Four Unconventional Lessons from Saint John about Fundraising

Four Lessons on How to Fundraise from St John the Almsgiver

Make sure to get your free copy of ‘The 10 Commandment of Catholic Fundraising’. It’s a book that highlights the ten tasks you should do to keep you focused on your mission and hit your fundraising target, every time.

Brice Sokolowski Catholic Fundraiser

How do you succeed in fundraising for your mission, cause, or vocation? You’ve likely asked this question countless times. As a fundraiser, my life’s mission is to get as much money as possible into the hands of Catholics just like you who are doing great work.

I get my best inspiration for running successful campaigns from the saints. When we think of saints, we often forget that they at times had to fundraise. I recently came across the story of St John the Almsgiver. My good friend Nathan, who runs the fantastic website the Almoner, referred me to this saint.

St John is an excellent example of a saint achieving great results by using money.

Born in the 6th century, he entered religious life after his wife and child died. He eventually was elected bishop during the Byzantine era and then gained prominence in the West. He was an original patron of the order of St. John of the Hospital, the Hospitallers, which still exists today as the Knights of Malta.

Saint John the Almsgiver wasn’t shy about accumulating wealth and using it to spread the faith. In fact, he was so good at it that it has become his hallmark. I find this fascinating because John reached sainthood all the while using money to help him.

Here are four lessons you can learn from Saint John about how to raise funds and use money to further your mission.

Lesson #1 – Have a positive and inspiring attitude

Saint John was known to be amiable to all: advising, encouraging, assisting, acting as peacemaker, reconciling enemies, and striving to act virtuous in every moment.

By his positive attitude, he opened many doors, particularly around circles of influence and prominence. John became well known and respected by the leaders of the Byzantine empire, private individuals, the emperors, and the nobles and governors. This helped him spread the Catholic faith and raise funds.

Lesson #2 – Set the example and give generously

John recognized that he had to inspire others by his own life in order for them to get involved in his causes, particularly the St John Hospitaliers. To do so, he donated considerable amounts of time and money to causes of the Church. He also gave advice to people through stories from his own life but also by the lives of the saints and Scripture.

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He would say about the martyrs of the Church,

‘If some men have given their own blood in the service of Christ, we ought to give of our possessions to the poor and needy, so that we may receive our recompense from the just rewarder, God.”

John was a strong believer in the phrase, “He who sows sparingly will also reap sparingly, and he who sows in blessings will also reap abundantly.” John sowed every day of his life and — as a result — was able to surround himself with money.

Lesson #3 – Be both confident and patient

John understood that we can be impatient, especially when it comes to asking for support from others. He, however, balanced that urge with the confidence that God will always provide by opening doors.

He knew that he could always make requests to the Lord, but also avoided being impatient for his prayers to be granted, by being ready to grant other people’s requests.

Instead of being focused solely on his mission, he quickly fulfilled the requests of others, remembering the words of our Lord, “The measure with which you measure will be measured out to you.” [Matthew 7:2] and those of the prophet: “As you have done, so will it be done to you.” [Obadiah 1.15]

His patience and confidence resulted in gathering large groups of people and wealth around him.

Lesson #4 – Double your fundraising through humility

This lesson comes from the true story of John, who lost all his wealth just as Job did. John had bold plans for spreading the faith, and thought he was doing a great job by raising funds and distributing them. God, however, took everything away.

Instead of scolding God and his circumstances, John learned that being wealthy often boosts our ego and makes us haughty, even if it is for the greater glory of God. When this unexpected downturn happened, John took the opportunity to humble himself as he patiently endured it.

Scripture teaches us that poverty humbles a man, and King David recognized this truth when he said, “It was good for me to be afflicted, in order to learn Your statutes.” [Psalm 119:71]

Though John lost his wealth and could no longer help others, he recognized that God was the same during troubled times as He was in good times, and as He was with Job.

Therefore, John stayed faithful to the Lord.

And after a short time, God doubled John’s possessions.

Raising funds like a saint

St John the Almsgiver teaches us that accumulating wealth for your mission starts with you, rather than with hunting for donors. The way John behaved with others and followed Christ is what earned him his name: the Almsgiver. People who witnessed his dedication to his work, to his prayer life, and to others were then moved to give him money.

You can learn more about St John the Almsgiver by reading his biography at this link.  His feast day is January 23rd.

Question: Question: What saint has inspired you the most in your fundraising? You can leave a comment by clicking here.

Brice Sokolowski Catholic Fundraiser

The 3 Hacks to Successful Fundraising in the Catholic Church

How to Win Donors and Take Your Mission or Church to the Next Level

Make sure to get your free copy of ‘The 10 Commandment of Catholic Fundraising’. It’s a book that highlights the ten tasks you should do to keep you focused on your mission and hit your fundraising target, every time.

