Chapter Three: 100,000 Fully Engaged Tutors for Christian Nonprofit Organizations, Arise!

Chapter Three

100,000 Fully Engaged Tutors for

Christian Nonprofit Organizations,

Arise!

“Listen to Me, O Jacob,

And Israel, My called:

I am He, I am the First,

I am also the Last.

Indeed My hand has laid the foundation of the earth,

And My right hand has stretched out the heavens;

When I call to them,

They stand up together.

All of you, assemble yourselves, and hear!

Who among them has declared these things?

The LORD loves him;

He shall do His pleasure on Babylon,

And His arm shall be against the Chaldeans.

I, even I, have spoken;

Yes, I have called him,

I have brought him, and his way will prosper.”

— Isaiah 48:12-15 (NKJV)

Some Christian tasks can be better accomplished by nonprofit organizations because they can draw support from a large number of believers rather than from a single church. Here are some of the typical reasons why having greater size and independence can permit more and better serving of beneficiaries:

• Greater visibility makes it easier to recruit volunteers.

• Volunteers can be helped to learn better how to perform.

• Tasks can be better studied and simplified so that more people can succeed as helpful volunteers.

• Scale effects offer the opportunity to lower the costs of providing an individual service or delivering an individual benefit.

• Operating benefits can be increased by adding several dimensions of exponential enhancements.

• Larger projects can be accomplished.

• Credibility from providing excellent benefits at low cost helps attract more resources.

Despite the value and importance of improving as much as possible in performing benefit activities, most nonprofit Christian organizations are only achieving a small percentage of their performance potential. Tutors skilled in developing exponential performance improvements and helping others learn how to use them can assist such organizations to close the large gaps between their potential and the value of the benefits they currently provide.

Each nonprofit Christian organization’s opportunities for accomplishing more is somewhat different, but I believe that they have in common three important performance improvement opportunities that should be attended to in the following sequence:

1. Design the tasks for providing benefits to be irresistibly appealing to perform.

2. Serve needs in extraordinarily low-cost, effective ways.

3. Obtain enough resources to provide for all needs.

In actuality, most nonprofit Christian organizations begin instead by focusing on obtaining more resources, later turning to the search for more effective ways of serving needs, and may eventually work on improving the appeal of performing any required tasks. Because few donors are excited about providing resources for organizations that inefficiently deliver benefits and have trouble attracting enough volunteers, focusing first on obtaining resources often works poorly. In addition, the resources that are received don’t help much due to inefficiencies in the ways benefits are supplied. Volunteers see and are discouraged by any waste, don’t enjoy the work very much, complain about their experiences to potential volunteers, and are reluctant to continue. Potential donors hear about what the volunteers say and become more reluctant to provide resources.

Exponential improvements in serving needs are developed faster and better by first engaging the attention and enthusiastic support of as many dedicated people as possible. When you start by designing the tasks for providing benefits to be irresistibly appealing, you will attract the kind and size of interest that can lead to rapid, substantial improvements in a nonprofit Christian organization’s activities. Let’s begin by looking at the top priority, designing the tasks for providing benefits to be irresistibly appealing to perform.

Design the Tasks for Providing Benefits

to Be Irresistibly Appealing to Perform

Rejoice in the Lord always.

Again I will say, rejoice!

— Philippians 4:4 (NKJV)

Many people either forget or don’t realize that relieving suffering and helping others to be happier are two of the best ways to be filled with joy. To design irresistibly appealing volunteer tasks, begin by learning how to make receiving nonprofit’s benefits as delightful as possible. Always keep in mind that when the beneficiaries are happy, the volunteers are more like to be, as well.

To illustrate this point, let me tell you a little more about my experiences during visits to homeless shelters. In some shelters, many of the homeless people are smiling and optimistic, while the rest appear to be relaxed and comfortable. In other shelters, the beneficiaries almost all seem to be bored, afraid, upset, or uncomfortable. In the shelters with many smiling, optimist people, volunteers were having a great time serving while the volunteers in the other shelters looked uneasy and defensive. I know which shelters I would prefer to spend my volunteer time in, and I believe most people would choose the same ones.

It can be difficult to identify delightful ways for beneficiaries of Christian non-profit organizations to receive the benefits they desire. Many beneficiaries either won’t be able to or won’t want to tell anyone what would make receiving help more appealing. Some beneficiaries are discouraged or sad as a result of setbacks and cannot imagine what might help them feel better. Clinically depressed people are especially likely to be a limited source of ideas. Even when beneficiaries have good ideas to share, they may withhold rather than share those thoughts, believing no one will be interested.

