Moving Money for Social Change
Peg RosenkrandsAbout Peg | Peg's Curriculum Vitae | Grassroots Fundraising
About Moving Money for
Social Change
As Christian disciples Jesus calls us to a way of life
demonstrably different in style, process and end results
from the everyday world surrounding us. We can see that
God’s created order quite naturally provides whole
communities with a remarkably sustainable abundance IF each
one gathers only “enough” for today and does
not hoard for the future. Jesus, first century Christians,
and others since have periodically lived in such compelling
ways benefiting the common good that God’s
sustainable Sabbath economy continues to be carried in the
hearts and minds of the believing community even today.
This radically outrageous notion continues to break through
in ever new collective acts of sharing in spite of our
rationalizations, disbelief, laziness, and paralysis. And,
when it does, those who participate in the experiment often
find themselves acting more human than they ever thought
possible.
As soon as we gain the courage to move beyond our
rationalizations and illusions about the state of the
planet and its people, a very different stark reality is
increasingly apparent. We finally “see” that an
inordinate number of people today live without
“enough” to meet basic food, shelter, health
and educational needs in their households, in spite of
diligent efforts to negotiate a market economy that is
heavily and structurally weighted against them. The result
is an ever-growing economic divide between the
resource-rich and the resource-poor, both in the United
States and globally. At the same time, our American culture
is caught up in an addictive-compulsive frenzy about money
– creating fear, greed, spiritual hunger and
escalating financial insecurity at the expense of a sense
of deep joy, community security, spiritual wholeness and
peace.
If Christian discipleship in the 3rd millennium means
anything, it must speak and act to make a difference in the
lives of both resource-poor and resource-rich people in
economically sustainable and substantive ways. Made in
God’s image, we are each called to live with
integrity of heart, in tune with the Heart of God. This
means that we can no longer turn away from those ways that
bring dignity, freedom, justice and peace to all. With a
singular purpose and intensity, we are called to integrate
the “deep knowing” of our soft hearts and hard
heads. Together, and with imagination, intelligence, love
and energy, we choose to“move our money for social
change,” thus making bold choices to alter a broken
distribution system one step at a time. When we do this,
even if only for seemingly brief periods of time, we step
into life in God’s Household where the real currency
of the universe is at work – the currency of Love.
Our faith-based organizational missions actually call us to
Social Change. If true to that calling, these organizations
ought to be no less than community-based organizing
efforts. The power to create social change comes from
organizing people AND organizing money (Gamaliel Fdn.)
Change does not happen without “gathered”
resources (fundraising) and it does not happen without ever
growing numbers of involved people (movement) who stand
together, in solidarity, to create the world they envision.
As Christian disciples, we do not do this work alone.
Ideally, we do this work collaboratively through the
compassion-justice ministry organizations we form to
relieve and address the root causes of human/planetary
suffering. We pool our efforts (our involvement) and we
pool our money (our resources). Every volunteer hour and
every monetary gift matters. Every person potentially
strengthens the larger effort in unforeseen ways through
our relationships with others. When those involved
“buy in” enough to invite, educate and ask
others to join them, a movement for change grows
exponentially, its work is truly “communitized”
and the result is a glimpse of the remarkable Gift economy
in our midst.
To invite Peg to work with your community, please call
(313) 617-9532 or email
About Peg
Rosenkrands
Peg is a passionate believer in God’s gift economy, our role as sharers of all that has come from God as Giver, and the biblical caution to gather “enough” for today’s sufficiency and the work at hand. She believes when people of faith ground themselves once again in God’s Sabbath economy, we experience faithful fundraising simply as a soft-hearted, “communitized,” and joyful gathering of resources, with every gift and sharer respected and celebrated. And, we also experience it as a hard-headed, results-oriented effort to grow a movement that ushers God’s economy into the world. With intentionality about inviting and educating, we ask others to “stand in solidarity with” us in our work. The program work and fundraising of our organizations resonate most deeply with us (as donors) and the others we ask to join us when the two are naturally integrated and respectful of one another within the organization.
Peg’s experiences with money and spirituality emerged out of a variety of faith-based settings in the past 30 years: personal household budgeting; personal strategic giving; years of volunteer leadership in the mainline church; leadership in stewardship, endowment and capital campaigns; ethical fundraising education; subsequent years of administrative, communications and fundraising leadership in both an ecumenical seminary and an interfaith community development loan fund; personal sharing and co-leadership at money and spirituality retreats; personal investment changes to socially responsible and community investing; biblical studies and papers focusing on money, faith and giving; preaching and seminar teaching; and ongoing personal reflection related to our human money and spirituality journeys.
Peg does her current work as a grassroots fundraising coach for faith-based nonprofits and small churches as a program staff member of Bartimaeus Cooperative Ministries. She coaches faith leaders and their organizations on grassroots fundraising, with the goal of increasing the capacity of people to fundraise while at the same time aligning fundraising with all aspects of the organization’s mission. Peg also co-leads and coordinates the BCM – Bartimaeus Covenant Investor’s Community (BCIC) Sabbath Economics retreat program. These retreats are high commitment potential donor and donor retreats in which a seven-fold Household Sabbath Economics Covenant is used to address the following 3 money and 4 lifestyle areas using an “addiction/recovery” model: giving, investing, debt and Sabbath/work, consumption, solidarity and green living. Serious about movement-building, BCIC retreats invite participants to make a 3-year financial commitment to BCM and participate in follow-up initiatives.
