Tag: ideas

Follow Up: How to Change Verbal Commitments Into Actual Commitments

~ Jenn Fortner ~ 6 Comments

As a coach, the question I probably answer the most is how do I follow up with people who have said they will give, but haven’t started giving yet?

Having to follow up with verbal commitments is normal, and the need for it is frequent. It can also be one of the more awkward things we do in raising up our financial partnership teams – but it doesn’t have to be. Below are some tips for changing verbal commitments into written ones, and how to do it correctly. 

follow-up-graph_903_2f3569adce6e29c7cf6aceefc5c1893653411e32

I hope this infographic helps you in your follow up! Don’t forget to smile through the phone if your calling – it makes a difference. – JF

Start 2017 Off Right!

~ Jenn Fortner ~ Leave a comment

Did you know that 45% of the American population make New Years Resolutions? In general this is the month that the nation is thinking about health, wellness, and personal goals. Are you? Though I didn’t make New Years Resolutions per say, I know I am thinking about my personal goals for this year. As I have been developing my own for 2017, I found these Top 10 New Year’s Resolutions from 2017 interesting:

Top 10 New Years Resolutions for 2017:

#1  Lose Weight

#2 Get Organized

#3 Spend Less, Save More

#4 Enjoy Life to the Fullest

#5 Stay Fit and Healthy

#6 Learn Something Exciting

#7 Quit Smoking

#8 Help Others In Their Dreams

#9 Fall In Love

#10 Spend More Time With Family

Can you relate to any of these? For those of you thinking about your 2017 goals along with me, I’d like to add the goals below for your consideration. Consider making 2017 your best year of living a healthy lifestyle of ministry partnership development. Without further ado, here are some goals to consider in making 2017 a fabulous ministry partnership development year:

GOAL #1: DO BETTER AT KEEPING UP WITH YOUR EXISTING FINANCIAL AND PRAYER PARTNERS. Where do you find yourself on this spectrum:

  1. “COMMUNICATION ROCK STAR”: You have always been good at regularly contacting your financial and prayer partners. You keep up with at least a few of them each month by email, text message, phone call, or skype. You continually write your newsletters and are very personal with those whom support you.
  2. “KINDA STRUGGLE BUT E FOR EFFORT”: You have had seasons at being good at communicating with your financial and prayer partners, perhaps here and there emailing the ones you felt comfortable with. However if are were honest you haven’t done much besides a few group Facebook posts and newsletters.
  3. “#EPICFAIL”: You have never been good at contacting your financial and prayer partners. You avoid contacting them, feel awkward when you do, and struggle to write newsletters.

So where do you find yourself on the spectrum?

Maybe you find yourself somewhere in between “Communication Rock Star” or “Kinda Struggle but E for Effort”? Or maybe “#EpicFail” doesn’t even begin to describe your lack of efforts? Wherever you find yourself in that spectrum make 2017 the year you start with regular (and quality) communication with your financial and prayer partners. Make regular social media posts, newsletters, emails, skype conversations, and phone conversations a priority in your existing ministry schedule.  Go beyond the newsletter. Get beyond the mass communication and become relationally driven. Don’t just get a team of people giving you checks every month and wondering what your up to – strive to keep your financial partners informed and make them actual friends. Contact them personally and ask how they are doing, and how you can pray. Give personal updates. I PROMISE this is a BIG DEAL. Remember, without your financial and prayer team you WOULD NOT be ministering to your particular population. Make them feel valued and it will make all of the difference to them, and ultimately to you.

GOAL #2: ENSURE YOUR FINANCIAL PARTNERS CAN EASILY GIVE ONLINE. A recent study done by Dunham&Company shows that 67% of donors ages 40-59 said they have given online. That percentage is up by 20% since 2010. If your organization provides a way to give online, make sure you readily offer that option to your potential financial partners and that you make it easy for your financial partners to give online. Create giving instructions that can be emailed or texted out for your financial partners or get into the habit of walking them through the steps of online giving yourself.

GOAL #3: BEEF UP YOUR SOCIAL MEDIA PRESENCE. The same study mentioned above by Dunham&Company shows that 26% of donors said they have given to a charity’s website as a result of being asked on social media. This is up by 20% from only A YEAR AGO. Wow. I love this quote on the findings:

“It’s important to not misinterpret the findings,” Dunham says. “Donors are not responding more to requests for support from organizations through social media. They are responding to friends or others they know who, through social media, ask them for support of a specific charity, like the ALS Ice Bucket Challenge. Social media for nonprofits is still primarily a means to build community and engagement rather than a fundraising tool.”

