This is a controversial topic. How can you balance your need to raise money for ministry with what the Bible teaches about avoiding favoritism in James Chapter 2?
“My brothers and sisters, believers in our glorious Lord Jesus Christ must not show favoritism. Suppose a man comes into your meeting wearing a gold ring and fine clothes, and a poor man in filthy old clothes also comes in. If you show special attention to the man wearing fine clothes and say, “Here’s a good seat for you,” but say to the poor man, “You stand there” or “Sit on the floor by my feet,” have you not discriminated among yourselves and become judges with evil thoughts?” (James 2:1-4 NIV)
Many leaders quote this Scripture as an attempt to defend their efforts to treat everyone equally. But, good intentions to not show favoritism often lead to mediocrity, laziness, or dysfunctional efforts to raise money.
Here are 6 questions I believe you can ask yourself when you struggle to raise money without showing favoritism.
1. Are we treating all of our donors equally well or equally badly? We can’t use Scripture as an excuse to be lazy. Now, if you can tell me you call every single donor and thank them personally, if you call and react to every single gift the way you would a million-dollar gift, if you call, report, and follow up to requests to give with diligence, I’d say, “Wow, you are near perfection!”
Usually, when I hear people quote James Chapter 2 in relation to why they don’t go above and beyond to thank donors, they’re using it as an excuse to treat people badly. Their logic goes like this, “Well I can’t meet with everyone face to face so I’m not going to meet with anyone face to face, so I don’t show favoritism,” or, “I can’t call all the people to say thank you so I’m not going to call and thank anyone, so I don’t show favoritism.”
Leading your donors with excellence is not an issue of favoritism. You may simply have more donors than you can manage well with your staff and resources, so you have to make tough choices and prioritize your time.
James is challenging us to not treat certain people well because they have money while treating others badly simply because they don’t. Perhaps more significantly, James’ instruction is even more about our thoughts than it is the trouble with the appearance of favoritism. Remember, how you do what you do is far more important to God than how many donors you have.
2. Are we communicating with every donor consistently and in a way that is meaningful to them? If you are communicating with every donor in a way that is meaningful to them, then you MUST treat them differently! You are recognizing and adapting your methods to account for the truth that people are individuals and therefore require different methods. So, if we’re going to really live up to the Scripture, we must recognize that we are not called to treat donors the way we think is equal. Instead, let’s work to communicate and serve them in a way that is most meaningful to them.
3. Do we have too many donors? If you don’t think that you have the capacity to communicate with every donor in a way that is most meaningful to them, then perhaps you have too many donors. The truth is you don’t need that many donors. You need a reasonable number of donors giving at a sufficient level to advance the work forward. If you have so many donors that you can’t call all of them, then you need to focus in and grow an appropriate number of donors that you can actually sustain with quality effort and a greater quality in results.
4. Where in Scripture are there examples of Christ treating everyone equally? Because we’re human, we tend to want to make the application of Scripture to our work as “black and white” or “all or nothing” as possible. But, what we see in the life of Christ is a more nuanced lifestyle as a leader. Christ did not heal every single person that He came across. Why? Sometimes He would heal someone and then basically say, “Okay, now it’s time for me to depart from here”, and everyone is left thinking, “What are you doing? We have all these other people that need healing!” At other moments, He would stop in the middle of some of the most profound work and teaching and withdraw and go to his own lonely place, separated from everyone. We simply do not see him taking a democratic approach or a consensus building approach. Most of the time He doesn’t seem at all concerned about equality.
There are times where He clearly shows what could be called favoritism. He had multitudes of people who called themselves His disciples at the height of His ministry. There were 12 personally selected by Him after praying all night. There are another 72 that are selected personally by Him for a specific work. And within the 12, he had 3 that he was the closest to, and that He provided special opportunities to as well. These three even had the remarkable experience of being selected by Him to go with Him to the mount of transfiguration and saw Him in His glorified state, talking with Elijah and Moses.
5. Does our ministry exist to raise money? The answer to this question is most likely, “No.” A quick glance at your mission statement will confirm that your organization was not created to raise money. Instead, you raise money to see specific things happen in the lives of people you serve. Raising money supports and advances that work.
The scriptural admonition of James 2 is not just to people who are raising money. The scriptural instruction is to the church seeking to fulfill its mission of evangelism and discipleship with a strong warning to not discriminate (show favoritism) in who it serves. It’s a call to lead without evil thoughts and making judgements about who is worthy of excellence.
There are people that God is going to gift, enable, and equip to impact the vision and mission or your ministry in an extraordinary way. Shepherding and ministering to those people is a very special work and it must be done with consistent vigor, excellence, diligence, and skill. There will always be tough decisions to be made about where to put your attention and resources.
6. If someone gave us a million dollars, what would we do to say thank you? This question is a great test of the heart. Go ahead and do this exercise. Write down your answer to this question. Now, take the answer you came up with and ask yourself, “If I would do that for $1 million, why would I not have that kind of reaction to someone who gives $10?” The truth is, you may not know that donor who gave $10. To them, that $10 may be just as significant to them as $1 million. Let’s work to thank our donors with excellence and know that we will have to make some tough decisions as to our time, energy, and priorities along the way. Treating all people “equally” may make us feel noble and religious, but we’ll fail in the deeper tests of the heart that God is placing before us.
Actions Steps You Can Take
- If you are in a leadership role at a ministry or non-profit organization, I encourage you to really think through what it is that you believe about the work you are doing and about the role of giving.
- A primary goal in the work of development should be to thank our givers better than any organization they’re giving to. That’s a good place to start if you want to live out James 2:1-4 and to ensure your actions reflect a heart of godly motives.
- Segregating people based upon their appearances or “wealth research” can lead to some complicated matters of the heart. Focus instead on prioritizing your time well and living out the definition of development we teach which is to build real relationships with people, help them see what God is doing in the lives of the people, and then challenge them to have the impact that only they can have.
My challenge to you is to have the impact that only you can have. The reason you must prioritize where you put time, energy, and resources in raising money is not because you’re trying to treat certain people better than others. The reason you must prioritize is because you are human. You only have a certain amount of time in the day. You are a professional who is expected to achieve results so your organization can make a difference. And, you have a stewardship responsibility to lead your donors well.