Gospel-Centered Fundraising

Does fundraising need a rescue?

“Every good and perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of the heavenly lights, who does not change like shifting shadows.” (James 1:17)

It was February 2020; we had just returned to New York City from Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia as COVID-19 dominated the news. Over the next eight months, Redeemer City to City would face a series of stunning news reports. In March 2020, our founder, Tim Keller, was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer, New York City shut down, and in April, our annual major giving partner gathering morphed into an online event. The whole world, as we knew it, was upside down.

By late March, our major gifts team began calling our major gift partners – not to ask for money but to ask how they were doing, how COVID was impacting their lives, families, and businesses, and how we could pray for them. By the end of April, we were forecasting a 30% drop in revenue. In June, we faced staff layoffs, and everyone took a pay cut to ensure our costs were in alignment with our new forecast.

Trusting God to Provide

After lots of calls, tears and ministry with our partners and departing colleagues, we still faced an uncertain financial future. We wondered if we would face pressure to move from a transformational to a transactional approach of fundraising to close the pending financial gap by year-end. Thankfully, that did not happen. Instead, we experienced a measure of grace that enabled us to focus on relationships over money and to care for our friends’ needs, trusting that God would provide for his work.

Then, on December 20, 2020, I received a text from our director of finance: “Were you expecting a check for $1,000,000?” “No,” I texted back. “This must be a mistake.” I asked her to text me a photo of the check. She did, and it was no mistake.

God provided what we could not.

As I looked at the name on the check, I thought back to the day we first met in 2018. That day, this giving partner asked me to never ask him for a gift. So, I didn’t. I developed a meaningful relationship and friendship with him and his wife over the next three years (which continues today). What made this gift even more surprising is that he had indicated their company expected to take a billion-dollar financial hit because of the pandemic.

This gift closed a major portion of our financial gap, and we ended the year in good shape. God provided what we could not.

Is there a place to center the gospel within fundraising and why?

“The gospel changes everything.” That’s something we like to say at City to City, and we believe it. The gospel is not merely the way someone receives salvation; it also alters every sphere of our lives, propels us through every stage of Christian growth, and equips us for every difficulty and challenge.

The story I just recounted is the outcome of how the gospel recalibrates our approach to fundraising. The gospel gives us new motives, reorders the loves of our hearts, and, therefore, all relationships, and reframes our behavior – all to renew us into the image of Christ.

Examining Cultural Narratives

When it comes to our fundraising work, we need to examine the cultural narratives that are influencing our practices. This will not be an easy task as we often don’t recognize what informs these practices.

Katherine Leary Alsdorf writes in the introduction to Galvanizing Your Church For Everyday Impact (Redeemer City to City, 2025), “Leading change is hard, and perhaps there is no greater (or harder) change than gospel change. While the gospel changes everything, our hearts and our minds are often formed more by the cultural stories around us than the truths revealed in God’s Word.”

Our calling, to invite stewards to be generous toward God, is good work!

Our calling, to invite stewards to be generous toward God, is good work! Work existed before the fall, and it continues to be a means of grace as we join God in his work. We are created to work – what we do and how we do it matters.

Fundraising, then, should reflect the values and vision of the gospel. If the gospel truly changes everything, that truth applies not only to my heart but also to how I lead, work and serve as a development officer.  As the gospel changes each of us, we move toward God and his work, and ultimately, we join him in the renewal of all things.

What is at risk if we ignore how the gospel should inform our fundraising methods?

What are some cultural narratives that have informed the methodologies adopted by Christian nonprofits and even churches as they seek resources for kingdom mission?  How have these practices diminished the beauty of the gospel or, even more, tarnished the gospel message?

In their book Growing Givers’ Hearts (Jossey-Bass, 2000), Thomas H. Jeavons and Rebekah Burch Basinger identify a lengthy list of problematic fundraising techniques they found within their organizations.

• Fundraising that is deceptive, misrepresenting programs and finances
• Fundraising that is manipulative, focusing particularly on the givers’ emotions
• Fundraising that is arrogant, that “treats givers like ciphers to be solved”
• Approaches and appeals that are “detached from the spiritual basis of the organization”
• Fundraising that fails to capitalize on the potential for joy in giving
• Fundraising that is impersonal, that appears to be unconcerned with who givers are
• The tendency to treat givers as a means to an end

Dr. Wes Willmer, in Revolution in Generosity (Moody Publishers, 2008), makes the point that “Christian fundraising should – no, needs to be different.” The difference, Willmer writes, is this: “The Christian ministry’s priority should be to facilitate the transformation of believers to conform to the image of Christ, to become generous, as Christ is generous; for in their generosity, believers reflect the character of God, who is the giver of all good things (James 1:17).”

How does the gospel inform our fundraising methodology?

We must keep in mind that our giving partners are stewards of the resources they’ve been given, not owners. Therefore, we should take time to contemplate what gospel values should inform our approach to our calling as development officers – specifically, our fundraising approach and practices with our giving partners. 

With that in mind, I’m offering three examples of gospel-centered values that can inform our fundraising practices.

• Generosity: We’re generous because God is generous. 
• Humility: We have no claims on the resources entrusted to our prospective giving partners. Any claim on their giving is between them and God. Our duty is to faithfully sow the seeds of the vision and trust God to make the seed grow. 
• Truth: As stewards, we must demonstrate integrity in our reporting and stewardship of the gifts given to execute the mission God has given us.

Cultivation is more than stewardship of a relationship; it is ministry. Ministry is actively loving another person. As we deepen our relationships with our giving partners, we may be surprised at the direction our conversations take. We will often be called to set aside our agenda and just do ministry. These are rich times where we are called to love our partners and trust God to send what we need.

Faithful Stewards

Dr. John Frank and Dr. Scott Rodin write in Development 101 (Kingdom Life Publishing, 2015), “Our job is to build genuine relationships and to position ourselves to be used by God to help our giving partners become more faithful stewards, as directed by the Holy Spirit. We present opportunities to our partners to use God’s resources in the work of our ministry, and then we trust God for the increase.”

May each of us be governed and motivated by Christ’s love, patience and obedience to the Father as we journey with incredible men and women who are funding kingdom work. And may we always keep the gospel central to everything we do.

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Doug Thorson is Senior Director of Advancement at Redeemer City to City (RCTC). He serves RCTC’s giving partners and the advancement efforts that support the organization’s rapidly growing global footprint. Doug views his role as a calling to help faithful stewards grow in generosity. He is also the Founder/CEO of Doing Good Nonprofit Consultants, LLC. He serves on the CLA Advisory Council.