Advancement Associates extends to the Henri Nouwen Society thanks for allowing us to print excerpts from Henri Nouwen’s thoughtful booklet The Spirituality of Fund-Raising. Visit www.HenriNouwen.org to order a free copy of The Spirituality of Fund-Raising.
Fund-raising is, first and foremost, a form of ministry. It is a way of announcing our vision and inviting other people into our mission. Vision and mission are so central to the life of God’s people that without vision we perish and without mission we lose our way.
Fund-raising is precisely the opposite of begging. We are not saying, Please, could you help us out because lately it’s been hard. Rather, We are inviting you to invest yourself through the resources that God has given you in this work to which God has called us.
Fund-raising is also always a call to conversion . Whether we are asking for money or giving money we are drawn together by God, who is about to do a new thing through our collaboration.
By giving people a spiritual vision, we want them to experience that they will in fact benefit by making their resources available to us.
[I]f fund-raising as ministry invites those with money to a new relationship with their wealth, it also calls us to be converted in relation to our needs.
When those with money and those who need money share a mission, we see a central sign of new life in the Spirit of Christ.