Here are some possible ways to make receiving benefits highly appealing to needy beneficiaries, methods that are drawn from observing Christian nonprofit organizations:

• Avoid long waits and red tape. (Some food banks require extensive documentation and check-ins, while other distribution centers quickly hand out groceries to anyone who asks.)

• Build self-respect. (Poor people who purchase low-cost homes with loans from Habitat for Humanity perform building tasks to provide a “sweat equity” down payment and make monthly payments to reduce the principal owed until their debt is paid off, allowing them to take pride in having purchased a home that has substantial value in excess of what they paid.)

• Treat beneficiaries as either peers or superiors and in considerate ways. (At some sit-down holiday meals for the poor, servers act as though they are working in a fine dining emporium, referring to the recipients as “sir” and “ma’am,” smiling happily at them, and being as considerate in how plates are delivered and presented as they would if their livelihoods depended on pleasing the diners to earn tips.)

• Ensure that beneficiaries receive what they need to succeed in useful activities that will enable them to take care of themselves. (In some organizations, homeless people who need jobs receive training in how to apply, to participate in interviews, and to follow up with interviewers; are provided with appropriate clothes, shoes, and accessories for the interviews; can shower and groom themselves; are introduced to employers who want to hire homeless people and have experience in helping them succeed; and work with counselors who answer questions about any other concerns and encourage them.)

• Provide loving support and encouragement to overcome any personal weaknesses (such as using illegal drugs, drinking too much alcohol, being violent, or engaging in any other secret sins) and are told that God will forgive them when they repent of their sins, seek a relationship with Jesus as their Savior and Lord, and follow Him, and that they will receive Earthly support from fellow Christians.

• Explain the process for gaining improvements and allow beneficiaries to regularly observe significant progress. (Understanding how their homes will be built and seeing each step be completed show Habitat for Humanity home purchasers how much closer they are to moving into their new homes.)

• Encourage beneficiaries to develop warm friendships with the people who serve them. (Volunteers in White Glove Gals, based in Homestead, Florida, who help expectant moms in crisis pregnancies also invite them to attend and sit together at church services and dinners and to engage in each others’ family activities.)

• Ensure that beneficiaries have opportunities to assist those with needs similar to what their own had been. (The best employment counselors can be those who once needed a lot of assistance from a well-trained, considerate counselor to learn how to obtain a good job.)

I also encourage you to think about your experiences with receiving help from others as well as what people have told you about their experiences to learn other helpful ways to make receiving the aid more appealing. I would like to learn from your successful experiences in applying any methods that I have not mentioned. Please e-mail me at save_more_souls@yahoo.com to let me know what else worked for you.

Having improved the satisfactions that beneficiaries receive, the most important way to make volunteer tasks more appealing, let’s shift to looking at some other appealing personal rewards that volunteers can obtain while serving needy people:

• spending time with volunteers they like (One of my sons and his wife met while coordinating student volunteers on behalf of Habitat for Humanity, and they continue to volunteer for the organization.)

• meeting people they would like to know (Many Christian nonprofit organizations attract support from celebrities and prominent local people who volunteer their time and talents and need volunteers to assist them as they serve the nonprofit organization.)

• performing interesting tasks (Many of my volunteer assignments have fascinated me as I assisted organizations’ executive directors in planning and implementing future improvements.)

• having fun (A woman who loves to apply face paint for children might volunteer in that capacity while parents are receiving services.)

• helping to accomplish results that are enjoyable to tell others about (A literacy tutor might be invited to join his or her student to speak to potential donors about their successful experiences with the program.)

• developing valuable personal skills that can apply to other areas of life (Some people who volunteer for Habitat for Humanity would like to gain building-trade skills that could help them obtain paying jobs.)

• gaining sought-after experiences in more pleasant ways (People who would like to try certain tasks often feel that they will receive more consideration while learning as a Christian nonprofit organization volunteer than if they tried the tasks in a paying environment.)

• visiting desirable places (Some volunteer service is done during working vacations in foreign countries that permit a little time to see the local sights.)

• performing roles that are not as available to them in ordinary life (Single women who would like to become mothers after they marry can enjoy teaching and helping orphans and girls in single-parent homes as big sisters in the meantime.)

• satisfying curiosity (Someone who has always wanted to attend a gala fund-raising event but couldn’t afford to might find that volunteer service provides a way to help put together and be present at such an event.)

