4 Critical Ways Donors Can Enhance the Impact of their Favorite Charity

Donors are quite familiar with the constant appeals for money even from your favorite charity or charities. Many nonprofits, large and small are struggling to maintain the inflated level of giving that many saw during the COVID time frame.

Demand for services was heightened during COVID and fortunately giving, frequently fueled by government incentives and subsidies, was higher then as well.

However, since the COVID days, our country has been hit with double digit inflation which continue to drives more recipients of services to our doorsteps, and put a strain on those generous donors who themselves are finding it harder to make ends meet in their personal lives and gifting ability.

When nonprofits fall short of the funds they need to care for those they serve, many ramp up the appeals, frequently using words that suggest an urgency. Unfortunately, some of these types of campaigns take on the “crying wolf” effect and push donors away.

While donors are the lifeblood of most nonprofits, its not just writing a check that will sustain these dramatic changes in demand for services, demand for higher salaries, demand for leadership development at all levels within the organization – all focused on being more effective and impactful.

Here are 4 critical ways that you can become more than a check writer and help ensure your favorites organization’s sustained ability to serve and transform lives.

Pray – many nonprofits are faith-based believing that God has called them to care for a specific part of our population in need. There are thousands of food-banks across the country, hundreds of rescue missions, tens of thousands are homeless, etc.

The level of need in our country and around the world is really beyond the comprehension of even the most generous of donors. BUT GOD – knows all, sees all, cares for all and is the great designer, arranger, match-maker and knows in detail who He has called to do the work, and who He has called to lead and fund ministries.

As Christians, we know that sincere, faithful and continual prayer is our way to know what assignments God has for each of us individually and collectively. We must pray daily for God’s insights, wisdom, provisions, mercy, protection and empowerment to accept our assignments to serve the “least of these” in His Kingdom.

Pray fervently every day for your favorite nonprofits and the leaders and workers that God has aligned you with for God’s protection, mercy, favor and provision.

Engage – many business leaders will tell you that it is incrementally harder to lead a nonprofit than the typical for-profit enterprise. There is a great book entitled Gospel Patrons recently written by John Rinehart. In the book John defines a patron as someone who comes along-side of as a type of partner, co-laborer, “friend to the end” at all levels and in multiple way to help ensure the success of the ministry, going way beyond just writing checks.

In his book, he talks about the “patrons” that funded and became partners in Jesus’s ministry. Many were women and they not only provided funds for the ministry but likely traveled with Jesus perhaps preparing meals, arranging lodging, etc. thus allowing Jesus and His disciples to carry on the work of ministering to the needs they encountered and proclaiming the Gospel.

This model is frequently seen in churches that have both elders working hard at the spiritual life of the organization and the deacons attending to the temporal needs of the church and its parishioners. Christian nonprofit organizations and their leaders have the same needs that in many cases are outstripping their human capacities.

Volunteer – perhaps a slightly different perspective our engaging that focuses on specific tasks that need to be done on a regular basis in order to effectively serve those in need and create God-sized impact in the form of transformed lives.

Many nonprofits regularly bemoan never enough time or money. Most nonprofits operate on tight budgets and are constantly pinching pennies to be able to serve “just one more.” Volunteers can fill much-needed real job vacancies reducing the need for salaries and benefits costs for those jobs that can effectively be performed by volunteers.

In many organizations, volunteers are part of expanding the impact of the nonprofit while providing wonderful, fulfilling nonpaid career opportunities for those who volunteer. There are likely tens or hundreds of thousands of “retired” workers sitting alone at home praying that God will show them the work He calls them to do to help others and to adding meaning to their lives.

Level-up – Years ago, I read a small book by Price Prichett entitled The Quantum Leap Strategy. In his subtitle he states “the quantum leap strategy of you2 – the power of you squared – is a high velocity formula for penetrating imaginary barriers and achieving dramatic performance break-throughs.”

Many nonprofit leaders operate as if they have a “tiger by the tail” and on a smaller scale, might see themselves as the hamster in the perpetually twirling wheel. Many are living and working day-to-day, dollar-to-dollar without any time or money to step back for leadership development including developing new skills, developing operating efficiencies, increasing service capacities and overall, working smarter, not just harder which has an exhausting and diminishing return result.

Of course, there are very generous donors providing significant funding to very fruitful ministries but within the nonprofit community there has been a long-standing perspective that every dollar donated must go for “program” cost – ie if you are running a food bank then every dollar must buy more food. Funding for rent, insurance, leadership development, skills training, process improvement and strategic planning are frequently pushed aside as not putting food on someone’s table.

Wise donors realize that all of those often-ignored components are in fact critical to the sustained effective and impactful work of the organization. If you believe God is calling you to help your favorite organization and its leader “level-up”, then perhaps in addition to your regular financial support for program expense, you might consider becoming an CME IMPACT PATRON, specifically funding leadership development, training and coaching, succession planning, and capacity building all of which are critical to the outcome of the organization but often are over-looked by the casual donor.

Pritchett calls for us to “think hard, because the routines of our lives and our work become traps and keep us from God’s best which is captured in Ephesians 3:20 – that He, at work in us, will do far more that we can ever imagine, dream about, pray for.

Let’s do our parts to reach those God-sized impacts through prayer, engagement, volunteering and leveling up.

Act Now – join our movement – become an CFA / CME IMPACT DONOR – today!

Contact me to learn more about how Jesus’ ministry was funding and how we can use that model to dramatically enhance the effectiveness and impact of your favorite charity.