What we can say about social media at this point is this: it is a very effective tool to build community and engagement. I’m not saying to ask for blanket support on Facebook. Nope. Nope I’m not at all. But I am saying consider making your social media presence more intentional in 2017. Use exciting videos, informative posts with pictures, and infographics to grab people’s attention. Stay up to date on what is going on with your financial and prayer partnership team. If you do use Facebook for “the ask”, make sure you create a structured Facebook campaign.

GOAL #4: MAKE YOUR PRESENTATION GREAT. If you are regularly speaking inside church congregations or small groups, make sure what you are saying is as effective as it can be. Don’t have a mediocre presentation – make it great! Video yourself giving your next sermon or 5 minute window in front of a congregation. Spend some time going through that video and thinking of ways you could improve. Send it to a few trusted friends for a critique. Having their honest feedback could be what takes your presentation from “meh” to “YESSS!!” If you haven’t polished your presentation in awhile go through it with fresh eyes thinking of ways to improve. Maybe you could add a short video, or a visual of the population you serve? Maybe you could add a new effective story?

GOAL #5: STAY (OR GET) ORGANIZED. This goal is pretty self explanatory. If you are struggling in an area of staying organized, get back on the horse. Being organized with records of who you have asked, who has given, when they have given, how much, etc. is important to have in the genesis of a lifestyle of partnership development. If you are organized you will have more time for ministry and more time for staying connected with your financial and prayer partnership team – it’s that simple. Great programs for this are: TNTMPD, MPDX, or iMissionsPro.

GOAL #6: USE VIDEOS. According to statistics found on the www.Cadre31.com website videos on landing pages increase conversions by 87%. Not only that, 65% of audiences are visual learners and visual data is processed 60,000 times faster by the brain than by text. Let the reader understand: videos are a big help in effectively communicating your vision. If you have not created a high quality video that communicates your ministry vision I highly suggest you make it a priority to do so. Spend some time looking at the videos found on Cadre31’s site for some great examples.

If you are not in the habit of making videos (not necessarily high quality – just home videos used to communicate) on social media, get into it. Another statistic states that by 2017 90% of all web traffic will be video.

GOAL #7: PRAY FOR YOUR FINANCIAL AND PRAYER PARTNERSHIP TEAM. When was the last time you made prayer for your financial partnership team a regular part of your prayer life? Have you ever prayed for your team? If you haven’t taken the time to talk to God about your team, then start in 2017. There are multiple benefits of praying for your team that go beyond the obvious. For starters remembering your team in prayer will promote your desire to stay connected to them, naturally have you asking what is going on in their lives, and will remind you that they are a vital part of your ministry.

zachgalifianakisthumbsuThere you have it! May your 2017 be a year filled with happy and relational support raising! Consider making some of these goals your own in 2017.

10 Blog Posts I Love for Successful Support Raising

~ Jenn Fortner ~ 2 Comments

I have a gift for you.

I love picking up bits and pieces from other ministries on support raising. Over the years I’ve done my fair share of digging from various viewpoints – nonprofits, ministries, and other missions sending organizations.

Thus, here’s a list of 10 inspiring blogs and websites that cover a wide variety of subject matter on ministry partnership development as you close out your year! Your Welcome! Merry almost Christmas friends!

url

  1. Cadre 31 Classes: Cadre31 is a company who specializes in telling your story via video. They have a tab on their website dedicated to education on creating your own videos, watch and learn!
  2. TedTalk by Jia Jiang on facing rejection. The possibility of rejection and/or facing it is hard – this video on the subject is incredibly inspiring and entertaining.
  3. Video from Global Frontier Missions on Unreached People Groups. This video is so helpful if you are raising your finances to reach a tough population. Check it out!
  4. Seeing Your Donors As Partners by 101Fundraising maybe one of my favorite blog posts EVER on the subject of financial giving. Get inspired and get perspective.
  5. This guest post by Pastor Chris (on my blog) reminds us that a season of itineration looks a lot like a season on the ministry field. I highly recommend this to anyone struggling with obstacles and fears in raising their support.
  6. Thanking Donors on Social Media from The Balance is a great for those looking to make their social media interactions count. It has some fantastic ideas to get the gears going on your own social media strategy.
  7. This TedTalk from Amanda Palmer on The Art of Asking may be the most helpful TedTalk I’ve ever watched. This is not Christian content by the way, but gives incredible insight.
  8. Do you want to become a better public speaker? Are you afraid of public speaking? Here’s a post from RealSimple on conquering your fear.
  9. Being negative hurts YOU. Are you negative and don’t even know it? Check out this blog post on positive thinking during your season of raising support by Michael Hyatt.
  10. Reaching out to millennials can confound as you support raise. Gosh, I’m a millennial and sometimes I have a hard time figuring out what to do. Here’s a great post on the subject.

