Hello my good and valuable fam! As promised (though a fair bit later than intended) I am publishing a post to answer some frequently asked questions concerning giving, how to, and the whys and "what now's" of the funding change that is hitting the Alliance as of July 1st. I will pose a commonly asked question and answer it to the best of my ability below.
As a side note: I am answering this to the best of my knowledge and if anything I have to say is not quite accurate in reflecting this new change please send me a message as I am still learning how this all works as well.
This will be a fairly long post. Feel free to skip to any pressing questions on your mind or read them all. If you have one that you don't see answered, please reach out to me.
As another side note..... there are a lot of acronyms in the Alliance. I have tried to make it as clear as possible.
So without further ado, I present to you the FAQ's!
1) What is the funding change? What is really changing?
As of Council 2019, the Alliance announced a change in funding for their International Workers that was set to be officiated after Council 2021. Formerly (and presently) the Alliance funds their International Workers (IWs) through the Great Commission Fund (GCF). Most of you who are familiar with the GCF know that this covers all of the IW's expenses on the field minus funds such as Outfit fund, Vehicle fund, and Special Projects which are raised separately by the IW. These separate funds are not counted as GCF giving and are locked and limited to each "box" if you will, until they have the required amount that the IW needs.
With the change in funding, the Alliance is moving toward a "One, Two-Part message" where one can give to "an international worker they love" or the GCF. If one gives directly to an IW they love, these funds are then free to use by the IW to allocate as needed into their separate funds (i.e. outfit, vehicle, etc.) unless a giver directs their gift to a specific fund. The biggest part of this change is that out of the IWs "Ministry bundle" (as it is being called now), the IW is required to raise somewhere between 45-65% of their Compensation, Benefits, and Housing (CBH) with a 45% minimum to raise in order to launch. What is not fundraised is then covered by the GCF. Both giving is counted as GCF giving, but only one piece is necessitated by the IW to raise in committed monthly giving (45-65% of their CBH).
2) How much are you required to raise?
I am required to raise at least 45% of my monthly goal in order to launch (get sent) to Japan. Ideally, I would strive to reach upwards of 65%.
The actual number of what I need in committed monthly giving is $2050.02. (45%) I had at one point thought that the number being communicated was roughly a thousand dollars higher than this, so those who had received a different number than this, I do apologize. That was incorrect. A recent misunderstanding from a form I had to fill out had brought me to this new and correct understanding.
Please forgive my former understanding as it was thought to be correct. We are all trying to stumble through this change together! We will get there!
3) So am I supposed to give only to IW's now? Isn't that what will best support them?
Many people have expressed this concern for how this affects their giving to the Alliance as many have given to the GCF in support of their long-standing relationships and partnerships with IW's. Now it would seem that giving to the GCF would then undercut IWs on the field as they have not had the chances to fundraise or that everyone now needs to switch over to giving directly to an IW they love because they want to support their ministry and make sure their gifts get directly to them.
I am here to say, 2 things: 1) giving to the GCF will still support the IW's you want to support. The GCF still covers and will continue to cover much of the IW's needs (35-55% of it to be exact). So as you feel led, please keep on giving to the GCF. 2) Giving to an IW you love will also support them. This giving will still be counted as part of the GCF giving. If they have need, they will, or may, express that to their long standing partners, family and friends.
All in all, both types of giving is beneficial, and a great blessing to your brother and sister IWs. God will make clear to you and to them what their need is, and how you may be called to respond.
4) How am I supposed to give now? Am I supposed to give online? Can I still give to an IW directly through my church?
The answer to this is yes.
The reasoning for this question is that as we are required to raise these funds, what is being highlighted is the need to track recurring gifts as one-time gifts are considered unreliable in the long run for fundraising. They are usually good for the first year, but things can obviously slide as time goes on.
As I have been wrestling through this process, one thing that came up was the complications of the benefit of online recurring giving and one time giving versus recurring and one time giving through check, cash, church tithing apps, etc. both through the church or national office. The answer becomes simple, yet complicated.