Brice Sokolowski Catholic Fundraiser

Every week, so many wonderful Catholics ask me, How can I get better at fundraising? One of the most important things that you can do to make this happen is to increase your level of commitment. Many of us focus on getting others to become more committed, but this isn’t where you should start.

Fundraising is about getting people so passionate about your cause that they want to support you financially. How to do this? You’ve got to increase people’s level of commitment — one step at a time — until they reach this desired goal.

The decision to financially support your church or cause and its efforts only happen after many other decisions have been made. Until you help people reach this level, you’ll stay where you are with your fundraising.

There’s a recurring perspective in the nonprofit world that you cannot give someone anything in exchange for a donation. This notion is false because you must give every person something. However, it should not be some tangible gift. Instead, you must give the person more in mission value than he or she gives in cash value. Meaning, donors see their money going into your cause as being of more value than staying in their hands (or wallet).

I’ve got good news. If you commit to increasing your mission’s value, then you will automatically take positive steps to increase your fundraising.

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Raising your commitment to your cause

It’s so easy for busy Catholics to rush through a campaign at warp speed. They push through the fundraising without stopping to figure out where they’re going, who they’re helping, or what all these funds will help do. As a result, people are unclear about what will be done with their donations and thus hesitate to give.

I helped one diocese raise $50 million; I’ve doubled another charity’s revenue for three consecutive years; and I helped a Catholic apostolate raise six figures’ worth of donations from just one email. All of this seemed impossible to me at first, but in looking back, I realize that my commitment to sharing the value of each mission was at the core of each success.

Here are three simple hacks you can increase your commitment which can then raise the value of your cause.

Hack #1. Improve your fundraising skills

We can’t talk about fundraising without knowing how to do it. Your skills can boost or crash your results faster than anything else. Like the virtues, you’ve got to learn how to perform them. The Catechism teaches us that you acquire the virtues by learning what they are and taking repeated actions to do them. You therefore must educate yourself about how to fundraise and how to fundraise well. This is done by spending time reading, watching, and listening to training material.

I recommend registering for one of my online courses that teach you how to fundraise. The courses include major donor fundraising, internet fundraising, campaign fundraising, and how to become a success development director.

Human virtues acquired by education, by deliberate acts and by a perseverance ever-renewed in repeated efforts are purified and elevated by divine grace. – CCC 1810

Hack #2. Get a fundraising coach

I’m a strong advocate for surrounding yourself with the right people. This definitely applies to fundraising. Some people choose to hire a fundraiser, but most of us don’t have the funds to do so. The best alternative is to hire a fundraising coach who will teach you how to do it for yourself. This option is both a tremendous benefit and investment for you because the best fundraising always happens from within an organization. Donors and prospects always want to hear directly from the leadership rather than a fundraiser.

Each week, I provide one-to-one coaching to Catholic organizations. Together, we plan, develop, and launch initiatives to raise funds. To start your coaching sessions, contact me today by clicking this link.

Hack #3. Work on it every day

When it comes to fundraising, you’ve got to show up every day. You can’t leave it to the last-minute or push it aside for months at a time.

As I said earlier, people donate because they are passionate about your cause and see their money as getting more constructively used in your hands than in their pockets. I’m not saying that you have to ask people for money every day, but you’ve got to be watching who God brings into your life and how to get them involved.

Whether that means sending thank you letters, personally calling donors, or simply sharing updates about your mission, you’ve got to work at inspiring people every day.

When you inspire people each day with what you are doing to realize your — and their — mission, you are planting the seeds of your fundraising.

To learn what to do each day to increase daily commitment, I recommend ordering a copy of my book, Alms, which outlines the essential tasks any Catholic should be taking.

Here are your next steps

As a fundraiser helping hundreds of Catholic causes, I have seen amazing things happen when we increase commitment to our missions. We have more confidence and clarity in our donation requests, we gain more people around us to ask, more donors continue supporting us, and we grow more and deeper faith that we are doing what God wants.

Question: How will you raise your commitment today to your Catholic cause? You can leave a comment by clicking here.

Brice Sokolowski Catholic Fundraiser

Killing the Bible Softly with Your Appeals

4 Recommendations for How to Correctly Use Bible Verses in Fundraising

Make sure to get your free copy of ‘The 10 Commandment of Catholic Fundraising’. It’s a book that highlights the ten tasks you should do to keep you focused on your mission and hit your fundraising target, every time.

Brice Sokolowski Catholic Fundraiser

We’ve all read Bible verses in appeal letters and brochures, right? It’s one of the classic tactics of fundraisers to stick scripture into a request to reminds us how it’s our duty as Catholics to give. If you’re running an appeal or campaign, you likely want to do add a few verses into your material.

But what if I told you there is a right way — and a wrong way — to use the Bible in your fundraising?

I’ve got good news for Catholics who want to use Bible verses to inspire people to give: You can quote the Bible without looking cliche’. In fact, I do recommend quoting scripture in your appeals. However, there are rules that you must follow so you don’t sound like the typical fundraiser just pulling at our faith to get to our wallet.

