Successful Fundraising Requires Cultural Saturation

While I desperately hope denominational support will rebound, I am not optimistic in the near term. Current political and economic trends suggest any recovery, if realized, will be modest, and some governing officials have already signaled their desire to collect more revenues by eliminating the opportunity to itemize charitable contributions.

Even if we were blessed with modest growth in Cooperative Program receipts, support would still fall substantially short of the levels needed to undergird a seminary dedicated to exalting Christ by equipping students well, in part, because CP receipts have not kept pace with inflationary growth since 1990.

Current economic realities are pushing seminaries to think differently about finances. Gone, and likely never to return, are the days when denominational support provides 70+ percent of a seminary's budget. But, we must not passively accept a "new normal" where strong, denominationally-supported seminaries become tuition-driven schools that are no longer affordable for many who seek to be thoroughly equipped for the pursuit of God's call.

A better way to address the troubling funding realities before us is found in the purposeful cultivation of a culture which prizes the work of financial development at every level. Organizations facing declining denominational receipts need scores of successful, saved people who will be interested in, involved with, praying for, and advancing their God-given work. The levels of support needed to secure the future affordability and impact of seminaries demands that most of the people who comprise the seminary be meaningfully involved in the process of cultivating the relationships that allow seminaries to flourish regardless of future economic headwinds.

Identifying the scores of men and women who will stand with us in fulfilling our missions demands the purposeful involvement of virtually everyone in the organization. Financial development is not merely an office; it is a way of life for anyone who has the privilege of serving in an organization on the front lines of fulfilling the Great Commission. The work of identifying financial partners for the ministries entrusted to us does not belong to one person, one office, or even one division. To be sure, someone must coordinate and lead the charge, but the team is comprised of everyone. In tomorrow's thriving organizations, "financial development" is becoming a way of life for everyone who takes part in fulfilling the mission.

Financial development must saturate the cultures of denominationally-supported institutions because gospel-centered organizations understand the dreams and plans that God gives in the pursuit of His mission almost always require financial support. Financial development is not fundamentally about money; it is about mission, and the mission belongs to everyone in the organization.

In organizations that understand the fundamental connection between generosity and our passion for God's mission, events, graduations, conferences, speaking engagements, chapel services, luncheons, and new initiatives involve a deliberate consideration of the potential fundraising possibilities, implications, and applications at the outset. Prospective ministry partners are prayerfully sought and winsomely engaged in every venue possible. Donors' advice and strategic engagement is sought by the organization's leadership team in advance of new initiatives. If the needed conviction, passion, and funding are found lacking, the project is delayed, modified, or dropped depending upon the Spirit's leading through the organization's intentional, structured, and early engagement of prospective financial partners.

One of my colleagues formerly worked in the trust department for a large bank. His managing director wrote "everyone is responsible for sales" on dollar bills and handed them to every employee in the division. His desire was to create a particular sort of culture, a culture that valued sales and helped every employee understand they had a role to play and a stake in the work.

If everyone is responsible for sales when mere money is at stake, how much more ought everyone be responsible for knowing the mission and sharing the institution's story within their circle of influence? The organizations that overcome today's financial headwinds without sacrificing their mission at the altar of skyrocketing tuition will be those that create enthusiastic, friend-raising cultures from top to bottom. Successful fundraising requires everyone.

Fundraising Success at a Denominationally-Supported Seminary - Introduction

I was recently asked to put together a presentation defining "success" in financial development and describing how it can best be achieved. I began by defining success in the more typical ways, e.g., "We seek to increase the amount of annual gifts received by x percent."

However, I quickly found this methodology to be sorely lacking for addressing the fundamentals which must characterize any financial development effort which will yield long-term, institution-sustaining success. Short-term wins can sometimes be had even when fundamentals are poor. However, enduring results do not come without prioritizing the work of cultivating the deep relationships necessary for securing the resources needed to fulfill the institution's mission.

For denominationally-funded institutions of higher education, the last six years have not been kind. Denominational support has declined significantly. In my convention of churches, the Southern Baptist Convention, funding through the Cooperative Program has declined more than $60 million since fiscal year 2007. At last report, receipts for the current fiscal year were approaching a mark ten percent below budgeted expenditures.

Today, my seminary trains 700 more students than she did just ten years ago, and she does it with no more denominational support than she received a decade ago. When considering inflation, the support is significantly less. Yes, you have read correctly. More students. Fewer dollars. The difference has been overcome through tremendous financial leadership and prudent use of cuts in capital expenditures and technology, tuition increases, wage and salary freezes, along with fundraising gains. Many institutions have not been so blessed.

Within the context of denominationally-supported theological education, the need for establishing organizational cultures that joyfully and creatively embrace financial development as essential for long-term viability has never been greater or more apparent.

The trend of cutting cannot continue indefinitely without catastrophic consequences. It is possible to expand while cutting back for a season, but it is mathematically impossible over the long term.

To be sure, institutions of higher education have many challenges and priorities. Funding declines, advances in technology, evolving demographic trends, and a host of other variables constantly contend for the time and attention of higher education's top brass. As such, cultivating a robust financial development presence today that will not provide robust funding gains for several more tomorrows may seem risky or even impossible in today's uncertain funding environment.

Yet, the seminaries that will make the greatest impact ten years from now are the ones who make the right investments today.

Seminaries will never have the Kingdom-extending impact God intends for them to have if they simply pass along accelerating costs to students in the form of debilitating tuition increases.

This is why I am so pleased to serve at Southeastern where keeping tuition as affordable as possible is a stated part of our overall missionary strategy. When students graduate without the burden of educational debt, they often take bolder risks for the sake of Christ and the gospel.

A seminary that does whatever is necessary to be maximally effective in financial development is a seminary that wants to be on the front lines, reaching the ends of the earth by training battle-ready champions for Christ.

So, what is fundraising success?

Success is raising enough of the right money to sustain a Christ-exalting seminary until He comes.

But, how is such success achieved? This is the more challenging question, and it is the subject of the next several posts in which I will share some fundamentals of fundraising success in the hopes that the information and perspective may be helpful to others who are striving to build and sustain institutions that will advance the Kingdom.

How can we live out the truth that "God in Christ always leads us in triumphal procession" (2 Cor 2:14) by building and sustaining institutions that will extend the Kingdom until Christ returns? This is a critical question, and in answering it, nothing less than honoring Christ through our stewardship of the institutions He has entrusted to us is at stake.