Long Term Fundraisers: Thresholds

We are challenging each missionary to aim to complete their goal in six months.

We would encourage each missionary to aim for seeing 1/4 of their total goal raised every six weeks.  

Data indicates that each missionary should aim for approximately 60 partners. 

On average it is normal for a missionary's support team to be around 60 partners per missionary in the family unit. If both husband and wife are raising support it would be normal for their support team to be around 120 people.

It is uncommon for a missionary to not meet these minimum standards as follows, up to 12 weeks out of training. We wanted to let you know that we have put a system in place to help support and keep the missionary accountable in the midst of whatever their circumstances might be. Again the goal is to help the missionaries in their season of support raising through any potential roadblocks that may come up, seeing them to 100% of their goal.

Minimum Standards for the first six weeks. 

We have seen that there is typically significant progress made in the first six weeks when a missionary is healthy. This usually indicates that the missionary will likely reach their goal in the long haul.  Likewise, we have seen that lack of progress almost always indicates problems. We will watch for this. 

1. The minimum standard we hold for the first six weeks, is for each fund-raiser to see $600/month pledged in that time.
2. We will do a second check at 10-12 weeks for those that had fallen short of the minimum standard. $1000/month pledged in fund-raising is our minimum expectation for the second check (at ten weeks).
   

Action Steps for Missed Thresholds

If a missionary is not meeting the minimum standard at 6 weeks out from training

1. Reliant will send an email to the missionary, coach, supervisor, and vertical to assess the situation. The goal is to help the missionary get back on track.
2. Another check will be done at 10-12 weeks to see if the situation has improved and if support raising is exceeding the minimum standards.
3. If we don’t see progress that matches those minimum expectations at our next check, we will evaluate what steps are necessary for seeing change happen.

Short Term Fundraisers: Milestones

The main difference for short term (or fixed term) fundraisers is that they have a designated start date built into their program. Most will have somewhere between 3-6 months of time to raise the needed funds to allow them to do the ministry full time for 1-3 years (whatever their program dictates). One of our ways of helping to keep short term fundraisers on pace is by using milestones.

Every program is different and will have differing milestones but in general, we create 3 check in dates throughout the timeframe of support raising. Here are two examples of milestone:

Example #1

• Training Time: Early March
• Milestone 1: 30% by May 1st
• Milestone 2: 50% by June 1st
• Milestone 3: 80% by July 2st
• Start Date: August 1st (hopefully at 100%)

Example #2

• Training Time: Late January
• Milestone 1: 25% by April 1st
• Milestone 2: 60% by June 1st
• Milestone 3: 80% by August 1st
• Start date: September 1st (hopefully at 100%)

Action Steps for Missed Milestones

As we have mentioned, each program/internship is different, and as such will have different responses to milestones being missed. However, Reliant encourages a few steps to take place to help missionaries see milestones as real deadlines:

• Milestone 1 Missed
  • Leadership is informed
  • Suggested that leadership reach out personally with encouragement
  • Coach reset goals and work hard to make the second one
• Milestone 2 Missed
  • Since this is normally the halfway point, it's taken a bit more seriously
  • Leadership is informed
  • Suggestion: Reliant to write up a Standard of Performance (SOP) for the individual
    • Leadership presents the SOP to the missionary
    • Coach will hold the missionary accountable to the SOP timeframe (usually 3-4 weeks)
    • Once SOP is completed, it will be evaluated by Reliant staff and leadership, Decision about moving forward will be made.
• Milestone 3 Missed 
  • Leadership is informed
  • Suggestion: SOP (if one was not given for milestone 2)
  • Suggestion: Coach resets goals and makes an aggressive end push

The goal is to help missionaries move from 0-100% within the allotted time for fundraising. However, with the uniqueness of a start date already in place, not everyone will make it to 100% before their ministry assignment starts. Therefore, we recommend coaching starts from the end of training until 2 months after the start date of the program (or until 100% funded, whichever comes first).