• gaining satisfaction from providing a service for someone else that they had benefited from (People from families that had received food baskets at Thanksgiving and Christmas often report enjoying the preparation of and delivery of such baskets for others.)

• feeling released from having experienced problems earlier in life through helping someone else (A woman who cared for her younger siblings as a child while her single mom worked could find an emotional weight lifted by assisting a girl in the same circumstances.)

• feeling appreciated (such as by attending a special event for volunteers, receiving warm thanks, and being part of joyful celebrations with the beneficiaries)

• receiving recognition and attention from people they respect (A “thank you” event might involve spending time with influential people in the community who are genuinely appreciative of each volunteer’s service and express thanks in kind, personal ways.)

I’m sure you have even better ideas for making volunteer tasks irresistibly appealing. I would be delighted to learn the methods that work well for you, so please feel free to e-mail me at save_more_souls@yahoo.com.

Serve Needs in Extraordinarily Low-Cost, Effective Ways

And my God shall supply all your need

according to His riches in glory by Christ Jesus.

— Philippians 4:19 (NKJV)

Ways for nonprofit organizations to serve needs in extraordinarily low-cost, effective ways are discussed by Carol Coles and me in Part Two of The 2,000 Percent Squared Solution (BookSurge, 2007). I encourage you to read that information in addition to this book. Here are the topics that are covered:

• Eliminate the unnecessary

• Employ an efficient business model design

• Cancel delays

• Simplify, simplify, and simplify some more

• Help the unskilled avoid accidents

• Automate the important tasks that remain

• Add do-it-yourself features

• Compare your solutions to what outsourcing can do

• Replace any expensive outsourcing

• Ask the world to compete to find breakthrough methods

• Repeat the cost-reduction investigations on a regular basis

In this section, I apply each of the preceding improvement methods to a hypothetical example of how Christian nonprofit organizations might better serve the millions of poor children supported by sponsors who help provide for food, clothing, housing, education, and Bible-based instruction.

While each of these organizations supplies benefits somewhat differently, they usually partner with local churches to locate children who need help, to distribute purchased items, and to provide volunteers who serve many nonfinancial needs. Many of the organizations encourage sponsors to develop relationships with the children by writing letters that encourage Christian study and paying attention in school. Because of the high rate of mortality among infants and young children in some lesser developed countries, sponsorships usually begin when a child is four years old.

Let’s look at the economics of such programs. While the size of requested donations varies from organization to organization, many now require a minimum of $420 a year and request added payments for birthday gifts and some Christmas presents.

To make the arithmetic easy, let’s assume that a sponsor sends $500 a year for these purposes, starts providing for a child when she or he is aged four, and continues to send money until the youngster becomes eighteen. Before considering the effects of any tax benefits (available in the United States, but not present in many other countries) to the donor from such sponsorships and costs of future inflation, the total expense over fourteen years will be $7,000.

I’m sure you’ll agree that’s not a lot of money to make a big difference in a youngster’s life, especially if the eternal rewards of Salvation are gained. In looking at some alternatives to help the youngsters, I don’t mean to make or to suggest any criticism of the fine work done by these organizations, so please don’t write letters of complaint to any of them. Meditate instead on what Jesus had to say in Matthew 25:44-46 (NKJV) and consider helping these organizations with your prayers, your time, and your money:

“Then they also will answer Him, saying, ‘Lord, when did we see You hungry or thirsty or a stranger or naked or sick or in prison, and did not minister to You?’ Then He will answer them, saying, ‘Assuredly, I say to you, inasmuch as you did not do it to one of the least of these, you did not do it to Me.’ And these will go away into everlasting punishment, but the righteous into eternal life.”

Let’s start by eliminating the unnecessary. Most needy youngsters have at least one parent living with them and may also have a nearby grandmother who helps out with child care. The whole family is probably short of income or the sponsorship benefits wouldn’t be needed. What if we could permanently increase the family’s income instead of paying for some of the child’s needs?

Increasing family income might mean providing some education for a parent or grandparent; training for certain jobs or operating small businesses; and tools, equipment, and working capital to do a specialized job or to start a small business. In parts of the world where the adult unemployment rate is high and incomes are low, you can establish a thriving local business employing several people at a cost of less than $1,000 for education, training, and investment. Such a business might be a wholesale provider of a basic commodity (such as charcoal for cooking) or an equipment provider (such as a reseller and repairer of treadle water pumps).

