Blog from October, 2022
Happy Fall!
We hope that you are enjoying this new season and we are praying for your ministries as things get busy toward the end of the year. We have lots of important updates in this quarter's newsletter so we're going to let you jump right in! Don't hesitate to reach out if you have any questions at all.
As always, we are thankful to partner with you in the ministry God has given you.
Amber Blais
Communications Administrator
Fall Leadership Learning Series Webinar
Have you signed up for the next Leadership Learning Series Webinar, Soaring with Cultural Intelligence, with Dr. Dee Stokes? It will take place on Wednesday, October 26th, from 3:00 to 5:00 pm ET (2:00 to 4:00 pm CT). It will not be recorded, so make sure you register and attend live! You can register here. To learn more about the webinar and the speaker, click here.
Resources
Are you a new (or newish) leader? Here are some great resources that you may want to check out!
Courses on RightNow Media
(If you haven't gotten access to RightNow Media, check out the RightNow Media Access page on Solomon.)
Missio Nexus Critical Skills for Emerging Leaders
- Where: in-person event in Orlando, Florida
- When: January 31 to February 2, 2022
- For more info: visit this page for more information.
MTD Cohort
Our MTD Health Team is launching another round of coaching cohorts to support you as you continue your MTD journey. These cohorts are an hour once a week for eight weeks and are made up of other missionaries in the field working to sustain their support. These groups will begin at the start of Fall and are available at no cost to you. We have found that they can be incredibly helpful in creating new goals, providing weekly accountability, encouragement, and an opportunity to ask questions. If interested, click here to get signed up, and we will reach out to you. If you have any questions, please email Jenni.Saniuk@reliant.org.
End-of-Year Ask
It's hard to believe that the end of the year is just around the corner! Our MTD Health team has worked on some tips and resources that you should have started to receive a few weeks ago and will continue to receive throughout the end of the year. These tips on End-of-Year Ask (EOYA) will hopefully inspire you to keep going and end the year strong with your MTD health. If you are eager to start your End-of-Year Ask, we have compiled some suggestions for you here: Game Plan for End-of-Year Giving.
Open Enrollment
Open Enrollment begins for domestic staff on 10/18 and international staff on 11/1. This is the time of year when all Reliant employees must complete their forms for the following year's benefits. All domestic staff should have received their first email about this already. You can visit the Solomon page now to review all benefits information. Another email will be sent on the day that open Enrollment begins.
Reimbursements Changes
We are updating key aspects of our reimbursement policies to make them more concise, user-friendly, and current. The new policy and standard will be effective January 1, 2023. More details will follow in the coming months. Benefits of these changes will be:
- Consolidation: We will combine many current policies for staff reimbursements into just one short Reimbursement Policy for broad guidance and one Reimbursement Standard for more detailed and situation-specific guidance.
- Ease of Use. Standards for reimbursements will be shorter, more navigable, and more straightforward.
- Tax Advantages. Fewer reimbursements will be considered taxable wages per IRS guidelines.
- Keeping Up with Inflation: In some cases, reimbursement thresholds and payments have increased to keep up with inflation.
Important Dates
We have several important dates that you need to be aware of. These have to do with holidays, reimbursements, deadlines for donations, and other important topics. Please take a moment to view those in the Field Manual on Solomon 2022 Important End-of-Year Dates.
Did you know that your donor can access their receipts and end-of-year statements in their Reliant.org account? We will soon reach out to your donors via email to show them how they can access these items through their online donor portal. We also would love your help in spreading the word about their paperless options for receipting. So that you can communicate with them, we want to show you what it looks like for a donor to access receipts and statements digitally.
When your donor logs into their account on Reliant.org, they can navigate to their "Giving History" or their "Statements" under the dropdown menu. By selecting "Giving History," they can see and click on the specific receipt they want to access, print, or email. And by selecting "Statements," they can access their End-of-Year Statements
We appreciate your help guiding your donors to even more ways to understand their giving!
We are in the process of a major transition internally at Reliant to a new, more scalable accounting and payroll system, Microsoft Dynamics. This is a large, critical project that the Finance team has been working diligently on for many months. We’re very excited about the possibilities ahead!
The new system will be the basis for many improvements next year to Toolbox and our other staff tools for years to come. In the next few months, there is the possibility of some operational disruptions and downtime as we make the final crossover from our old software to the new one in November and December. We’re working very carefully with excellent consultants to ensure it’s an accurate and timely conversion.
