Traditional fundraising is broken. It lock nonprofits and charities in an endless cycle of chasing low return activities. A much better approach is to create a sustainable financial model that aligns well with your mission and core competencies. Nonprofits must moveRead more…
About the Lausanne Global Conversation
The Lausanne Global Conversation was an online platform for connecting participants in the Lausanne Movement's Third Lausanne Congress on World Evangelization in Cape Town, South Africa (Cape Town 2010) before, during and after the Congress.
The Global Conversation platform is no longer active, but core Lausanne content has been moved to the main Lausanne website and may be found in the Lausanne content library. Other content contributed by Global Conversation users is archived on this website. Read more »
Why most people will never accumulate surplus financial resources?
Proverbs 21:17 says, “He who loves pleasure will become a poor man; He who loves wine and oil will not become rich.” Solomon offers a telling observation – people focused on pleasure and consumption will be poor because they spendRead more…
Philanthropy has more intrinsic benefits than you think
Children are hungry. Polar ice caps are melting. Injustice and inequality run rampant. The education system is broken. Natural places are diminishing. Arts groups are folding. The list goes on. Any objective person recognizes the urgent need for philanthropy, asRead more…
How Truly Generous People Give More Than Money
Last night, I was at a charitable event on Wall Street. I watched as the people who create money from their brains gave incredibly generous amounts for a great cause. The charity event was for Matt’s Promise, a 10-year-old nonprofit determinedRead more…
Giving It All: Alan Barnhart and his brother Eric owned a $250 million company. Owned. Past tense. Because they gave it away.
In 1986, Alan Barnhart was 25 and planning to go into business with his brother. An evangelical Christian, he wondered what Scripture had to say about the profits he hoped to make. So he combed the Bible for whatever adviceRead more…
Five slow steps for rebuilding credit after bankruptcy or foreclosure
Whether you’ve already gone through bankruptcy or foreclosure, or you’re considering bankruptcy, or facing foreclosure, you’re probably wondering how you’ll ever be able to recover. As you well know, both bankruptcy and foreclosure don’t look so great on your creditRead more…
The Cross of Christ
The Cross of Christ does not demonstrate that we are inherently worthy to be redeemed. The fact that Christ died for us is never given in Scripture as proof of our value as wonderful people but, instead, is a demonstrationRead more…
Stop Medicating Your Church
A couple of years ago, one of our girls came home with a troubling look on her face. She was flushed and downcast. Her typically joyful seven-year-old attitude was gone. “Daddy, my throat started hurting at lunch time and it’s stillRead more…
Transforming Scrooge – How do you shift the culture in a church from greed to a way of generosity?
During the last Christmas season I reacquainted myself with Charles Dickens’s Ebenezer Scrooge, one of the nastiest, mean-spirited old men in English literature. He’s found, of course, in A Christmas Carol(published 1843), Dickens’ short novel about a man addicted to moneyRead more…
6 Types of Stories that Spur Giving
As a fundraiser, you aim to change how people perceive your organization’s work and cause, then motivate them to give. Connection is the lubricant for this conversion, but the deadly dull way so many organizations discuss their work frequently getsRead more…