What would happen if donors successfully provided $1,000 to boost the family’s income while simultaneously supporting a youngster with another $1,000, both sums to be paid over two years? If that approach worked, the whole family could be lifted out of poverty on a permanent basis for a total of $2,000. That’s not only a lot less than spending $7,000 over fourteen years, but the money has also assisted more people. In addition, the child and his or her siblings can probably learn how to do that job or to run the business while growing up, greatly reducing the risks of adult poverty for the child, her or his siblings, and their descendants. If a business is started, needy employees and their families are also helped. Average the $2,000 donation over the several generations that will receive benefits, and it becomes clear that you might eliminate poverty through such an alternative program for less than $100 a person. When successful, the new program provides a 2,000 percent solution (accomplishing at least twenty times as much with the same or less time, effort, and resources — seventy or more people helped for the previous cost of helping one).

Notice that although the average cost of helping to raise someone out of poverty is greatly reduced, the near-term cost for a donor of serving each child and his or her family is increased: The annual cost of the alternative program is $1,000 per year rather than $500 per year for the child sponsorships. If the number of donors doesn’t change, that increased cost means an initial 50 percent reduction in how many children are served each year. The reduction in how many children are served fortunately disappears over time: After four years, the donor can shift to assisting a second family without spending any more than the total cost of the original sponsorship program.

Let’s now examine other ways to serve more children and their families. Rather than consider both the opportunities to help with jobs and with small businesses in the rest of this section, I will just look at starting small businesses.

How might the organization employ a more efficient business model design? Many small businesses in lesser developed countries would be more successful if they could purchase what they need at lower costs, store what they own more securely, and learn better ways to serve customers. Rather than set up each beneficiary family as a potential competitor with every other supported family, the Christian nonprofit organization could instead set up cooperatives to pool buying power, to allocate franchised territories that reduce harmful competition (where this practice is legal), to build and to guard secure storehouses, and to develop and to teach owners improved ways of serving customers.

Providing these forms of support would probably reduce the amount of money needed to start a business, shorten the time needed to prepare, enable each business to become more profitable, and permit faster growth in hiring local people. As a result, the cost of helping a family might drop from $2,000 to $1,300, mostly by eliminating one year of support for the child. That change would increase by 54 percent the number of families that could be assisted initially with the income-boosting program.

Next, let’s cancel any unnecessary delays in the process of starting up a business. The cooperatives could recruit their most successful business owners to spend volunteer time training and mentoring people who are about to start up new businesses like theirs in nearby villages, towns, and cities. Detailed written, video, and audio resources could be developed and provided to demonstrate every aspect of what needs to be done.

Done properly, this support might further reduce by more than half the time needed to go from not having a business to operating one profitably. Should that be the case, the cost of helping a family might drop from $1,300 to $1,000, again mostly by reducing how long the child’s needs are subsidized. In that case, 30 percent more families could be helped initially to gain income permanently with the same funds.

Let’s simplify operating the business so that what needs to be learned can be comprehended and done perfectly after only eight hours of training. Such a simplification might involve having the cooperative take over the task of acquiring customers so that the local business owner only needs to deliver the orders and to collect the money. The cooperatives might also discover that many individual business owners aren’t able to figure out how to become more profitable. To simplify that task, the cooperatives might provide volunteers who are trained in business analysis with tools to evaluate and recommend improvements for individual businesses in the cooperative. Let’s also assume that customers need some greater value from what they are buying. The cooperative could develop proprietary products that other suppliers could not provide so that its business owner members would be able to better serve customers and earn more money.

From such changes, the cost of helping a family might drop from $1,000 to $800. This change would permit 25 percent more families to be initially assisted.

We now have reduced the program’s costs of starting a business. Let’s simplify operating the business again by having the cooperatives put in good distribution networks so that business inventories can be reduced by 80 percent. As a result of that change, the cost of helping start a business might drop from $800 to $600, allowing 33 percent more families to be initially assisted.

Let’s not stop there with rounds of simplification. Now let’s design what is being sold so that less equipment is needed by the business to handle it. From that improvement, the cost of starting a business might drop from $600 to $400, allowing 50 percent more families to be initially helped.

Notice that the cost of the program has now dropped below the original $500 annual donation to subsidize one child. As a result of these improvements, more children are being helped from the beginning than with the original sponsorship program. In addition, a sponsor’s donation can be shifted toward the end of the first year to a second family, permitting geometric increases in how many people are helped.

