Cultivating Givers, Not Gifts

The goal of charitable and educational institution fund developers is focused on gaining the funding. While it is always in the best interests of an organization to treat donors in an ethical and respectful manner, the main consideration is the gift to the organization. The object is to cultivate the gift.

In the church, our primary task in our relationships with members is to encourage their growth in “self-giving”, of time and talent as well as money.  While we are aware that the more one gives of time and talent to the church mission the more likely they are to give monetarily, we must never become more focused on the gifts than the giver.  For us, cultivating generosity is important, not primarily because it produces funds for our ministry program but because it produces transformed lives.  The cultivation process is never a merely instrumental enterprise.  It is about cultivating the giver.  Our aim is to cultivate generosity in people – to transform lives - not to cultivate a gift to the church.  Ultimately, it strengthens the life of the church when we make it clear that God doesn’t want just your money but your whole self.

The critical question is not “How much money can we raise?”, but “How can we develop sustainable time, talent and financial resources to carry out the mission of our church?”