Ever Think About What You Want FOR Donors (Not Just From Them)?

I think about this question all the time: How do we best help people live more generously?

It's a big question, but I have a couple simple ideas that have proved helpful.

The first step involves a paradigm shift in the nonprofit world. We have to resolve that what we want for donors—generous lives—is far more important than what we want from them—gifts for our organization.

A second key step is to realize that donors give to multiple organizations. They are not our donors. They are people on a journey.

What we want for donors—generous lives—is far more important than what we want from them—gifts for our organization.

The implication behind these two points means that we can point people to other organizations. We can help them find what is best for them—what fits their passion.

Care For Donors Like This Leader Did With My Daughter

I was blown away to see how one ministry lived out these two steps with one of my daughters.

My wife and I tried to instill generosity in our kids as we raised them. As a family, we had a donor-advised fund. From time to time we would have family meetings where each child recommended an organization to grant to from our donor-advised fund.

When my daughter was thirteen, she read a story about kids with disabilities and decided she wanted to find a ministry that helped these kids as well as evangelized to them. We searched and searched but could not find any ministry that fit her criteria.

A couple months later, I had a meeting at McDonalds with a ministry leader. My assistant had scheduled the meeting for me, so when I met the guy, I asked him what he did.

“We minister to kids with disabilities,” he said.

My jaw dropped. “Do you do evangelism?” I asked.

“Of course we do evangelism!” he answered. I nearly fell off my chair.

I told him about my daughter and how long we had searched unsuccessfully to find an organization that did exactly what he did.

Now here’s where he earned major brownie points: He lived in California, but made a special trip from California to Kansas City just to meet my daughter.

He came to my house, met with her, and told her she was at the age where people get inspired for life, and that she should follow her passion.

There was nothing in it for the ministry leader, but he had a bigger vision for his donors than what they could give. He cared about them as people.

Bill High is CEO of The Signatry: A Global Christian Foundation, which works to inspire and facilitate revolutionary biblical generosity. Bill is also an author, conference speaker and official member of the Forbes Nonprofit Council. He writes frequently about generosity, family legacy and charitable giving on his blog at BillHigh.com. 

Contact Bill to discuss strategic giving, donor advised funds and creating a healthy family legacy.