Alleviating Poverty through
Biblically Based Business

Fund: Raising finance to support projects

Compared to the financial benefits of £2M+ per project, the costs of initiating the work are relatively small, but they are not insignificant.  Some teams may well be able to fund their own flights and accommodation, but many more will struggle to find the cost of three return journeys, particularly if they are in a situation where they might need to take a week or two of unpaid leave in order to undertake the visits.  It is not uncommon to place the real passion for making a difference in this way in the hearts of young people, some of whom may still be paying off University loans, or trying to pull together their first mortgage, or coping with the costs of a new family. 

Further to the costs of travel, there are also the costs of local support within the developing country.  Money needs to be found for translation work, local printing, venue hire, pens and paper for participants, and maybe even a flipchart and stand.  And that is even before the first set of training takes place.  Afterwards money needs to be found to pay for the expenses of local trainers, and even though local churches may ultimately benefit from increased tithing as a result of the success of the training, and may at some point decide to take on this financial burden as part of their own ministry, this is unlikely to occur within the first year or two. 

This provides an excellent opportunity for those in the church and the surrounding community, who may feel limited in their contribution in other ways, to be able to provide vital support to the project’s success through helping to fund the team and the local expenses.  In practice, for three visits of three people, and for all of the local costs over the first two years of operation, it would be useful to target about £10,000 of fundraising, depending on where in the Developing World the team areoperating.  This may seem like a lot, but the returns are many hundred-fold, in terms of the financial impact of this investment in the Kingdom (Matthew 13:23).  Guidance on this role can be found in Chapters 6 and 7 of Workbook 0

To understand more about Workbook 0, please click the highlighted link above, or to download just the appropriate chapters as a PDF, please click the picture to the right.

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