Accessing Funding from the Rich for the Poor

At the Right Time: Once ministries are established with a healthy spirituality and a good track record of both engaging the community and managing finances and record keeping well, there are wealthy men and churches around the globe who long to give so that the Kingdom may be extended among the poor.  Accessing such wealth before ministries have established a good track record is generally destructive of the values, flow and leadership of those ministries.

Balancing Generosity with Wise Stewardship: Rich men who are generous do not want to waste money.  They are accountable to God to be good stewards of their money, and along with genuine generosity, take this seriously, so set up systems of managing their giving to prevent it being siphoned off into people’s pockets wrongly.  They have to give in larger amounts of money because every group they give to takes bookkeeping and admin on their part and increases their costs of administration.  There are some who will give $1000 for projects, some $5000, some $15,000 - $25,000. A wise man will not give more than what a ministry is currently receiving, because more is probably beyond the capacity of the ministry to expand and manage, for this reason they want to often see accounts from the last three years.  

3 Years of Preparation: This requires slum churchplanters to start being accountable for their use of money in a way that is documented (by a treasurer) and ideally with an external person checking the figures. So it is important to learn how to do a balance sheet and an income and expenditure statement for each year. 

Think like a Businessman:  Businessmen get rich by making a small profit on thousands of small things they produce or market.  They think in terms of detailed outcomes of outcomes per $.  So we need to frame our dreams in terms of practical outcomes if we are to communicate well with them.  And to define ways of measuring those outcomes. Because for such proposals we are dreaming ahead, it is not uncommon to only accomplish 80% of what we set out to do.  It is better to aim lower then accomplish more.  Honesty is crucial in building trust with rich men, so where there are problems, one should identify them clearly, not try to cover them up.

Typical Questions asked in a funding proposal - it is good to work for a couple of years to have these questions in order   

© Viv Grigg & Urban Leadership Foundationand other materials © by various contributors & Urban Leadership Foundation,  for The Encarnacao Training Commission.  Last modified: July 2010