That’s a great call. As a Christian the giving what we can pledge was one of the initial attractions to the movement for me. Consistent generosity with accountability is a great (if perhaps unorthodox) possible connection point with religious groups.
I agree that this is a high potential market. OFTW has tried running outreach with EA for Christians and found it pretty hard going; but I still think it’s good in expectation, we just haven’t cracked it yet
Nice one and sorry to hear it has been hard ! I just checked out your website and it’s fantastic I love your work—had never heard of OFTW before. Make sure if possible you get Christians evangelising to Christians as well. We be used to evangelism ;).
Thanks Nick! Yes the idea was to set up the opportunities and then for Christian staff or volunteers to give the pitch. It’s been much harder than we expected to convince people to host us though. Whisper it, but the disorganisation of a lot of pastors has been genuinely bewildering (only reply to 1 in 4 emails type thing).
DM me if you’d be up for helping with this—I’ve not given up yet!
Thanks Jack! There is often a tight connection between churches and traditional charity models which can be hard to crack. Some of the big NGOs they are often closely connected have a christian heritage, like World Vision, Tear Fund and Feed the Hungry. Unfortnately in my opinion these are some of the lowest value, inefficient NGOs around.
Often churches also have their own giving systems through their church which might make them hesitant to invite others in, especially when the others aren’t religious. Conferences and meetings would be the forum for it, not services I would think. Still I think it could be doable. No point in whispering about organisation of pastors. Often they are actually very stretched and get a LOT of e-mails though.
I’m afraid I’m not in a great position to help you. I’ve lived in Uganda for 10 years managing healthcare running a social enterprise, so am completely useless for helping with Western Churches.
That’s a great call. As a Christian the giving what we can pledge was one of the initial attractions to the movement for me. Consistent generosity with accountability is a great (if perhaps unorthodox) possible connection point with religious groups.
I agree that this is a high potential market. OFTW has tried running outreach with EA for Christians and found it pretty hard going; but I still think it’s good in expectation, we just haven’t cracked it yet
Nice one and sorry to hear it has been hard ! I just checked out your website and it’s fantastic I love your work—had never heard of OFTW before. Make sure if possible you get Christians evangelising to Christians as well. We be used to evangelism ;).
Thanks Nick! Yes the idea was to set up the opportunities and then for Christian staff or volunteers to give the pitch. It’s been much harder than we expected to convince people to host us though. Whisper it, but the disorganisation of a lot of pastors has been genuinely bewildering (only reply to 1 in 4 emails type thing).
DM me if you’d be up for helping with this—I’ve not given up yet!
Thanks Jack! There is often a tight connection between churches and traditional charity models which can be hard to crack. Some of the big NGOs they are often closely connected have a christian heritage, like World Vision, Tear Fund and Feed the Hungry. Unfortnately in my opinion these are some of the lowest value, inefficient NGOs around.
Often churches also have their own giving systems through their church which might make them hesitant to invite others in, especially when the others aren’t religious. Conferences and meetings would be the forum for it, not services I would think. Still I think it could be doable. No point in whispering about organisation of pastors. Often they are actually very stretched and get a LOT of e-mails though.
I’m afraid I’m not in a great position to help you. I’ve lived in Uganda for 10 years managing healthcare running a social enterprise, so am completely useless for helping with Western Churches.
Nice one.