Financial Partnership Development: Fundraising Made Relational

By Jenn Fortner

Financial Partnership Development : Fundraising Made Relational is a 130 page manual with everything you need to develop your financial support.

Financial Partnership Development is an interactive and comprehensive workbook on fundraising. Originally written for Assemblies of God World Missionaries, the workbook trains readers step-by-step in biblically and practically raising financial support. Combining teaching and 7 guided assignments, it is designed for both small groups and individuals. Readers will grasp ways to raise finances with individuals and churches. More importantly, they will learn how to minister to their financial partners along the way.

Chapters include information on the following:

Biblical Basis for Partnership Development
Vision Statements and Taglines
Preparing the 5 Minute Window
Connecting with Churches
Overcoming Obstacles
The Ministry of Partnership Development
Creating Your Contact List
Why People Give
The Invitation Letter and Newsletters
The Phone Call
The Appointment

• Language: English
• Publisher: BookBaby
• Release date: Jun 5, 2024
• ISBN: 9798350960389

Jenn Fortner

Jenn Fortner is a seasoned support raising coach with over 10 years of experience. Jenn serves ministry workers and provides guided training and coaching to hundreds of global workers. Right out of university Jenn began to raise her own funds for ministry assignments and quickly realized a heart for not only ministry, but for the people who served as her financial and spiritual team throughout years of ministry. Jenn began a journey of coaching others called to ministry to develop a relational approach to raising their support, and has coached over 600 missionaries throughout their journey of support raising.

Book preview

WORKBOOK TABLE OF CONTENTS

INTRODUCTION

Author’s Note

CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION AND YOUR VISION STATEMENT

INTRODUCTION TO PARTNERSHIP DEVELOPMENT

Lifestyle of Partnership Development: Organization

Prayer Cards

Setting up Social Media

Resources Throughout Your Financial Partnership Development

Timeline Checklist

Housekeeping Items from AGWM Mobilization and Development

YOUR VISION STATEMENT

Homework Assignment

Scripture Reflection

CHAPTER 2: PRESENTATIONS - THE FIVE- MINUTE WINDOW

THE FIVE-MINUTE WINDOW

Five-Minute Window Outline

Handling Questions

Couples

Develop Your Outline

Homework Assignment

Scripture Reflection

CHAPTER 3: OVERCOMING OBSTACLES AND THE MINISTRY OF PARTNERSHIP DEVELOPMENT

OVERCOMING OBSTACLES

Fears and Misconceptions

THE MINISTRY OF PARTNERSHIP DEVELOPMENT

To the Individual

To the Church

To the Individual and the Church

Do You Need a Paradigm Shift?

The Language of Partnership Development

Homework Assignment

Scripture Reflection

CHAPTER 4: CHURCH PARTNERSHIP

APPEALING TO CHURCHES

Creating an Integrated Approach

How to Get Services

Make Church Appeals Easy

Case Documents

HOW TO CONNECT WITH CHURCHES

Contacting Pastors

General Tips on Church Partnership

Connect Cards

Scheduling Church Services

Keys to Raising with Districts/Churches

Homework Assignment

CHAPTER 5: CREATING YOUR CONTACT LIST OF INDIVIDUALS

WHY PEOPLE GIVE

Four Basic Needs of Giving

Why Ask Face to Face?

YOUR CONTACT LIST

Homework Assignment

Name-storm

Organize Into Groups

Ask for Contact Information

Choose an Organizational System

Getting Referrals

Ideas for Expanding Contact List

Scripture Reflection

CHAPTER 6: THE INVITATION LETTER TO INDIVIDUALS, NEWSLETTERS, AND SOCIAL MEDIA

THE INVITATION LETTER

What to Include In Your Letter

Rule of Thumb: When to Send a Letter

Letter Outline

Templates

Newsletters

Social Media General

Homework Assignment

Scripture Reflection

Links and References for Chapter 5

CHAPTER 7: THE PHONE CALL TO INDIVIDUALS

THE PHONE CALL

What to Say During A Phone Call

Things to Remember While Calling

Homework

Scripture Reflection

CHAPTER 8: APPOINTMENTS WITH INDIVIDUALS

THE APPOINTMENT

Prepping for an Appointment

Appointment Kit

Appointment Outline

LOG Chart

After the Appointment

Quick Appointments

Distance Appointments

Following Up With Verbal Commitments

Events and Small Groups

Homework Assignment

Scripture Reflection

APPENDICES

Appendix A: Bible Study on Financial Partnership

Appendix B: Helpful Resources

IN CLOSING

©2023 Jenn Fortner Consulting LLC

Published in the United States of America

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, distributed, or transmitted in any form or by any means, including photocopying, recording, or other electronic or mechanical methods, without the prior written permission of the publisher, except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical reviews and certain other noncommercial uses permitted by copyright law. For permission requests, write to the publisher, addressed Attention: Permissions Coordinator, at the address below.

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Ordering Information:

Quantity sales. Special discounts are available on quantity purchases by corporations, associations, and others. For details, please contact Jenn Fortner at [e-mail].

ISBN: 9781543935974

For more information about the author or this book, visit www.jennfortner.com

AUTHOR’S NOTE AND INSTRUCTIONS

Originally, I wrote this workbook for the use of Assemblies of God world missionaries whom I train and coach on an ongoing basis. Particularly, the book was intended for those going on their first long-term assignment with Assemblies of God World Missions. Since writing the Financial Partnership Development Workbook, the audience has grown outside the walls of my organization and has become more widely read. I’ve found the workbook has extended to an audience of veteran workers searching for ways to further develop their teams.