The answer was: give in whatever way you desire or suits you best. Some people wish not to give through online means to avoid processing fees and the like so they give through their local church or national office by check or cash. This is wonderful. Bless you. Thank you for giving this way. Some people prefer to give through automated systems and therefore give through the alliance website or local church's online giving service. This is wonderful. Bless you. Thank you for giving in this way. Some people give recurring gifts (in either way), one time gifts, or annual gifts meant to be broken down into monthly gifts. This is wonderful. Thank you for giving this way.
As you can see there are many reasons people give in different ways and at the end of the day, things are broken down as they need to be. The one thing I would say to you is if you are committed or have given a gift, is to let me know if you are planning to commit to monthly, bi-monthly, annual, etc. giving or not, especially those who are planning on giving through their local church. This way, we can easily report whether or not I am reaching my goal in fundraising. Naturally, the benefit of giving recurring gifts online is the easiest to track and "count on." Because of this, I have highlighted this type of giving as the preferred way for me, but I do not seek to ask people to give only in this way. If you give, give in whatever way seems best to you.
5) How do I give online? Do you have any other ways to give?
I am only using the Alliance systems for giving. This includes the online giving option through the national Alliance website (see details below) or through your local Alliance churches, or by mail in. It would be far too complicated for me to create additional means of giving that then get forwarded somehow into the account at the national office. So basically, NO. I do not have another way of giving like a gofundme or any self funding campaigns. I am too lazy to deal with that and would like to keep this as simple as possible.
On that note, how does one give online? To give gift directly to my ministry or another Alliance IW that you love you you follow these steps:
1) go to https://secure.cmalliance.org/give/
2) Choose the type of gift that you would like to give. This would be to "a worker you love"
3) When you click "a worker you love" a search bar will appear. Type the name of the worker you would like to give to. Another drop bar will appear under their name. It will say something like "my ministry, outfit, vehicle, special projects, etc.". Choose which you would like to designate your gift to. Note: "my ministry" is giving to their ministry in general and allows the IW to distribute their gifts as they see fit between their outfit, vehicle and special projects after their base need is met.
4) Once the designation is selected, you will be taken to a page to fill out your information and whether you want your gift to be one time or recurring. Follow the instructions and you should be good to go!
5) Side note: If you wish to give through your church, you can still do this through the online giving. You will have to create an account with the cmalliance website in order for your gift to be credited to your church.
If you are curious about how to give other ways to the Alliance online, their page on giving highlights and walks you through many of these things. This is just a cheat sheet to navigate their new way to give directly to an IW.
6) Why is the Alliance changing things?!
"Don't fix what ain't broke!" "The whole purpose of the GCF was so that we wouldn't have to make our IWs beg for money!" "What was wrong with the GCF?" "Why are they going backwards?" "The GCF was the best part of the Alliance missions!" "The GCF was why I joined the Alliance! Why are they changing this?!"
By and far, the biggest question that has come with this change is "why?!" Believe me, when I was 13 years old and looking at serving overseas, the Alliance was at the top of my list and of the many reasons it holds that spot, the GCF is one of them. I have not been the biggest fan of this change as it has come to me fairly "last minute", though I don't have too much of a right to understand the long reaching implications for workers who are seeing and feeling some of the freedoms it is bringing for ministry release, or the frustration it is bringing for others having to suddenly adapt to this new way after generations of serving with the Alliance. All I can do here is look at and explain the rationale behind this new change, and hopefully convince you of 3 things. 1) the GCF isn't going anywhere. and 2) There is certainly some good things yet to come of this! and 3) although I'm rocked by this, I'm still trusting in my leaders and having faith it will work for God's glory in the end.
Let's just take a quick look at the reasons being passed onto us. This funding change is coming at a time where Alliance GCF giving has either been down or flatlining or on minimal rise for years. It is coming at a time where they are looking at an older system that wasn't jiving with the new direction of Alliance Missions as they added in CAMA in on equal footing rather than it remaining its own separate entity along with many other additional "buckets" in which to give other than the GCF. With the addition of more and more work and arms and ways to give (outfit funds of 700 different IWs, special projects, GCF funded IWs and self-funded IWs through CAMA and Envision) It is easy to say that giving to the Alliance was no longer as simple as it once seemed.
