Vibrant Christian Schools
have a passion and plan for
developing long-term donor
relationships and possibilities.
Until a few years ago, I had little appreciation for the
necessity of building long-term relationships with people
whom God has enabled to advance His work with finances.
As a pastor for almost 20 years, I was blessed to see our
income rise every year, and I didn’t even know who gave
until the very end of my pastoral ministry. Perhaps that
is what God wanted from me in those years, but I had to
change my thinking as the leader of a non-profit. With great
coaching from godly men, I now understand that God has
gifted certain people to give. These people are anxiously
looking for opportunities to leave a legacy and make a great
impact. When we share our ministry with them, God speaks
to their hearts, and either leads them to support us or not
support us.
If we are leading a legitimate, God-ordained ministry, He
will provide the resources, but He asks us to share the story.
Christian schools are filled with phenomenal stories. Every
time a potential donor looks in the face of a child, they know
their gift will make a great impact. If every Christian school
leader reading this article would take donor development
serious, you could raise hundreds of thousands of dollars
over the next five years. Too often, we think short-term.
Short-term thinking will always keep us desperate. Long-
term donor development will get us to a place where we have
money to operate and money to expand.
If you’re wondering how serious your school is about
donor development, look at your budget and priorities. Do
you have a full-time donor development officer? Do you
have a donor development strategy? Do you have someone
reporting to and thanking your donors on a monthly basis?
If your answer is no to one or more of these questions, then
you do not fully see the value in donor development. There
are funds in your community just waiting for the right cause.
If you would like some direction on the steps to take first,
please contact Ron Gordon at [email protected]. He
will be honored to point you in the right direction.
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Vibrant Christian Schools
live by faith and are willing
to follow God’s leadership
no matter the cost.
Christian schools are blessed and ordained by God. He is
pleased to see children being led into a loving relationship
with Him and into the knowledge of who He is. God wants
to bless and help our schools. He wants us to reach more and
more children for him. Hebrews 11:6 says, “Without faith
it is impossible to please God.” This is true in the Christian
school. To build the school God wants us to build, we must
know Him intimately so we can know what His plan is for
our school. Once we know His plan, we must trust Him
enough to follow His plan. Since God’s plan always involves
us trusting Him for more than we can do on our own, it
always involves stepping out on faith into the unknown.
A pastor once told me that in the seven years he pastored
a church, he didn’t think they ever did anything that actually
took God’s help. Let me ask you, when was the last time your
school attempted something so big that if God didn’t show
up, you were going to fail miserably? We were constantly
stepping into the unknown when we built the school I
helped start in Roanoke, VA.
Here are three things I learned about living by faith as we
built Parkway Christian Academy:
1. We had to be quick to see and seize opportunities. I’ll
never forget the day a seasoned educator with two
doctorates walked into my office and asked for a job. As
I looked at her resume, I asked her if she was seeking
to be the senior leader of our school. She said, “No,
God just told me to come teach here.” I asked her if
she knew what we paid and she said, “No, that doesn’t
matter, the Lord told me to join your work.” After a little
more research to make sure she was legitimate, we hired
her. She taught for us for the next 8-9 years and was a
phenomenal addition to our team. In many instances
like that, I hired people even if I had to create a new
position. We were quick to see opportunities and seize
them by faith often not knowing if we would have the
students to cover the additional cost to the budget.