Peg has three grown children and two grandchildren. A native Detroiter, she has lived in many areas of southeast Michigan, including the inner city. She grew up in a family that owned a metal manufacturing business originally begun by her grandfather and father. It is a leading small manufacturer today, with a company culture focused on teamwork, delivery, service, integrity, personal development, and quality. Family small business ownership and entrepreneurial ideas have profoundly shaped her life experience. Peg likes to read, travel, spend time with family and she especially enjoys the Great Lakes.
Grassroots Fundraising Coaching – for Social Change Faith-Based Nonprofits and Churches
Overview and Context for Social Change Fundraising
Social change oriented organizations of faith know that the power to accomplish their missions is fundamentally gained through the difficult movement-building work of organizing people and organizing money. The heart of organizing work that brings forth committed people and sustainable resources is primarily the relational work of inclusion - inviting, educating, equipping, affirming and asking people for their participation, in a way that respectfully and intentionally calls forth both their involvement and dollars for the benefit of the common good.
In this context, Development Work must focus on the relationship-building process that results in the economic sustainability to fund movement-building capacity. In ethical fundraising, the development process is 90% preparation and 10% actual solicitation or “ask”. Fundraising is most fruitful and beneficial for all involved when it is highly integrated with the program (mission) and does not result in separate staffing with large resources of its own. When this happens there is the sense that the faith-based organization allows people with different “assets” from the wider community to simply listen to and resource one another in order to alter an acknowledged imbalance that deters the community from a sense of wholeness and spiritual advancement. Conscious-ness and economic resources come together – and the work to alter the imbalance takes place.
General Approach to Grassroots Fundraising Coaching of Faith-based Organizations
“Coaching” is the appropriate word here it conveys that there are no experts needed. People involved with the organization, from the executive director/pastor to the receptionist or lay person already know more people and the resources needed to accomplish the next phase of the organizational work at hand. Each time one phase of work is completed, the organization can then seek to expand and build on its past growth. Coaching assists the faith-based organization in multi-dimensional ways:
• it breaks the larger cultural taboo (through modeling) of talking about money and its meaning, both privately and publicly, especially related to faith and giving within the faith community,
• it anchors fundraising in the biblical context as “the gathering of resources” from those “called” to give with willing hearts and minds, for a given purpose
• it presents the learning curve for becoming a donor who sustains giving that is meaningful and rooted in one’s life energy and values,
• it defines the wide variety of roles every staff member, board member or church member plays in assisting a fundraising effort,
• it provides basic solutions to the administrative organization and staffing needed in the office for relational fundraising, and
• it provides access to basic, straightforward, social change fundraising resources.
Specific Grassroots Fundraising Coaching Services
Grassroots fundraising coaching seeks to prepare the faith-based organization to become institutionally “ready” to raise money in a consistent, long-term, relational way with its donors. Since the first tier of donors are board, staff, and long-time donor/participants, any of the basic organizational information that is missing, incomplete, or un-communicated can compromise internal commitment to the overall development process. Grassroots coaching assists the organization’s leadership to solidify its own “readiness” to “go public” in ever larger ways.
A small, 2 or 3 staff person organization that wants to consider fundraising coaching should be prepared to address or share the following information (see list below), preferably in written form if available, with the coach. A conversation between the coach, head of staff and a few board members can then take place to determine the specifics of an initial fundraising coaching contract. The objective of grassroots coaching is to begin “small”, at a level the organization can handle, both administratively and financially, and “ramp up” over time. The coach reports to and works with the head of staff and does not become an employee of the organization. The coach assists the organization to identify, fill in or round out each “readiness” piece from within its own organizational capacity or to fundraise from the leadership group itself to address any gaps if necessary. In this way the organization experiences its own ability and willingness to move beyond the “readiness” stage into capacity-building fundraising.
A head of staff can make the most of an initial two-hour coaching consult by being prepared to “set the context” and share the following information prior to the coaching (preferred in writing ahead of time). Each organization is unique in terms of its communication style, philosophical ethos, fundraising history, and overall donor contributions organizational profile. Therefore a formulaic answer for “piecemeal” fundraising is generally not the approach offered here. The coach strives to tailor the assistance only to areas that need it to enhance organizational strengths and thus, fundraising coaching costs are kept to a minimum.
1. Organizational purpose statement, goals, and objectives
2. Communications pieces and general literature, both internal & external
3. Organizational planning, timelines, evaluation and overall calendar
4. Program and service descriptions, materials and measurements of results
5. Governing Board, its activities, meeting times and relationship to the community/service population
6. Staffing patterns, both paid and volunteer – for program delivery and support
7. Facilities, equipment, record-keeping abilities or information systems
8. Finances – overall budget and materials showing how organization acquires and spends financial resources, as well as donor record-keeping functions
9. Development information – appeal letters, annual reports, donor histories, annual fund summaries, special funds summaries, special events, number of donors at different levels and their consistency in giving, etc.
10. History – how and why the organization came into being.
Grassroots Fundraising Coaching, Speaking and Teaching Costs
Initial 2-hour assessment or any coaching consult: $50 per hour (minimum 2 hours) (Send information 1 week prior to phone call/meeting in order to maximize coaching)
Signed contract: $25/hour (contract for # days or hours/time period, with job description)
Reimbursements for travel (including airport parking/shuttles) are split if multiple groups are involved. Home hospitality acceptable for room/board.
Reimbursements for copy/postal expenses
Billed monthly and due immediately upon receipt; checks payable to BCM.
Speaking/preaching honorarium: $50 per hour and travel expenses
Teaching honorarium: $150 half day (3 hour) or $300 full day (6 hour with meal) and travel/lodging expenses
NOTE: This fundraising coaching work is offered at the above reduced rates as incentive to build the capacity of faith-based social change organizations. These rates can be negotiated further for very small or start-up social change organizations.
Contact Peg Rosenkrands or call (313) 617-9532.