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3 keys to making the case of missions

By Justin Long ⋅ March 25, 2009 ⋅  Email This Post ⋅  Print This Post ⋅ Post a comment

J. D. Meier writes about Three Keys of a Business Case (actually, he lists four). I am left contemplating the applicability of some of these to missions. The keys are:

- The Problem has to be apparent. It has to be immediately grasped. One of the problems with mobilizing for missions (or fundraising, etc) is that the “problem” represented by the idea of missions is not immediately understandable. We need better tools, better “elevator speeches,” more visibility, etc.

- Compelling benefit. The solution, for a business, has to be meaningful to the investors, stakeholders, etc. You have to spell out for them what the benefit is. This, too, is a challenge for missions, since we are nearly all doing a faith-based approach. (Tentmakers and Business-as-Mission in fact has its own challenge in that many would look on it and say “that’s not really mission” since there’s no donation component involved.) What is the benefit to the donor? How do we spell this out? Should there be a benefit to the donor?

- Clear path to return. In a business, you need a clear understanding of how people are going to get paid for their time, how they are going to pay their staff, how they are going to generate a return for their investors. In missions, we need to have a clear picture of what the “return” is going to be for donors and help it to be realized. Perhaps it’s a donor report; perhaps its a short-term trip; perhaps there is no return. (But I’m guessing there’s always some kind of return.)

- Risk/Reward Options. This was the fourth point—kind of an add-on to the others. The idea here is that you need to present different levels of involvement to different donors who have different levels of acceptable risk. A lot of the agencies I work with would consider a major donor someone who gives, say, $500 or $1,000. But one agency I have worked with in the past considers a major donor someone who gives $1 million or above. When presenting options for involvement in missions, we have to consider what the donor will think doable.

The two biggest problems here which we have yet to really own up to are making the Problem of missions broadly understandable, and outlining a compelling benefit. This is especially important in this time of economic recession!

If you’ve found some unique or tried and true ways to do this, be sure to tell us in the comments section below.

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