those in the Christian spheres. There are plenty of negatives to this without a doubt, but the church has often overlooked ways in which this could benefit Christians as well.
Utilizing video, photos, emails, and other digital content will make your fundraising significantly easier and more sustainable. Digital content will drastically help you in missionary fundraising. Digital content gives patrons the opportunity to see with their eyes the work that you are doing and feel more involved in it than patrons have felt in the history of sending missionaries.
6. Be Personable
Another thing many experience when talking to somebody about giving to their mission work, is they feel that the person only cares about the money and doesn’t care about the person. I would encourage you to ask those close to you how you come off when talking about it.
I think it is one thing to say you care about them, and it is another thing to show you actually care about them by your conversation. Especially in conversation, care about that person and the work the Lord is doing in them, not sharing your story to get new patrons.
Along with that, think of other ways to personalize everything you do in raising support. Maybe it is handwriting letters instead of printing them out. Maybe it is regularly asking your patrons ways you could pray for them. Adding personal notes and actions like this show that you care about those you are interacting with when fundraising for you missions work.
7. Trust the Lord
When I began fundraising I became riddled with anxiety. How in the world am I going to get people to give me thousands of dollars a month to provide for my family. I think this anxiousness is what often drives people to use pressure tactics and attempt to take the fundraising into their own hands.
When we turn to this, we act as though we believe just because God is calling us to this doesn’t mean he has a plan. Knowing that God is sovereign over all support raising doesn’t immediately take the pressure away, but reminding ourselves of that regularly will help us continually walk in faith and trust in the Lord.
In all of your fundraising endeavors may you remember Matthew 6:26,
“Look at the birds of the air: they neither sow nor reap nor gather into barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them.”
This doesn't mean that the Lord will provide all of the support you need, but it means we can trust The Lord has a plan for us.
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