Alan
We had a meeting before Christmas where we updated you on the fact that when we set out for 2023 to have a forum that we were planning just one in Latin America. As the applications rolled in we saw the potential for splitting that into two and hence running with both Sao Paulo and Addis in 2023. In order to help make that possible we took the decision in November to split what we had allocated (in the region of about 110,000 US) to split 50-50 between the two. So to have landed only just shy of 59,000 US for the Brazil meeting is quite remarkable given the short turnaround time and with some additional costs that were always tricky to forward plan for.
So that effectively leaves us just a little over 50,000 to play with in the planning for Addis from the budget that we set out and talked about as a team back at the end of last year.
JamesB
We are using the same tools, the same framework, to both scope out and monitor the budget for the meetings in Ethiopia. So we’ve essentially duplicated everything that we did for Brazil, taken out all of the Brazil information and then we’re using that functionality.
Alan
And the good news is we are slightly ahead with the process for Addis. So we’ve got about an extra four to six weeks lead time.
Alan
James, I don’t know if you’ve got any insights, reflections, comments from your time in Orlando and if there was any kind of looking back to Brazil and output from there that came to the fore?
JamesG
Roy had been in Barbados the week before Orlando where he had road tested some of the Families on Mission stuff with a couple of groups there which apparently went exceedingly well and I think he told me he’s given feedback and some helpful information.
Alan
I want to know if we can capture some of the Barbados feedback for the showcase, because I do think that’s a great kind of glimpse of how this can have a ripple effect going out.
Gordon
Action point: Alan to talk to Roy about Barbados and whether we can include feedback as part of the Showcase meeting on Saturday
JamesG
I’m trying to get clarity in discussions with Katrina, about the balance in the GCF bank account. It seems to me that there’s more money in the account than I thought there would be.
Alan
Action point: JamesG to get reconciliation on the GCF account.
JamesG
Action point. JamesG to post an update to our WhatsApp group once he has clarity on the GCF account.
Alan
We’re trying to expand that pot of money as we talk, particularly with Mergen. Yeah, potentially we’ve got, if we spent 59,000 then in theory, we’ve got 51,000 that could be allocated to the Addis meeting. But I’m hopeful that we might even get another 10 or 20 that Mergen contribute towards the developments but we’re still waiting to have that conversation.
JamesG
Our contact at Mergen is leaving and will be joining Christian Vision.
Gordon
Christian Vision have got really good people all over the world. Their initial driver was creative media stuff. And they’re right on the cutting edge in terms of IT.
JamesB
You might have come across Andrew Flynn? We had some conversations with him at SU, he works for Christian Vision. Their website is cvglobal.co.
Alan
Action point: Alan to speak with Colin about Christian Vision.
Alan
I think probably the key question really is for the global team to get an opportunity to take stock in light of how things have evolved and then to revisit the global strategy in terms of how this now helps us to reframe the priorities and the steps going forward.
Gordon
Action point: LE Global Team to revisit the core LE strategy in the light of the LE regional experience
Alan
The exciting potential of what God is opening up is very impactful and significant. How this then becomes a catalyst for other possibilities through GCF is very exciting as we look to the next five years.
So I think we’re just seeing the beginnings of something significant. Alongside this, we’ve reignited a global academic project team that we had a small initial conversation with during the forum in Budapest a few years back and working towards having a working team focused on academia as part of the meetings in Addis in November.
Action point: LE Global Team to keep an eye on the detail of the LE budget and Global Team to respond regarding likely next steps.
JamesB
The new LE website is in progress and my goal is to get that pretty much done before the end of June, maybe earlier. It’s just obviously it took a while to get the go ahead on doing it. So it has hit a busy time with developments, but I’m keen to get it done.
It’s a global development as much as a regional one. So, you know, I definitely want input from the global team on it as well as from Val.
Julie
We have a meeting on 14th June. So if you have, if you come up with questions, it would be great to have that, you know, so we can do things you think we need to discuss. So if you think there’s things that we need to discuss as a team, that’s an opportunity to do so.
JamesB
Action point: JamesB to come up with questions for global team meeting on June 14th regarding LE website development.
Alan
So this is really about how we can be more intentional in pursuing the US in particular as a funding base to strengthen our own fundraising position. Have you had any more thoughts on that, Julie?
Julie
There’s a lot of money over here in the US and I’m just wondering if there’s more we should be doing to harvest that so that we are in a good place moving forward.
I think we’re doing some great stuff right now but the pot seems to be going down and not being replenished right now which worries me a little bit about long term and I don’t know what do you think?
