That was just a title intended to draw you in. Fundraising isn't easy at all. One of the main facets of what I'm doing these days preparing to launch this new church is raising money. It takes money to launch churches and lots of it!
Raising money's not for me, but someone has to do it and initially it better be me as Lead Pastor. If I'm not able to communicate a clear and compelling enough vision to raise a few dollars, I'm definitely not going to be able to recruit and raise a launch team, and I'm certainly not going to be able to give the new church enough direction and focus to reach it's community for Jesus! Bottom line, if I can't raise the dollars, I can't start and lead this church!
So, for me, a few lessons I've learned in the fundraising trenches (at it a whole 4-weeks!):
1) face-to-face is definitely the way to go
2) make your stuff simple and sharp (if you're talking about starting a great church don't give out crappy informational material)
3) you have to own-it (own the vision! own the task of raising the dollars! if you don't care about what you're doing don't expect others to)
4) think big! (people give big gifts to big vision)
5) don't act desperate (invite people to partner, if they do -great, if they don't - great)
6) get 'er done! (stop tweaking the material, stop planning and strategizing, stop fretting, make the call, set up the meeting, get 'er done!)
God, you never cease to amaze me - help me to trust you, think big, and get 'er done!