If getting a bunch of college, university, or theological school trustees riled up is your idea of fun, try this. Mount a defense of shared governance. It works every time for me. Case in point, a letter to the editor of In Trust magazine in follow-up to a pair of pieces that my provost husband [...]
Generosity in quotes
June 27, 2012 By Leave a Comment
“Generosity is not a choice we make, not a calculation in which we weigh what we are giving up against what we gain in order to make ourselves available to the work of God’s kingdom. It is a mark of our identity in Christ. When we are baptized into the one who is self-emptying we [...]
When a gift isn’t really a gift after all
June 25, 2012 By Leave a Comment
“Buying each other stuff is part of what makes us a faithful community. Sometimes I wonder what the act of dictating our own gifts does to our communities and ourselves. . . When we pick out gifts for ourselves, we feel like we got them for ourselves. The giver becomes a phantom.” Cramer Avenue Column in [...]
In fundraising, as in life, variety is the spice.
June 22, 2012 By Leave a Comment
You’ve heard it said that variety is the spice of life for we humans. The axiom applies as well to the fundraising programs of nonprofit organizations. As seasoned fundraisers know, it takes all kinds to get and give the billions of dollars that come to Canadian and American charities year after year. Check out the [...]
Reporting in on my three words for the year
June 20, 2012 By 2 Comments
We’re halfway into 2012 and my blog-stated intention to make this the year of “be,” “still,” and “know” continues to elude me. If anything, my schedule is more hectic now than when, back in January, I determined to slow my life down. A lot of days — too many, if truth be told — it [...]
Governance haiku
June 18, 2012 By Leave a Comment
Number 1 Anticipation seated at the table, board members ready. Number 2 Motions caught in time, actions out of inaction. The pace of board (bored) work. Number 3 Meeting adjourns, God’s purposes accomplished. Glorious agenda. Number 4 Meeting adjourns, proud board chair, exhausted executive. No damage done.
Remembering my father, who taught me well that generous matters.
June 17, 2012 By 4 Comments
Over the years, I’ve been blessed by stories of godly parents and grandparents who both talked the talk and walked the walk of generosity. This includes the following tale told to Thom Jeavons and me as we did research for our book, Growing Givers’ Hearts: Treating Fundraising as Ministry. A woman recalled learning about tithing [...]
Generosity in quotes
June 15, 2012 By Leave a Comment
“God is much bigger than anything we can imagine. God’s truth is more vast and complete than any knowledge our minds can hold. And yet, we climb what Thomas Merton called the Seven Story Mountain. We seek to know God, who is the source of all that is true. And God promises to be found. [...]
Hospitality, generosity, and toilet seats
June 13, 2012 By Leave a Comment
Hospitality comes in many forms and generosity shows itself in unusual places, as guest poster Carla Sandburg illustrates in an article that she admits was written in a “feisty” moment. Carla is co-superintendent of the East Ohio District of the Church of the Nazarene and president of Wesleyan Holiness Women Clergy. You can read Carla’s [...]
A problem with short-term mission trips
June 11, 2012 By 2 Comments
“MDS ends historic 7-year recovery effort in New Orleans.” The headline grabbed my attention as I pulled the latest issue of Mennonite World Review from my mailbox. Skimming the story that followed, I wondered how many readers would be surprised that Mennonite Disaster Service (MDS) was just now wrapping up its work along the U.S. Gulf [...]