Is there more we should be doing with US fundraising? Is it a lack of resource? Is it lack of connection or is it just one of those things that it’s just hard?
JamesG
Well it’s hard that’s all based on relationship but unless you’re there building relationship it’s next to impossible. You need to have a very clear story of why you’re trying to raise funds and that’s historically where we did raise funds. We went to cornerstone and had a very clear story. And we went to Mergan specifically around LE Africa and we had a very clear story.
I need to understand what it is we’re actually trying to raise funds for at the moment.
Gatherings are always super difficult regardless of how well you articulate it because most Americans look at a gathering as it’s just another conference. Now we know they’re not like that in the world of GCF, but you need to have relationship and trust before you can even have that conversation.
Churches are probably an untapped resource if you can get a mega church on board. I’ve met one in Fort Worth and I haven’t, you know, I’ve only just met them like two weeks ago. So that’s very early days in terms of relationship building. But it’s hard, it takes time and yeah, we’re talking to J Paul just about fundraising in general for Logosdor.
So I would hope that if Logosdor has an opportunity with these connections through J Paul to raise funds that would be the GCF story. Logosdor hasn’t actually raised new funds in the US for a couple of years to be honest. Well nothing for GCF obviously. Yeah so it’s a hard slog as a short answer to your question, it’s based on relationships.
Alan
The last significant tranche of funds that we have was cornerstone in December 21, James. I think that’s when it was.
JamesG
Yeah something like that. I mean they’d be worthwhile keeping in touch with now, I don’t know if you’re talking to them much.?
Alan
Yeah I’ve had a bit of correspondence with Cara, the new person this year.
JamesG
So there’s a conversation I reckon if you could set it up. Action point: Alan to arrange a zoom meeting between Esther, Alan and Cara, recap recent GCF activities and future plans and explore when we can put in a future proposal.
If you could do that, I reckon that could go a long way to propelling that down the road a little bit and actually saying to Cara, okay, when can we put in a proposal?
Keep it simple and brief… e.g. these two or three things that we’re looking to fund.
And if Esther could be there speaking on the back of her experience of LE in Uganda.
Alan
Yeah, okay. That’s helpful. Yeah, well, I’ll talk to Esther and follow up with Cara, definitely. I had a bit of correspondence with her earlier in the year, so this is a good time to go back.
JamesG
Yeah, and I’ll bring Esther into that because she’s obviously got relationship with Cara and she’s had her boots on the ground in Uganda and just be super helpful for her talk through some of the stuff and why.
JamesB
I wonder, Alan, whether given the new relationship that we’re building with Awana whether it’s worth a conversation with them about whether they’ve got any advice about fundraising in the US.
Alan
Yeah, really good idea. So I’m helping them pull together a UK day in July because he and their CEO, Matt Markins, are going to be over here in mid-July. So I’m going to connect them with a bunch of children’s ministry leaders. as a thought-shaping and relationship building time.
JamesG
Yeah well it’s I mean let’s not forget that the whole idea of GCF was people who are part of it contribute so for one is at the table.
JamesG
Yes J Paul has been remarkably effective at raising funds to cover their Brazil generosity group. And they pretty much spent what they raised. And I’ve been working with Cherise over the last week to put in a proposal to Mergan. And then J Paul told me when I was with him that I think he’s raised another 20 grand. So they’ve already raised about 80 or pledged up to 85 grand, maybe I think.
Gordon
It’s an agency that helps churches to become generous.
JamesG
Maybe there’s a conversation we can have with Troy from Generous Church to say, what churches have you got in your network and is it appropriate that you introduce us to one or two of your churches that you’re encouraging to be generous and we’ll give them an opportunity to be generous?
Alan
My thought on that, James, is with J Paul and Cherise being the point people for us with the Gen G group, can we go to them with the question? And get a steer from them in terms of how we can be more intentional and more fruitfully engage the network that we’re connecting into?
Action point: JamesG to discuss with J Paul and Cherise whether it would be valuable to follow up with Troy from Generous Church about how we could engage with his network.
JamesG
The other potential area to explore is National Christian Foundation. We need to try and find one of their gatekeepers, because what I’ve learned with them is that they’ve got how many billions of dollars invested of people’s money and then those
individuals come to them and say, oh, now we’ve got money invested with you that we’d like to give away but not sure who to. And you want the NCF person to say, “You want to give it to GCF because they’re fantastic.”