- Core accounting functions will launch on December 1st.
- The first payroll in the new system will be on December 15th.
- This conversion will not affect online giving, donor information, or the monthly processing of recurring gifts.
You may have many questions over the next few months. We will launch an update area here on Solomon by October 24th with an FAQ, more details about the timeline, expected downtime over the next few months, and our longer-term hopes and plans. Please pray for our team, this is a lot of extra work on top of already very full workloads. Lots more to come!
It's Fall launch time for Reliant's Women's Staff Development Mentorship Program!
As we continue to lean into discovering and providing ways to serve and connect women across Reliant, we will once again be launching Reliant's Women's Staff Development Mentorship Program sign-ups!
If you are a female Reliant staff member interested in being mentored or being a mentor, please fill out this Interest Survey by Sunday, October 23rd.
If you know of a female Reliant staff member who would be interested in being mentored or being a mentor, please let them know about this opportunity!
More Information
Before committing to this program as a mentor or mentee, please make sure that you have the support and approval of your Supervisor. This optional mentorship program will be between female Reliant staff members or associates. The mentorships will either be one-on-one or in groups that meet virtually. Participants should discuss with their Supervisors the time commitment required and whether participation will be during work hours or outside of them.
We anticipate these mentorships will meet together for at least a year but also know that some may last longer and others may be shorter, which is okay! Reliant is here to foster these opportunities, but it's essentially up to those involved in each individual mentorship how long it will last, what will be discussed, and how often they will meet.
If you have any questions, please contact hr@reliant.org.
Now that the Pumpkin Spice Lattes are flowing, it's the season for End of Year Asks (EOYA)! Whether you are new to support raising, or you have been doing it for years, EOYAs are for you!
Some of you might be asking: Why? I'm doing pretty well. Why should I spend time on an EOYA?
Did you know the EOYA appeals to a different type of donor than your standard monthly donor? It’s wise to offer various giving opportunities because you recognize there is no "one size fits all" appeal. A large ask, such as an EOYA, tends to resonate with your special gift donors and those with a higher capacity to give. This group may even include those who stopped giving or have never given before. This can make up a HUGE chunk of your MTD. Reliant Field Staff last year gathered $10,000, $25,000, and even $50,000 in their EOYA efforts! This is not a small potatoes thing if you do it correctly.
Action Step
The EOYA is broken up into 5 phases: Make a list, Reconnect, Ask, Remind, Thank. This month, it's time for phase 1:
Make a List of 20-30 you will personally ask.
- Seek the Lord for His wisdom on whom to contact
- Run a report of the last 3-5 years of giving data. Filter by: Gift Type/ Special, Last Gift/ Last 3 Years.
- The report will show special and recurring giving for each donor. To easily filter through, copy data into Excel or Google sheets and sort/ filter by special gift date.
- Look for those who give annually, irregularly, have lapsed in their giving, give only when asked, or have never given but have high capacity. Add these people to your list.
- Create a list of 20-30 you will personally ask to give at year end.
- Begin praying over the people on your list.
Total Time: 1-3 hours
Story from the Field
Last year's EOY Survey responses were GOLD. Thank you to those who filled it out. Here were some commonalities from those who raised the most at year-end:
- They updated their databases/ donor addresses.
- They sent a snail-mail letter + Email
Here are a few quotes:
- My ask was conservative for my need for next year, I should be braver and ask for what is most helpful. - S.B.
- Keep doing it. Partners learn to anticipate it (some give earlier than I ask since they know it’s coming). - E.W.
Deeper Dive
Ready to draft a plan? This Planning Form breaks down the EOYA planning into easy chunks. Give it a try!
Would you rather get a big-picture before planning out your individual steps? Check out the Game Plan. Sample timeline included!
We want to help! If you think you would benefit from a one-on-one consultation with one of our expert coaches or would be open to joining a group call where people share their ideas, doubts, fears, and successes, we want to provide that accountability and community to you! If this is something you'd be interested in, please reply to this email and we will reach out to find the best way we can help you in this journey.
We love you. We are here for you. We are so encouraged by your faith. May God bless you on this journey.
Thankful to be serving alongside you,
Your Reliant MTD Health Team
