How Do Nonprofits Raise Money

A photo showing Yvgenie in our Russian Ministry coaching a member of the Moscow Lay Counseling Group. It has great outcomes with lives changed.

The USA economy is not so good so many of the philanthropists who support social action and good works are not giving as much as they did during the great times. Not only that, the various government agencies that support poor people, homeless people and troubled kids through nonprofits are out of money. What is going to happen to all those programs?

Karen and I are in Chicago attending the Annual Conference of the Social Enterprise Association. It's goal is to help nonprofits learn how to develop other streams of income through using business principles and ideas. For example, today I heard the President of Kaboom tell how he took a young nonprofit with zero assets and currently has an annual income of 26 million dollars by working with corporations who pay Kaboom to build top notch play grounds.

The SEA is also committed to helping profit businesses develop a larger, social, spiritual mission and use their resources to impact the lives of their workers and community. We saw many different kinds of for profit groups that are transitioning into this kind of hybrid organization. The SEA is having a very positive impact on our nation.

I was given a free scholarship to attend the conference and I am very appreciative of their gracious offer. I am meeting a lot of outstanding men and women who are highly committed to serve others and want to do it with good outcomes. One of the speakers today said the reason he was so successful was his attention to details and to outcomes.

One of the greatest things that ever happened to me professionally was learning about outcome research. In much of my college education, especially the graduate school years, I heard little to nothing about outcome research. The emphasis back then was on making sure the theory we chose was the right one. It was almost like seminary. Choosing an orthodox theory or theology is critically important to a seminary student. A Baptist needed to make sure he understood why being dunked was critically important but for a Presbyterian, believing in immersion not sprinkling would likely end his career.

I currently hold a very different view about the care and cure of souls than I did back then. I was urged to choose between and among several orthodox counseling theories. Was I a follower of Freud, Jung, Rogers or Ellis? I was way too young and inexperienced to know what to do. And, as a Christian, I was confused about how any of them fit into my faith commitment.

After some years I heard about making sure whatever theory I used helped people get better not worse. That means we had to look at the actual outcomes of our work not just our ideas about what worked. For example, one of the most popular theories in graduate school was based on how psychologists could train rats, monkeys and chickens to behave as we wished by responding to a certain set of behaviors with a reward. Many counselors were ecstatic. They thought, "At long last, we know how to control people." However, this method works to only a very limited activities in humans so the actual outcomes are not a great as the theory would suggest.

The same is true in social action. We have thousands of well meaning and passionate people setting up nonprofit groups trying to help the poor, disenfranchised and victimized. Unfortunately, many of these groups and their caring leaders have almost no examples of people successfully helped by their efforts. What shall we do? Look hard for great outcomes.

This kind of thinking is music to my ears because I have been trained to use only the kind of interventions that we are sure will produce great results. The way we discover that is two fold: 1. We do careful literature research on what others have done that has really helped our target population. 2. We do research with our own target population and see if they are living better, more successful lives as a result of our interventions.

Groups that are NOT producing better outcomes need to be close and the money they raise given to groups that are getting great results.

Meditation Afterword and Afterglow

Learning to Take Thoughts captive to Christ
I was definitely blessed this summer. I was able to speak four times at three different churches and I am excited about the topics and the responses of the listeners. At the Dwelling Place, where Karen and I regularly worship and have fellowship, Pastor Rich asked me to speak on "Blocks to Intimacy with God" with a special emphasis on the importance of forgiveness.

My Bible passage was taken from Psalm 27 where David focuses on his desire to have a deep encounter with the living God.

Verse 1. The Lord is my light and my salvation. Whom shall I fear!
The Lord is the salvation of my life, of whom shall I be afraid!

Verse 4. One thing I ask of the Lord;
This is what I seek;
That I might dwell in the house of the Lord forever
To gaze on the beauty of the Lord
And seek Him in His temple

David knows that it is fear and worry that keep him from being with God. As a Christian Counselor and Minister I have listened literally to hundreds of Believers who wanted to
draw closer to God, know His will and embrace His peace but discover as soon as they get quiet and try to enter prayer only to discover they are blocked by fears, worries and condemnation.

They may read Verse 4. and long to have a prayer life like this but fail and are overwhelmed by guilt, shame and anxiety. These feelings, of course block all attempts to understand God's will or even get to the place to hear the still, small voice of the Holy Spirit.

Ever sermon on prayer sends people into tremblings and anxiety. Failure is always close at hand in fact and in feeling. Withe those so deeply embedded in my mind I find God very far away.

I was plagued by similar thoughts, feelings and self condemnatory nonsense until I was blessed by the Lord to study how the brain works and how to stop its old, sinful habits from interfering with my new Christian life.

I am amazed that it took me so long to learn the simple ways to stop old, intrusive thoughts from blocking my prayer life and start enjoying time with God. I had finished a Doctorate in Counseling with an emphasis on Christian practices before I ever heard of the ways we can actually do what the Bible commands and "Take every thought captive to Christ".

I had heard that verse many times of course but all it meant was read more Bible verses. The problem was in my ability to actually STOP old thoughts and THINK new, Christian thoughts. However, in 1979 or 1980 my friends Alice Petersen and Margaret Rick attended a seminar put on by Dr. Maxie Maultsby, M.D.

He was a Plastic Surgeon who treated people with facial and body anomalies whose self esteem was low as a result. His surgical practice had been very successful. However, but his patients did not think any differently after surgery than they did before surgery. He gave up his practice to study Psychology. he discovered that their bad feelings about themselves had not changed, he gave up his surgical practice to study Psychology.

Dr. Maultsby concluded that it is not the physical attributes of beauty that cause one to feel good or bad about themselves. Instead, it was the way the perceived themselves and thought about themselves. For example, some kids who suffer abuse and abandonment grow up and turn to crime, drugs or sex to relieve their pain. Most, however, do not go that way.

A decade ago I was in a group of leading Christians that met in one of the high class rooms of the new P&G office tower in downtown Cincinnati. The man who had invited us was a top executive of the company and he told us a story of trauma and poverty straight out of Dickens. A part of his story included what his siblings were doing. Several were involved in addictive behaviors and crime. The group suggested that they were victims of their environment and could not help themselves.

I asked a question: "Mr. Johnson, how did you become so successful when you were such a victim of poverty and pain? Why are you different?"

Here is the answer. People who survive and thrive have learned to think differently. Mr. Johnson had become a Christian, attended a Christian college and excelled in sports. All along he had a mentor and several coaches to helped him think rightly. His siblings had no faith experiences and no mentors from the church and schools.

Go to our great Sweeten Life web for more articles on healing and growth.

If you are depressed or caught in a cycle of sin, call Life Way at 513-769-4600

The Apostles' Creed

I believe in God the Father Almighty, maker of heaven and earth and in Jesus Christ His only Son, our Lord; Who was conceived by the Holy Spirit, born of the Virgin Mary, suffered under Pontius Pilate, was crucified, dead, and buried; He descended into hades; the third day He rose again from the dead; He ascended into heaven, and sits on the right hand of God, the Father Almighty; from thence He shall come to judge the quick and the dead.

I believe in the Holy Spirit, the holy Christian church, the communion of saints, the forgiveness of sins, the resurrection of the body, and the life everlasting.