About 8 years ago, I had my first major donor request. At the time, I had no idea how to ask for a large sum of money. I just wanted to help my diocese raise funds… never imagining awkward moments such as these.

At any rate, the donation request went well, and the donor generously said yes.

But the experience left a strong impression on me. I wanted to learn a better way to ask for large donations.

I wanted to learn a Catholic way.

Enter Saint Clement of Alexandria. He gave me the insight that I was looking for, and I want to share them with you.

I’m reading Abbot Jean-Baptiste Chautard, OCSO‘s classic book on the interior life, the Soul of the Apostolate.

This book is so good that it has been given the thumbs up by three popes: Pope Pius X (had a copy on his nightstand), Benedict XV (wrote a foreword for it), and Benedict XVI (cited it during his visit to Lourdes in 2008).

As a fundraiser, Dom Chautard’s guidance is priceless because he offers recommendations for being a “soldier of Christ” who takes “zealous action.”

Cistercians, like you and me, had to fundraise.

Here are three recommendations I have learned from Dom Chautard on fundraising correctly as a Catholic.

How much do you organize your day to day based on a saint’s life?

I’m not talking about when you pray at Mass, Adoration, or in your room… I’m talking about what to do in all those other moments in life… the day to day stuff… like asking people for donations.

Do you follow your gut?

Do you let things happen as they may?

Do you phone a friend?

None of these choices are necessarily wrong, but they could be the difference between getting that next big donation (and moving your mission forward) and missing it —> which then leads to frustration and feeling like you can’t help more people.

This past week, I picked up The Rule of Saint Benedict, and here is what he taught me about fundraising. Take a look:

I am a Catholic who (oddly enough) dedicates his life to helping Catholic nonprofits, religious orders, schools, parishes, and apostolates raise funds.

Strange vocation, I know.

However, I’m not your typical fundraiser because I try as best as possible to fundraise the way the saints have done.

Yes, I know, that’s even stranger.

I also focus heavily on applying Church teaching – for example, Catholic Social Teaching and the Catechism – into everything I do.

In fact, when you scrub through my website, you’ll find article after article about how our different saints fundraised. To a name a few, I’ve written how Saint Ignatius of Loyola, Saint Paul, Saint John the Almsgiver, a Franciscan friar living in South America, a parish priest, and even King David, chose to fundraise. I even tried to learn how Jesus approached the sensitive topic of asking for donations.

So when a friend asked me to review how Mother Teresa fundraised, he stumped me. After reading a few pages from the book, Conversations with Mother Teresa, I came across a serious problem.