I hope some of these posts help you like they have me. Do you have a favorite blog post? Share it in the comments! – JF

 

Develop Your End of The Year Strategy

~ Jenn Fortner ~ 2 Comments
Did you know that last year 31% of ALL GIVING occurred in the month of December? Or that 12% of giving occurred in the last three days of the year?
That’s right. 12% all in 3 days.full

Thus begs the question: Do you have a end of the year strategy for financial partnership development? If the answer is no, or you were even tempted to coast in December and only eat Christmas cookies, Christmas shop, and watch Elf and/or the new Star Wars movie 6 times in one week… I plead with you to keep those percentages in mind and reach higher.

12-adorable-funny-christmas-2013-gifs-to-share-enjoyHere is a couple of quick ideas for your year end strategy:

  1. CREATE A CHRISTMAS NEWSLETTER TO YOUR EXISTING PARTNERSHIP BASE. Sometime before December 31st (probably not on Christmas or Christmas Eve), send out a Christmas newsletter to your existing financial and prayer partner list. These should be people you have already communicated your ministry vision and details with. Make it short and sweet and include the following components:
    1. Merry Christmas greeting and express your authentic thankfulness for your support team.
    2. 3-5 bullet points of prayer requests.
    3. A percentage update of where you are at raising your finances.
    4. A gift-wrappy-Christmasy-wonderful-snowy graphic that is a clickable link to your organization’s giving website. (Make it pretty – I made this one in 5 minutes using Canva.com) From the Montgomery family
  2. HAVE AS MANY FACE-TO-FACE APPOINTMENTS AS POSSIBLE and DON’T STOP SCHEDULING THEM NOW BECAUSE YOU THINK EVERYONE IS TOO BUSY. Are you are tempted to put the breaks on contacting individuals for face-to-face appointments in the month of December? Let me tell you, experience has taught me that it is a GREAT time for face-to-face appointments. Don’t stop reaching out to connect with people over coffee and making the ask. Some tips:
    1. Pay for their coffee.
    2. Get a small gift for your potential financial partner and bring it to your appointment.
    3. Try and set up the appointment sooner than later. If they cant meet before the end of the year, put something in the calendar for January. Allow a couple of extra weeks to put something on the calendar.
    4. Make it about them when you meet as much as it is about you. Ask questions and get excited about who they are.
    5. Send a thank you card after you meet with everyone!
    6. If you cannot reach someone now, don’t sweat it. Try reaching out to them again in January.
  3.  SEND YOUR FINANCIAL PARTNERS CHRISTMAS CARDS / SMALL GIFTS. Now is a great time of year to express your thankfulness to your support team. Send a Christmas card with a handwritten note and include a small gift of thanks. It can go a long way in letting your financial partners know you care about them.
  4. CREATE A FACEBOOK CAMPAIGN IN DECEMBER. A well crafted, intentional, relational Facebook campaign can be helpful during this month of giving. Click here to find out more how to craft your own successful Facebook campaign.
  5. DUST OFF YOUR CONTACT LIST AND TAKE ANOTHER LOOK AT IT. Now is a good time to go back to the beginning of your season of itineration. Dust off that old initial contact list and go through it with a fine comb. As you comb through it create a new list of those you were not able to get ahold of, those who have committed to give but haven’t started yet, and those you never asked because you got too scared (whhaaatt you say?! How did she know that?!), and those that you just simply have yet to ask. Take that list and get back to contacting them about joining your team. BONUS POINTS: As you go through your list text / email / Facebook message those that are highlighted to you and just say hi.

I hope you find these helpful. Whatever you end up doing for your end of the year strategy, make it as relational as possible.

Also, MERRY CHRISTMASTIME! I pray it is an amazing time of fellowship and family for you.

santa-claus-animated-gif-4

Do Something Different, Use Sway

~ Jenn Fortner ~ Leave a comment

Have you ever heard of Sway? Sway is an App / web application that is about a year old and is a part of the Microsoft Office family of awesomeness.

It’s also free to use + simple, and I am in love with it. 