They’re headquartered in Atlanta, but they’ve got offices all over the US. And basically with tax legislation in the US, it means that if I was a US citizen and wanted to give a hundred grand to Christian ministry, but I wasn’t sure who exactly to give it to right at the moment. What I’d do, I’d give it to NCF. I would get the tax deduction immediately. And then that just sits in a pot of funds in NCF. And then somewhere in the distant future, I can decide to then allocate that to a worthy recipient.
So the donor would then go to NCF and say, “Look, we’ve really got a heart for the gospel going to kids. What’s a worthy kids organization that we could give this to?” And NCF might respond, “Well, here’s the top 10. We think you should give to one of these ones.” So how does GCF get on that list of recommended recipients?
I was hoping to get introduced to the NCF guy in Kansas, but that didn’t happen.
I can probably find out who the one in Houston is. because I’ve got a Logosdor interest in going down this track as well obviously.
But if I did that, GCF would be part of that communication. So either way, it doesn’t matter.
Action point: James Gow to discuss with J Paul about possible routes into National Christian Foundation
Alan
Action point: Julie to suggest date for next meeting from 20th June onwards that fits with her travel schedule in order to discuss US fundraising.
James, do you want to just shed a little bit of light on whether there are some easy wins potentially in terms of digital fundraising tools that we can harness and some suggestions from what you’ve encountered elsewhere?
JamesB
Sure. We’re now working on implementing donation functionality on the Grain of Wheat International website. Potentially, that’s something we could also implement on the GCF community website, as that site is now increasingly becoming not just a point of reference for the community, but a point of reference for people who are asking about GCF and who we are and what we do. And obviously, we’re trying to empower the GCF community to raise funds in terms of being part of the sustainability of GCF. We want to do all that we can to equip them with some tools to do that.
Alan
Yeah, I think that’s it. I guess potentially if we’ve got that functionality on the website, then it becomes easier for others to share with their connections what’s going on and to encourage people to support just via a click of a button.
JamesB
Yeah, and it makes it much easier to track who’s doing what as well.
Julie
I’d love us to explore the social media aspect of fundraising and donations as well. If I’m looking at the United States, Instagram is where people are on right now and they would donate via Instagram.
In the US, if you want credibility, you need to be on all the platforms.
Alan
Yeah, I wonder if there’s a bit of an experiment where we get a button up on the GCF.community site, let folks know, give some examples of how they could share and see what that triggers.
JamesB
Yeah, because it can even, you know, we can be quite creative with it and you know, it would be worth a few of us spending maybe half an hour to discuss, you know, different ways that we could do it.
But you know, it can be much more than just a simple, would you like to donate 10, 20 or 50 dollars. We could offer people the chance to raise towards a specific target, or to respond to a particular donation call, or to raise money via sponsorship etc. There’s all sorts of creative ways that you can encourage people to donate and fundraise. But you can only really do it if there’s a straightforward way for them then to be able to manage it.
JamesG
It’s going to be a lot more public as soon as you start raising donations in a social media environment. Is there a risk in all this that, for example, the IRS is going to take a look at it and go, why isn’t GCF a separate organisation?
We’ve just faced those challenges with Mergen. Now, if you’re talking to an individual privately, they don’t really care. If they’re going to give to GCF, they don’t really care. They just say, give us the bank account details and let’s get on with it.
If you’re talking to a foundation however, you’ve got to explain about who’s on your board and about governance, and where’s your latest audit and so on. We’ve got around it with Cornerstone. We’ve got around it with Mergan.
Alan
If you’ve got a relationship with those people that get to know it, that’s why I’m saying the whole thing’s based on a relationship.
JamesB
To be honest, I don’t see a major issue with just being clear on a donation page,
in the same way that we do at the moment with the payment forms on registration pages, that the financial transactions are handled by the account that we have with Logosdor Inc. It keeps it all clear and above board.
JamesG
Yes, so are there any downsides to going public with fundraising in a social space?
I don’t know the answer to that question, but I think it’s worth asking and exploring before we press go on.
JamesB
Let me put together one side to cover the pros and cons, but I think much of this would be dealt with by just being very plain and clear in the language around how we put this forward.
GCF is a project. And you know, whether that’s a project that people can donate to our non-profit fiscal sponsors of Grain of Wheat International in the UK or Logosdor Inc. in the US. And GCF is a relational collaboration with several defined projects, not an entity. We can be clear about that.
The project is to see children everywhere walking with Jesus. And in pursuit of that, there are multiple initiatives that create gateways and opportunities for participants to engage.
Action point: JamesB to create summary overview of pros and cons to GCF specific fundraising.
JamesG
Action point: JamesG to ask J Paul whether he might join the call in late June re. US fundraising strategy