Greg Leith is Director of Business and Corporate Relations at Biola University and works on a daily basis with Wes Willmer. He is also the advisor to the board and senior management team at ViServ, a Web-based software tool for managing non-profit communities.
With all due respect, what in heaven's name does God have to do with fund-raising? Wes Willmer, in his book, God and Your Stuff (NavPress 2002), outlines the spiritual link between giving on the part of the donor and eternal life in heaven. He suggests that fund-raisers, if they truly want to create generosity, focus on a heart change more than on fund-raising techniques.
But does God really have anything to say about how we go about doing the work of fund-raising?
Sept. 11 sparked a spontaneous outpouring of gifts to relieve human suffering for the common good. Around $2 billion was generally given without thought of tax benefits, premiums, or name recognition on a plaque at Ground Zero!
How did that happen?
Most charitable organizations wish with envy that such an outpouring would come their way and many say that it will never happen again. Is that true of our giving as a people on planet Earth? Will we really never give like that again? Or have we simply not found the key to our donors' souls?
We've all heard the phrase, ‘There is no shortage of funds, just a shortage of well-articulated causes.' In God and Your Stuff, Willmer encourages us that it may be time to stop articulating so much and start connecting deeply into the heart of the soul of our donor. Because our motivation for giving is inseparable from our culture and our character, the Sept. 11, giving response provided a window into the heart of our nation and a window into the true heart of our donor. We all gave because we wanted to without much external motivation. We gave from our heart and we gave from our soul.
American generosity
One way to explain our motivations for giving is to examine the roots of our giving and Willmer does that in God and Your Stuff. He tells us that growing out of the Judeo-Christian values of our country's founders, the men and women of the 1750s to the 1850s lived by such phrases as "endowed by our Creator with certain inalienable rights," and "In God We Trust." Personal and corporate faith in God permeated their lives.
Willmer writes that the United States of America's founders believed God provided all their resources, entrusted them with the responsibility to manage these resources, and would hold them accountable for how they handled the resources given to them as stewards.
In chapter six, entitled "How did we get here?" Willmer discusses three intertwining bases of thought that characterized this period:
* The democratic ideal of the common good.
* The Puritan ethic of responsible prosperity.
* Biblical stewardship based on a faith unsevered from social responsibility. Those who claimed to have a personal faith in God were expected to demonstrate their faith in social action. Thomas Jefferson's idea of the common good stemmed from his vision for the moral community as a whole. The Puritan ethic of responsible prosperity stemmed from what is commonly referred to as the Puritan work ethic and a belief that one is accountable to God for how he/she handles wealth.
Extending from the Colonial period through the Civil War, our churches were active in establishing schools, hospitals, orphanages, and missions of mercy in response to the needs of the illiterate and impoverished as an outpouring of their belief that they were to be servants of God. Dr. Willmer refers to this period of time as "The Stewardship Period" of our history.
Moving on to what he calls "The Philanthropic Period," Willmer reflects on industrialization and capitalization causing a shift in our motivation for giving in the mid-1800s. It began the era of philanthropists such as Carnegie and Rockefeller. Whereas the word steward meant servant of God, philanthropists saw themselves as friends of mankind. The ideological basis for this period was Social Darwinism, a humanitarian survival of the fittest.
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Concerned, Abraham Lincoln instituted a National Day of Fasting, Humility, and Prayer with these words: "We have grown in numbers, wealth and power, as no other nation has ever grown. But we have forgotten God. We have vainly imagined, in the deceitfulness of our hearts, that all these blessings were produced by some superior wisdom and virtue of our own."
Lincoln's words still seem to ring true today. Is our giving increasingly driven by self-interest and personal gain in the form of recognition, premiums, and tax breaks? Willmer refers to Princeton's Robert Wuthnow who wrote (in Acts of Compassion) that we carve up our caring into little chunks that require only a level of giving that does not conflict with our needs and interests as individuals.
Gifts from the faithful
American giving appears to stand at a major crossroad, as Robert Payton, retired president of the Center on Philanthropy, suggests. The strength of American giving is based upon its religious origins and values and traditions. Giving as we know it today may not survive a serious deterioration of its religious values.
Research shows that the greatest indicators of who gives in America are these factors:
* Frequency of church attendance.
* Bible study.
* Prayer.
Statistics tell us that those involved in organized religion give 73 percent of all contributions given to charities other than religion.
Willmer refers to the fact that there is a concern about our Philanthropic traditions from many fronts. Payton says in his book, The Responsibilities of Wealth, "the strength of American giving is based upon its religious origins and values and traditions. Philanthropy as we know it today may not survive a serious deterioration of its religious values."
It is interesting, Willmer states, to note that Payton uses the word philanthropy as synonymous with giving. Willmer tells us that unless we rediscover our religious roots, the distinctive American character of giving and asking for money will be lost. It seems that Peter Dobkin Hall agrees when he says, "without rediscovering its religious roots, American giving is unlikely to play a significant role in the future."
Well, does God indeed have anything to say about the material stuff of your organization's financial partners? Moreover, does God have anything to say about your fund-raising techniques? Willmer's strong research about philanthropy, stewardship and the historical roots of our giving tells us that God definitely has something to say and it seems we need to think deeply about the subject. Willmer tells us God's been saying it all along and we just have to stop, study our history books and listen.
God and Your Stuff is certainly counter-intuitive to the fund-raising culture of our day. Willmer gives us fresh thinking as to how and why people do give and why they should give. I would recommend it strongly to anyone involved in fund-raising in any capacity and I'd recommend it to your donors. It will make you think from a whole different perspective. When you're done with this read, you may just discover the link between your donor's Chevy truck, his or her gift to your charity and their soul. Here's to connecting the dots!
** About the author of God and Your Stuff: Wes Willmer is a non-profit leader, researcher, writer, and speaker on a variety of topics that include college and university advancement, non-profit leadership, and money/church/stewardship topics. He has been author or editor of 20 books and has initiated and obtained grants of more than $1 million to study and improve nonprofit management practices. He has also published numerous professional articles.
