By Fred Grossenbach, director of the Madison Christian Giving Fund –
The Madison Christian Giving Fund (MCGF) is committed to investing in the success of our Ministry Partners. Surveys have confirmed that fund raising is a top priority for our Capacity Building Workshops.
On October 7, 2022, about 40 people representing a wide cross-section of Madison-area Christian ministries, from hyper-local to international, attended a three hour interactive learning session led by Marcy Heim, a fund raising professional with over 20 years of experience.
The participants learned that fund raising is about building relationships over time with people who have common interests and values. We learned that the number one reason people give is because they are asked! We learned that there are many options to giving that benefit both the ministry and the giver. We learned that giving is a joy and asking is a privilege.
Marcy gave us many practical tools to enable us to be more comfortable and confident with the fund raising process. As these tools are applied in the months and years ahead, ministries will be to expand and grow to better serve Madison-area residents in the way they have been called by God to do.
As the session closed, Tom Hoffner, one of the founders of MCGF, shared how this all started with a gift of $50,000 in 2014. Since then, MCGF has raised and granted $956,000 to 61 Madison Christian organizations.
When people apply what was learned at the Artful Ask workshop the impact will be enormous.
(Full disclosure: MadisonChristians.com was a recipient of a 2022 grant from MCGF.)