This brings up point one of the rationale: simplify. In an effort to simplify, the Alliance sought to "bundle" each IWs needs into a "my ministry bundle" which combines their compensation, benefits and housing (CBH), with their outfit, vehicle, and special projects so now when one gives to an IWs "my ministry" they are giving to all of their needs after their base needs (CBH) are met.
This brings up the second point of the funding change: freedom and ministry release. The best and easiest to explain example of this "ministry release" I have is with vehicle funds. Say an IW living out of the way of public transportation has a need for a new car that they use in youth ministry and mobile medical clinics. They have $4700 of what they need in their vehicle fund for a $5k car. They cannot take what then need from another line or bucket to release the funds they need to get this car. They in turn end up sitting on these funds until the required amount is met and the much needed car can then be bought. This is where the term "ministry release" is coming from. Much of what is given to these specific funds can end up in similar situations and thereby being unused for quite a while. The Alliance is seeking a way for IW's to be effectively freed from this in order to move funds to where they need to be as they are needed. But of course, if one still choses designate their gift to someone's car fund, those funds will be locked in and cannot be moved. This is just one way that they are moving forward towards ministry release while at the same time continuing to honor the giver.
Onto the relationship between the sender and the sent, we bring up their third rationale: strengthening partnership and Kingdom engagement. In the years leading up to this the Alliance has seemed to focus in on how to personally and corporately partner effectively with our IWs. I have attended a few of their yearly missions conferences for stateside missions mobilizers, short termers, missions pastors and impassioned laypersons. "Converge" is such a place for people passionate in their engagement of support and interaction with their overseas brothers and sisters. At this conference (highly suggest you go if you can!), they have increasingly highlighted the importance of good and healthy partnership with their IWs and this funding change, I think, highlights a lot of what they had to say. In pursuit of deep and effective partnership, the emphasis on personal relationships with their IWs is brought to the forefront, emphasizing the responsibility of the sending church to own prayer support, communication, meeting needs both physical and emotional, owning the sending process in refining the sent and owning the process of sending financially. They find that personal ownership of the IWs wellbeing (and vise versa) helped to produce healthy partnerships. (I know I'm butchering their well put together message at this point!). What I am trying to say is that as the Alliance is moving towards partial funding through fundraising, it produces more investment in the Kingdom work around the world not only on the part of the sent, but on the part of the senders as well!
Again, part of this funding change requires the sent to raise 45-65% of their CBH. This is still counted as part of the GCF and if brings up my final point of the funding change rationale: to increase giving to the GCF. Personally, I had struggled to understand how creating yet another way to give as being incentive to give more, but it really consolidates what was already being given yet not counted as part of GCF giving (i.e. outfit funds, vehicle funds, CAMA, etc.) and appeals to new kinds of givers and a new generation of givers. Many people have found this new way of giving simple and appealing as checks are becoming more obsolete to many younger generations. It has also been appealing to many people to give conveniently and directly to an IW they love in a way that supports all of their needs rather than have to split their gift 5 ways to 5 of their different needs. Engaging personally has been a big appeal to many as it has been a deterrent to many that I have talked with. Again, the "begging missionary" stigma has been a big problem for many, but the Alliance has been working to diligently balance the two major ways to give to missions that already exist where the need to "beg" is minimized so that the IW can still keep their focus on where it needs to be while inviting people to come and be a part of their ministry personally.
All of this is to say, that the intention is to engage in new types of giving, to simplify, to propagate Kingdom engagement and to release IWs to the most fulfilling ministry they possibly can without being limited by their pocketbooks.
So this has been a not-so-brief explanation of frequently asked questions about giving and the funding change in the Alliance. I am sure to have gotten some things wrong, but I have done my best to pass things on as clearly as I can. I know change can be a frustrating thing for many of us to engage with, but we are all in this together! I love this adventure called life and I encourage you to take courage and capitalize in times of trials, change and in the unknown and we will see God work wonders. Who knows? This change might not play out for the long term or it may play for generations to come. So let's keep on as a Christ-centered, Acts 1:8 family. Let's see what God is going to do through us this time.
**Slides taken from Alliance Missions 2020
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