Next, the cooperative should regularly review the experiences of its new and veteran owners to locate any patterns of mistakes that cause them to lose customers, not be paid, spoil what is being provided, and waste resources in any other ways. The cooperative could then take what it learns to retrain its members and to redesign its processes so that the owners and their employees will make fewer and less expensive mistakes. In this way, the profits of each business might increase by 25 percent.

With increased profits, the businesses might be able to start smaller and be established with less investment capital while still providing the same income to their family owners. If this were the case, the funds needed could drop from $400 to $320, allowing 25 percent more families to be initially helped.

At this point, the small business is pretty easy to start and to operate. The cooperative could then explore how automation might help eliminate or reduce the costs of other mistakes, reduce the number of employees needed, and enhance what is provided for customers. Only the results of successful automation experiments would be implemented. We’ll assume that the equipment needed will earn back its cost within six months of being installed. In that case, the initial size of the operation could be even smaller with less investment and still generate the same annual income for the family. In this instance, the total donor funds needed could decline from $320 to $270, permitting 18 percent more families to be initially assisted.

Some families are larger and more energetic than others. The cooperatives could take those differences into account so that businesses could be started in ways that substitute the family’s do-it-yourself labor for some investment funds. In the same way that Habitat for Humanity families supply some of the labor needed for their own homes, new cooperative members could provide services for existing cooperative members to gain extra income that reduces the new members’ part of their investments. Providing these opportunities could cut the donor funds needed from $270 to $200 for some families, allowing as many as 35 percent more families to gain opportunities from existing donor sources.

Let’s now compare this set of improved solutions to what outsourcing could accomplish. In each case considered so far, the only source of funds has been donor payments. If these new enterprises are going to earn at least $500 a year, it becomes practical to consider supplementing some or all of the donor funds with low-interest borrowings from other Christian nonprofit organizations specializing in that activity. Let’s assume that $100 of the $200 needed could be borrowed in this way at a 15 percent annual interest rate. A new business owner could repay that loan out of profits during the first year and still enjoy a much higher income.

Making this change would double the number of families that could benefit initially from the available donor funds. Notice that at this point, five times more families are being helped initially than with the child subsidy program.

Having found this outsourcing solution for borrowing, it’s a good idea to check it against the alternatives. In this case, the cooperatives could also serve as lenders to their members for starting up such businesses. Let’s assume that the cooperatives could borrow money at 3 percent annual interest through subsidized programs funded by governments of countries with advanced economies. After allowing for the risk of not being repaid, the cooperative might decide that it could cover its costs of borrowing and administration by charging 8 percent annual interest. With that drop in interest charges, new members could find it attractive to borrow $150 of the $200 needed to start their enterprises by stretching the repayment period to two years. This shift would drop the funds needed from donors to $50, making it possible to expand the number of families served initially by another 100 percent.

In The Ultimate Competitive Advantage (Berrett-Koehler, 2003), Carol Coles and I describe how for-profit companies sponsor global contests with significant rewards to find breakthrough methods for accomplishing their most important tasks. Since that book was published, hundreds of thousands of organizations have made these contests a mainstream practice in the for-profit community. The same approach can also be employed in the nonprofit world to make breakthroughs (as was demonstrated by my 2006-2007 global witnessing contest and described in Adventures of an Optimist, Witnessing Made Easy, and Ways You Can Witness).

Let’s assume that the cooperatives regularly run global contests to improve the operating, financing, and start-up processes for the businesses their members operate. If the contests focus on areas the cooperatives haven’t considered, such as getting start-up financing from suppliers for their members’ businesses, these contests are especially likely to be productive. Let’s assume that these contests reduce the amount of money needed from donors to start up a business by $50 a year. With this change, no more donor funds will be needed except to subsidize living costs of needy orphans.

Many people would be delighted to accomplish this much and with good reason. By heeding the Holy Spirit’s direction, I believe such gains are practical.

Despite this enormous success, the most important opportunity remains untapped: repeating all the improvement methods. Since the value of repetition is addressed in every book I have written or coauthored for The 400 Year Project, I won’t say much about it here other than to repeat the lesson: Costs can decline by another 96 percent each time the improvement processes are repeated.

If that result were to occur from the first repetition of the improvements methods, the new business owners would be able to eliminate all borrowings and increase their initial incomes by more than twenty times.

When costs become so low, a little money and effort go a long way. The world changes in highly desirable ways when that occurs.

