Fearless Church Fundraising

Considering how essential fundraising is to ministry, many church leaders remain terrified of asking for or talking about money. Fearless Church Fundraising removes the terror from stewardship, urging leaders to focus on deep spiritual conversion and a clear, compelling mission before they design the pledge cards. In this rich resource part handbook, part workbook, part spiritual guidebook former monk and popular consultant Charles LaFond combines road-tested strategies and sample campaign documents with a spiritual director's sensitivity. The result is an irresistible, user-friendly text that promises to transform your ministry's fundraising and its spiritual life.

A collection of meditations on the importance of stewardship. Much has changed in the 21st-century world of stewardship. Now a person may use electronic funds transfer or use a credit card after clicking on a website link instead of dropping a check in the offering plate. Stewardship witness videos can be linked to the church’s website. One-Minute Stewardship is designed to promote the development of a meaningful theology of giving in a new age. These short reflections, indexed by Scripture, theme, event, and lectionary, can be included in weekly parish e-mails, newsletters, weekly bulletins, or read as an invitation to the offering during worship. The book addresses the issue of designated giving, which is usually separate from general stewardship appeals and is designed to empower clergy and lay leaders to promote the message of good stewardship every Sunday of the year.

Every major gift is planned, and every planned gift is major, so this book is written intentionally blurring those lines with the premise that if you know how to identify, evaluate, cultivate and finally ask for the gift, it does not matter if it is a major gift or is a will inclusion leaving the details of bequests to the donors, their lawyers and accountants. Clergy and others need help learning how to 'make the ask' before the remaining generous generations of capacity (anyone over 60 especially) die, having given their gifts to the non-profits and schools so willing and prepared to ask for them. LaFond recounts, "I remember sitting with a beloved, dying parishioner who turned to me in her last three hours and quietly said 'I wish I had remembered the church in my will.' I asked why she had not and she said, sweetly, 'They never asked, and everyone else did, and so thoroughly.'" Clergy and lay leaders are terrified of asking for major and planned gifts while parishes need them and donors need to give them. Clergy are not taught in seminary how to do this essential work of ministry. LaFond, in his various roles, is filling that educational gap.

NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • United States Senator Kirsten Gillibrand recounts her personal journey in public service and galvanizes women to make a meaningful difference in the world around them. “One of the most helpful, readable, down-to-earth, and truly democratic books ever to come out of the halls of power.”—Gloria Steinem Off the Sidelines is a playbook for women who want to step up, whether in Congress or the boardroom or the local PTA. If women were fully represented in politics, Gillibrand says, national priorities would shift to issues that directly impact them: affordable daycare, paid family medical leave, and equal pay. Pulling back the curtain on Beltway politics, she speaks candidly about her legislative successes (securing federally funded medical care for 9/11 first responders, repealing Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell) and her crushing disappointments (failing by five votes to pass a bill protecting survivors of sexual assault in the military). Gillibrand also shares stories of growing up the daughter and granddaughter of two trailblazing feminists in a politically active family in Albany, New York, and retraces her nonlinear path to public office. She lays bare the highs and lows of being a young (pregnant!) woman in Congress, the joys and sacrifices every working mother shares, and the support system she turns to in her darkest moments: her husband, their two little boys, and lots of girlfriends. In Off the Sidelines, Gillibrand is the tough-love older sister and cheerleader every woman needs. She explains why “ambition” is not a dirty word, failure is a gift, listening is the most effective tool, and the debate over women “having it all” is absurd at best and demeaning at worst. In her sharp, honest, and refreshingly relatable voice, she dares us all to tap into our inner strength, find personal fulfillment, and speak up for what we believe in. Praise for Off the Sidelines “Gillibrand has written a handbook for the next generation of women to redefine their role in our world.”—Arianna Huffington “There are moments of immensely appealing self-disclosure that seldom appear in other books of this genre. . . . This isn’t your mother’s political memoir.”—The New York Times Book Review

A Relational Approach to Fundraising For many people, fundraising has become a dirty word. Conjuring images of guilt-inducing gimmickry, the predominant model saps the joy from both the donor and the receiver. But what if fundraising has the potential to be good for the giver, not just the recipient? What if it's about love and service, not just "What's in it for me?" These are the questions that Peter Greer, president and CEO of Hope International, and David Weekley, one of America's most influential philanthropists, answer in The Giver and the Gift. Based upon their own relationship and experiences, The Giver and the Gift outlines a Kingdom perspective on fundraising. Instead of guilt, there is gratitude. Instead of obligation, joy. It's time to dismantle certain shaky beliefs and practices, energizing a new generation of generosity. "How does fundraising become a Kingdom partnership, instead of just the transfer of funds? As a person who has spent years in the middle of these partnerships, I found the book fresh, clear, and extremely helpful." --Denny Rydberg, president of Young Life

Slapstick funny. . .the sermon on good neighbors and blessings in disguise comes just in time for Christmas. --Publishers Weekly Even feisty prayer warrior Sister Betty has never seen the kind of trouble brewing at Crossing Over Sanctuary church. The financially-struggling members have until Christmas day to pay off millions in debt to The Cheater Brothers' Piece of Savings Bank. And Reverend Leotis Tom refuses to accept any of trustee Freddie Noel's sinful mega-lottery winnings. Instead, he hopes bickering church mothers Bea Blister and Sasha Pray Onn's money-raising schemes will provide heaven-sent rewards--while he renegotiates with God. The only way Sister Betty can help Freddie save his beloved church is to open the reverend's eyes to his congregation's history of wildly unholy--but profitable--secrets. . .and stay two steps ahead of the mothers' "Geriatric Mafia." Between scandal and near-disaster, Sister Betty will need all her faith to prove that blessings in disguise are blessings nonetheless. . . "One of my favorite writers of all time." --Zane

Discover what God has written onto your heart. What do you want for your life? Who do you want to be in your life, and how do you want to live? When it comes to making a consistent effort to be a better person, it helps to have constant reminders encouraging you along the way. In Note to Self: Creating Your Guide to a More Spiritual Life, Episcopal priest Charles LaFond introduces readers to the concept of a "Rule of Life," an ancient method for building soul memory and offering reminders to ourselves of the person we hope to be--in other words, the practice of training your mind and soul to be kind and good. In this book, LaFond makes the case that creating your own Rule of Life is grace that only you can offer to yourself, helping remind you to live the life you desire and the life God wishes for you. For anyone looking to improve themselves to grow closer to Christ, this book is the perfect mix of wisdom, creation, and application.

The inspiring true story of a nice Jewish boy who left the Church of Scientology to become the lovely lady she is today In the early 1970s, a boy from a Conservative Jewish family joined the Church of Scientology. In 1981, that boy officially left the movement and ultimately transitioned into a woman. A few years later, she stopped calling herself a woman--and became a famous gender outlaw. Gender theorist, performance artist, and author Kate Bornstein is set to change lives with her stunningly original memoir. Wickedly funny and disarmingly honest, this is Bornstein's most intimate book yet, encompassing her early childhood and adolescence, college at Brown, a life in the theater, three marriages and fatherhood, the Scientology hierarchy, transsexual life, LGBTQ politics, and life on the road as a sought-after speaker.