Whoever you are, I’m so grateful to share this with you. Whatever Christian organization you are working with and however long you have been raising support, I hope you will find this workbook to be a practical resource packed with examples and inspiration as you build your team.

ASSIGNMENTS

Assignments for this workbook are at the end of each section of reading, along with bits of Scripture reflection pulled from the Bible study in Appendix A. In most circumstances, finishing the assignment before moving on to the next chapter is best.

BIBLICAL STUDY

The Bible study in Appendix A may be the most crucial part of the whole workbook. Please use this study in your own devotional time. You do not need to rush through or complete it in one setting. In fact, you may consider starting there before moving to Chapter 1. However you complete it, please don’t skip the Bible study. Studying the biblical basis of support raising is the most strategic aspect of building your team.

COACHING AND SMALL GROUPS

The original workbook was meant to be used with a small group of workers and their coach. You may be reading this individually and have no small group or coach to report back to. That’s completely okay. Simply work through the assignments and consider one of the following as a possible option:

Ask others you know who are raising their support from your organization to form a small group.

Ask your ministry mentor, sending agency, or ministry mentor to become involved in your financial partnership development (FPD) and walk through this workbook with you. If they cannot, ask if, on some level, they could help you stay accountable to your FPD goals.

If you are going through the workbook as a group or as a coach hoping to use this workbook as curriculum, I suggest going one chapter at a time and incorporating small group discussions for each chapter assignment. It is particularly helpful to practice the Five-Minute Window, The Phone Call, and The Appointment in a small group setting with the opportunity to provide constructive feedback to each individual.

ONLINE RESOURCES

In this workbook, you will notice numerous references to online resources. My prayer is that they all work! Please notify me at [e-mail] if one breaks!

THANK YOU

On a personal note, thank you for saying yes to God. Seriously. This is huge. Thank you for telling people about Jesus, and thank you for serving. I pray that as you read this workbook and complete the assignments, you become more knowledgeable about how to raise your finances in a biblical and honoring way to your friends, family, home church, and other churches where you minister and speak.

– Jenn Fortner

CHAPTER #1: INTRODUCTION AND VISION STATEMENT

INTRODUCTION TO FINANCIAL PARTNERSHIP DEVELOPMENT

Support raising can be challenging—it’s no secret! Support raising is more competitive than it used to be, and people are not giving as they have in the past. There is an increase of ministry workers raising support and fewer opportunities to share at services, especially in larger churches. People want assurance with their money and where it goes. Individual connection with people is an ongoing trend, and donors often approach missions giving and ministry giving like an investment.

It seems raising support will be an all but difficult time, but this is untrue. In reality, the number of workers and their ability to raise budgets have increased in recent years. However, these results are primarily due to the willingness of the ministry workers. As such, we must be willing to meet the congregation where it’s at concerning our support raising. We must be willing to serve the church. And we must be willing to go to friends and family members for financial support and churches.

As you begin your partnership development training, you may wonder what strategy is best for your support raising. What’s the plan? Do I start with churches? Do I start by sending out some letters? One-on-one appointments?

Reviewing this workbook and completing the assignments is a great place to start. There are several helpful documents as you prepare to meet with individuals face-to-face, as well as outlines, practice tips, etc. This workbook should give you the ideas and tools needed to begin this process with excellence.

LIFESTYLE OF PARTNERSHIP DEVELOPMENT: ORGANIZATION

The rest of this chapter is dedicated to organizing you and providing helpful tools and suggestions. In this season of financial partnership development (FPD), you will quickly discover it is a lifestyle. This may sound intimidating, but it simply means living a life of building and maintaining relationships. An FPD lifestyle has the potential to be one of the most rewarding and fun parts of your ministry.

A crucial part of developing this lifestyle and going through it with excellence is staying organized and intentional regarding your relationships and potential partners. You can achieve this by creating a financial/appointment tracking spreadsheet or document. Using a tracking sheet will help you organize your current financial partners, potential partners, and more, depending on your preferences. Visit http://bit.ly/TRACKINGSHEET to view a sample tracking sheet.

Note there are multiple tabs within the spreadsheet. Consider using these or creating your own to stay organized.

No matter how you track your finances, keeping your records apart from your organization is advantageous. I highly suggest making your organization detailed and thorough. When your potential financial partner agrees to a monthly commitment, you should know how to direct someone to the easiest way to give and be familiar with your organization’s giving policies and procedures to answer any questions they may have. Make giving as easy and as accessible for your financial partners as possible.

Start by organizing your support raising as you orient your lifestyle to healthy, biblical support raising. Another great place to start is creating necessary informational materials, such as a nicely branded prayer card, and setting up social media.

CREATING A PRAYER CARD

Prayer cards come in a variety of shapes and forms and communicate to potential supporters critical information about your goals in ministry and how to partner with you in those goals. As you start support raising, create your prayer cards as one of your first tasks because they may take some time to design and get printed. Check with your organization for any specific requirements in branding when creating yours.

There are endless options for prayer card design. Remember that some companies are more expensive than others (companies like gotprint.com and vistaprint.com may be cheaper options for those with a design background). Consider what promotional materials you would like to spend your organization’s allotted promotional budget (if you have one). You may want to create other professionally made