Keeping up Morale and Staying On-track while fundraising during Covid-19

By Corrie McKee

Last article, we mentioned three ministry workers who reached 100% during the pandemic: Kelli, Jenn, and Anna. Today we are going to focus on how these troopers kept their chin up during their hardest fundraising days. 

For Kelli, becoming fully funded during a pandemic after several years of fundraising was nothing short of a miracle. How did she keep up morale to persevere? She created a Core Team composed of several close donors and prayer warriors who committed to pray regularly for her fundraising efforts. She would send weekly text updates and prayer requests to this group, and everyone would respond with encouragement and more prayer. 

Prayer played a huge role for Anna as well. She said that she became more intentional about prayer than ever before during this time of fundraising. This was vital in being able to rest in God’s provision.  “If I’m not intentional with prayer, I can take on too much responsibility. I think it’s important to remember our role and God’s role in fundraising. I can do my best to put myself out there, reaching out to others and being clear with my needs, but ultimately I need to trust that the Lord will provide. I found it helpful to pray before I did anything related to fundraising, whether it was writing a newsletter, reaching out to set up a meeting or having a partnership meeting. Starting with prayer helped me to stay grounded and relieved some of the pressure I was putting on myself.”

As for Jenn, she struggled to overcome anxiety and discouragement, especially when she was stuck at the 25% mark for quite a while. “People didn’t think I was going to go because I didn’t have my visa yet,” she said. But while she waited for her visa, she continued to make followup calls.  Close friends ensured she was not walking alone. She gathered encouraging people around her who reminded her, “If this is what God wants, it will happen.” As soon as the visa came in, Jenn was able to jump that 25% hurdle and give potential donors the sense that she was well on her way to moving overseas. She reached 100% in record time!

One of the hardest things about the beginning of the pandemic was the way that time seemed to stand still. With structures and schedules thrown off balance, many people - fundraising folks included - felt the temptation to be sucked in to the “black hole of time.” These missionaries gave some great suggestions for staying on track in the midst of a structureless time. 

To stay organized, Kelli used color-coded spreadsheets to divide donors as new, lapsed, increased, monthly, annual, etc. Jenn used a planner with 30-minute slots to schedule all her calls, as well as a Google sheet to track meetings, follow-ups, etc. Anna was working a full-time job in addition to fundraising, so she had to be extra-diligent. She found it useful to make do-able goals: “If my goals were too general or ambiguous, they were easy to brush aside or put off, but when I had clear and quantifiable goals, it was easier to achieve them on a regular basis.”

Jenn and Anna both credit having a fundraising coach via Provisio as keeping them on track and accountable for weekly goals. All these ladies also used donor-tracking software such as Donor Elf or MPDx. (MPDx is a software made by Cru and is free to those in full-time ministry.)

If you are fundraising during the pandemic too, know you are not alone. With some perseverance, prayer warriors rooting for you, bite-sized goals to reach, accountability, and organizational skills (or software to help you get there!), you can do this!