I wanted to dedicate a post to Sway because I think it can be a very effective (and outside-of-the-box) tool for anyone support raising. Below is a link of how I used it to present some basics on financial partnership development for an online class I taught:

Untitled

https://sway.com/xf67TFXn6wlrdDEX

Perhaps this makes you think, gee Jenn, that’s nice, but what are some practical ways I could use it in my support raising? Well, practical is practically my middle name – so I’ve thought about it and here is my list of ways to use Sway:

  1. Personal Stories. Connecting online with individual and church potential partners is a huge part of building your team. Use Sway to create something visually stimulating that immediately grabs people’s attention. I can see Sway helping you share your personal story and vision for ministry in some of the following ways (***always keep in mind – with all of these suggestions – to follow any security measures your sending organization  deems needed in developing content and sending out content):
    1. Put your Sway as a link in the signature of your emails.
    2. Email or Facebook pastors and potential support team members your Sway so they can read up a little of your passion and vision for ministry.
    3. Share your Sway on your Facebook group.
    4. Use Sway as a platform for a video. Instead of just watching your video – you could have it nicely displayed on your Sway with some text and background to enhance it even more.
    5. Put up your Sway on a tablet or computer for your display table for services, meetings, small groups, fundraising events, etc.
  2. Newsletters. Mailchimp is probably still the winner for electronic newsletters, but I wouldn’t hesitate to play around with Sway to see if one could create something of an archive of newsletters or something different from the norm.
  3. Reports. Infographics and interactive graphs are available on Sway and very simple to use. Here are some ways I can think of to use Sway for reports:
    1. Create a budget report with infographics and interactive graphs/charts to share with your support team or those on your potential support team who are asking for financial specifics.
    2. Create a landing page for your core prayer team. Include a video or other interactive material to get them excited about praying for your ministry (this could be prior to going to your field or while on your field).
  4. Presentations. If you have pictures or videos to share during your face-to-face appointments with potential financial partners, create a Sway to put them into one place. All you need is wifi or your phone to show the content.

Some advantages to using Sway:

  1. Downloading is not necessary. Sway is web and app based so no one will need  a certain software program to view your content.
  2. Sway comes with the ability to password protect the content and has various sharing preferences. For those of you going to sensitive areas, Sway comes with a little security. (however, as we all know nothing on the internet is wholly “secure”)
  3. Sway is great if you have a report, presentation, or personal story that needs to be updated on a regular basis. As it is web based, the person looking at your Sway won’t need to have the latest version sent to them, changes are automatically displayed for them.
  4. If creating a website seems daunting to you, you can create a simple one by using Sway. Fun!

If you have used Sway, please share with me how you used it for your work life or personal life! I would love to hear more examples of this tool.

 

The Insider’s Guide to Having An Effective Display Table

~ Jenn Fortner ~ 3 Comments

Having a display table set up for speaking engagements can be an effective tool for communicating with people about your ministry.

For the sake of absolute clarity, here’s the type of scenario I’m describing:

(1) Missionary speaks for 5 minutes at a church service. (2) Missionary has a table or area set up in the foyer of the church. (3) After the service (sometimes before too) missionary uses the table / area to connect with members of the congregation.

As many of you know from observation display tables can be very effective to opening up conversations. They can also fall very, very flat if done incorrectly.

So what are some practical things you can do to make your table the best ever? Or at the very least – a more interesting place to start a conversation? Is it worth it to invest time and finances into a great display table? Below are some of my thoughts:

Thought #1: Is it worth it to invest resources into a display table?

Yes, it is worth it, but it should have the following components to make it worth it:

(1) You must have created a reason to stop by your table. At the very least, you should mention during your time that you have a table in the back. Convey that you would love to meet the congregation and connect more.

(2) Your table is not sloppy. Make your table inviting, not boring. Create a space that people want to stop by. Have some astectic appeal. No excuses — you can find someone to help you if you aren’t good at this.

(3) Make your table visible. People have to be able to find you to connect with you. Don’t put yourself in a corner. Don’t put yourself right at the entrance to the bathroom either. Your table must be in a place that isn’t awkward for people to stop and chat at.

Thought #2: Get Creative! Have something interactive on your table to spark conversation. Here are a couple of great ideas from successful missionaries:

“We put the alphabet of the country we were going to on the tabl, then asked guests to try and spell their names out in the foreign alphabet. It broke the ice. Once we did this we saw a huge difference in table interaction!”