Using the Bible in Your Fundraising

Let’s start by facing the fact that the common practice of using the Bible to get people to donate risks watering down the meaning of these beautiful verses. This is not something you want to happen with your Catholic cause.

Take the often-used classic verse from 2 Corinthians: “God loves a cheerful giver.” This verse gets right to the point that we should give because it’s what God wants us to do; plus when we do it, we should be happy about it! But, using this verse can pull potential donors in the opposite direction. They may get upset and, consequently, choose not to give.

The reason why quoting Bible verses may backfire is because fundraisers often use them as shortcuts with their appeal. By the time we do receive the appeal letter, we rarely know much of what the charity has been doing or how it’s made a difference. To know this, we’d have to hunt for the annual report, but who wants to do that? Instead, the fundraiser hopes that reminding you of your Catholic duty will trigger a donation.

This realization turned a key for me. I noticed that using Bible verses can improve a donation request only if we followed four rules.

1. Don’t Make It the One Thing

Yes, God likes a cheerful giver, but that doesn’t mean the giver should be giving to you. Therefore, don’t assume that the quote immediately connects the person reading your letter with your charity. Provide the reader specific reasons why they would be happy to give to you. You can do this by clearly outlining the results their donation will help achieve.

Read my article on how King David made the first planned gift to fund the construction of the Temple and learn how David anticipated the benefits of raising funds.

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2. Make It Unique

Catholic charities often use the same Bible verses when writing their appeal. In contrast, successful fundraisers know they must differentiate themselves from everyone else. Therefore, when they pick a verse, they choose one that relates to their mission and makes them stand out from the crowd. The most important question to ask yourself is this—is this verse quote most applicable to me?

I suggest using resources such as Cruden’s Complete Concordance to the Holy Bible to help you find new Bible quotes.

Note: if someone knows of a Catholic alternative, please let me know in the comments section below.

3. Ask Around

Starving charities wait the last minute to run an appeal. Successful charities are willing to plan ahead and make sure they’re sharing their story correctly. They often solicit feedback by asking your volunteers and donors what Bible verses and parables you should use. It’s a good path to both learning how people see you and fundraising more effectively.

4. Think Enough About Money

You must understand that too much focus on the Bible verse can make us overlook everything else about fundraising, especially for those of us who want to focus solely on the faith aspect of our work. I recommend you ought to think enough about the money aspect of your appeal so that you can continue to do what you love without worrying too much. Always remember that the faith-driven person raises funds to help more people, so don’t shy away from this fact.

Read my book review of Henri Nouwen’s classic, ‘A Spirituality of Fundraising’ for more insight on how to balance money and faith.

Question: What is your favorite Bible verse to use when asking for donations? You can leave a comment by clicking here.

Brice Sokolowski Catholic Fundraiser

St Ignatius of Loyola’s Secret Formula for Raising Millions

The 5 Rules for How Saint Ignatius Built the Jesuits from the Ground Up

Make sure to get your free copy of ‘The 10 Commandment of Catholic Fundraising’. It’s a book that highlights the ten tasks you should do to keep you focused on your mission and hit your fundraising target, every time.

You have to wonder what it takes to start a religious order from the ground up. You’ve got to be equipped with a lot of spiritual, mental, and physical resilience to handle all the ups and downs. It has to be quite similar to the path an entrepreneur takes. The definition of an entrepreneur is someone who “assumes the risks of a business or enterprise.” How fitting is that for the description of a founder of any new Catholic cause?

Over a year ago, a friend sent me a copy of a fascinating biography on Saint Ignatius of Loyola. It was entitled, Studies in the Spirituality of Jesuits. (you can read a PDF version of this book here) What struck me was that it took a different angle than most books about a saint. There was a chapter in the book named, Saint Ignatius as Fund-Raiser. The author of this chapter, Fr Thomas Clancy, researched the activities that Saint Ignatius took in the last 10 years of his life to build a sustainable foundation for the Society of Jesus.

How to Fundraise with Facebook

My 4 lessons on how I raised thousands with just a few hundred followers

Make sure to get your free copy of ‘The 10 Commandment of Catholic Fundraising’. It’s a book that highlights the ten tasks you should do to keep you focused on your mission and hit your fundraising target, every time.

Brice Sokolowski Catholic Fundraiser

My goal with this article is to convince you that there is a right and a wrong way to fundraise on Facebook. Will you believe me? Probably not, but let’s try anyway.

You probably use Facebook every day like everybody else. Therefore, it’s a no-brainer to use it in your next campaign, right? This article is to share with you what I’ve learned about how to actually raise money using Facebook.

I do want to warn you. I’m not writing as an authoritative expert on this subject. I’m writing based on what’s worked for me, and what’s worked for the Catholic causes that I’ve helped. I’m still learning how to use this massive social media platform because it is so influential. With so many Catholics using it every day, you’ve got to consider it a part of your fundraising.