If you doubt that such substantial gains are possible from employing these methods, be sure to read about Dr. Burra Ramulu’s tutoring experiment in India where even greater gains were made in less time, as described in the Introduction of 2,000 Percent Solution Living.

I believe that your experiences with creating cost breakthroughs will identify other excellent methods. Please be so kind as to send me an e-mail at save_more_souls@yahoo.com describing the lessons you learn about those methods.

Obtain Enough Resources to Provide for All Needs

And when Jesus went out He saw a great multitude;

and He was moved with compassion for them, and healed their sick.

When it was evening, His disciples came to Him, saying,

“This is a deserted place, and the hour is already late.

Send the multitudes away,

that they may go into the villages and buy themselves food.”

But Jesus said to them,

“They do not need to go away. You give them something to eat.”

And they said to Him, “We have here only five loaves and two fish.”

He said, “Bring them here to Me.”

Then He commanded the multitudes to sit down on the grass.

And He took the five loaves and the two fish,

and looking up to heaven, He blessed and broke and gave the loaves to the disciples;

and the disciples gave to the multitudes.

So they all ate and were filled,

 and they took up twelve baskets full of the fragments that remained.

Now those who had eaten were

about five thousand men, besides women and children.

— Matthew 14:14-21 (NKJV)

Lack of faith may be one reason many Christian nonprofit organizations focus first on obtaining resources. As you appreciate from the example in the preceding section, a small amount of resources can be stretched almost infinitely to provide for needs before gaining effectiveness from any supernatural transformations. Add His unlimited power to accomplish His purposes, and the results can be beyond awe inspiring. To me, Ephesians 3:20-21 (NKJV) captures the full dimension of the resources we should be seeking:

Now to Him who is able to do exceedingly abundantly above all that we ask or think, according to the power that works in us, to Him be glory in the church by Christ Jesus to all generations, forever and ever. Amen.

Obtaining enough resources is a task we can approach with great confidence when we follow the specific instructions in Malachi 3:8-12 (NKJV):

“Will a man rob God? Yet you have robbed Me!
But you say, ‘In what way have we robbed You?’
In tithes and offerings.

You are cursed with a curse,

For you have robbed Me,

Even this whole nation.

Bring all the tithes into the storehouse,

That there may be food in My house,

And try Me now in this,”

Says the LORD of hosts,

“If I will not open for you the windows of heaven

And pour out for you such blessing

That there will not be room enough to receive it.

And I will rebuke the devourer for your sakes,

So that he will not destroy the fruit of your ground,

Nor shall the vine fail to bear fruit for you in the field,”

Says the LORD of hosts;

“And all nations will call you blessed,

For you will be a delightful land,”

Says the LORD of hosts.

God says to pay your tithes (the first 10 percent of your income) and your offerings (gifts above the tenth that covers the tithe) to your local church. After that, you should generously provide alms for the poor. When you do these things, He promises to increase what you have so much that the tithes, offerings, and alms you paid will seem like pocket change.

Compare these directions to the approach most Christian nonprofit organizations use. The Christian nonprofit organizations typically don’t mention that tithes and offerings should be provided before alms, from the first fruits of our income. Instead, these organizations make the strongest emotional appeal they can for alleviating suffering and doing God’s will. In the process, some Christians may take money that should be used for their tithes and offerings and wrongly provide the funds for alms. We shouldn’t be surprised if such organizations find themselves with donors whose incomes are shrinking so that the donors cannot sustain the giving that they have committed to do.

Instead, the Christian nonprofit organization should begin by being so faithful in making volunteer work rewarding and in reducing costs that there may be little or no need for donations. If a need remains (such as for supporting orphans in the example), the organization should be vigilant in encouraging potential donors to follow God’s financial prescriptions for tithes and offerings before providing any funds to the organization.

It costs money to solicit donations, funds that could be used to support those who need help. Christian nonprofit organizations should do as much of their fund-raising as possible through praying for the Lord’s help. Many organizations have a long history of receiving all they need without doing any solicitations.

With a stout dedication to making good use of funds and not diverting funds from God’s purposes, such a Christian nonprofit organization should find itself with more resources than it can use without having to spend much money to acquire the resources.

Now keep the lessons of chapters one through three in mind as you read Chapter Four where the subject is improving the effectiveness of universities and colleges, both Christian and secular. These perspectives will help you to appreciate the special opportunities for tutoring to enhance learning for accomplishing God’s will.

Copyright © 2011 by Donald W. Mitchell. All rights reserved.