“We made up a coloring page for kids with crayons to pass out. It was fun for our girls to give to the kids, and the kids liked it. I saw another missionary do it and thought it was a cute idea. Tables are a great way to engage in conversation with someone who otherwise may be too shy to just strike up a conversation. We try to keep our costs low by using Walmart posters and homemade stuff!” 

“When I first went out I actually had a double paned “10/40″ window with a net and fishing lures between the two pieces of glass. I used it to talk about fishing the 10/40 window. I equated the 10/40 window to a store front window, in which one can see in but can’t get to the things inside easily. I also equated it to ice fishing and how in the 10/40 window countries the fish are there, yet you have to drill holes in the ice (over time/prayer). Also one can’t use nets like other places in the world.”

“I sold coffee at my table from Eurasia Cafe and it sparked a lot of great conversation!” 

“We created a “progress map” that represented how far along we were with raising our support. Every time our support grew, we moved a toy plane closer to Georgia from the US. A little cheesy, but it was a big conversation piece and helped people visualize us at 100%.” 10953955_10204211576868236_1918223454239609490_n

Thought #3: Have a video playing. Does your ministry have a high quality video? If so, use it! If you don’t know if your ministry has a video, simply ask your mentor to find out. If they don’t, why not make your own? Adobe Voice is an app for iPads and is great place to start. There are also a lot of great companies or freelancers that make affordable videos. Find out if your ministry has a vendor list to see if they know of anyone able to help you create a video. Throw the video on a tablet and play it continuously at your table.

Thought #4: Put together all of your printed resources. You probably know this one, but just in case you don’t, make sure you have printed resources on your table. Add to them by creating a resume/packet type binder or book that combines statistics from your ministry, facts about you, your area, etc.

Thought #5: If you are going overseas, put out a map of the world so that your visitors can find the country you are going to.

Thought #6: Always smile. 

Thought #7: The most important thing you could have on your display table is a sign-in sheet. People want to get continuos information about your ministry. If you provide those that stopped by only with printed resources, you may never hear from them again.  Ask everyone you connect with to fill out your sign-in sheet. Doing this allows you to get their contact information, so that you can take the responsibility of following up with them. Here’s an example of some good sign-up sheet fields (make yours fancier):

sign up sheet

Keep in mind, you will absolutely want the permission of the host/pastor to put this sign-in sheet out.

If you do get permission, everyone you connect with signs this sheet! Tell them you would like to remember them and keep them updated on your ministry.

After the event, make a phone call to those that signed in (also make sure this is okay with the pastor/host). When you call, share the following:

(1) Ask if they are interested in joining some aspect of your partnership team – whether by prayer or finances.

(2) Thank them for connecting with you and tell them you appreciate their church/group and interest.

(3) Ask them if they have any questions.

(4) If appropriate ask if they would like to meet face-to-face. Tell them you would like to find out more about them, build relationship, and find out if joining some aspect of your team is a good fit for them.

(5) Tell them you are adding them to your newsletter list.

I hope these thoughts help you develop great display tables and communication with the people you meet as you travel. Do you have any thoughts to add?

(plane photo cred goes to the missionaries that created the “progress map” thank you! // check out http://www.faithhousedesigngroup.org/ for really great graphic design resources)

End of the Year Giving Optimization

~ Jenn Fortner ~ Leave a comment

Did you know 10% of annual giving occurs on the last 3 days of the year, and on December 31st most online giving occurs between noon and 7 p.m (stats from http://www.durhamandcompany.com). Needless to say, it’s a good week to be asking people to join your financial partnership team. So, how can you use this information to your advantage? My first two ideas:

Get back to face-to-face appointments and develop a social media campaign. 

Face to Face Appointments: If you have procrastinated over the Christmas break in asking individuals to become involved in your team – now is the time to follow up or schedule some face-to-face appointments! Start fresh today and into the New Year in relationally building your team.

Social Media Campaign: Secondly, answer this question for me:

Are you fully utilizing social media?

You should be! Remember, on Dec 31st most online giving occurs between noon and 7pm and 10% of annual giving is happening NOW. Thus, a good appropriate post on a new Facebook page would be a great start!

Straight from the Assemblies of God World Missions Mobilization Department, here is a How-To on building a successful Facebook Campaign. Take a moment to watch and then apply a Facebook campaign in your own financial partnership development.

As you think about what steps you need to take into the New Year with financial partnership development – don’t make the mistake of replacing the face-to-face appointment with a social media campaign. However, learn how to utilize both to relationally build your team of financial and prayer partners.