‘There’s enough for all’
“Jesus had a lot to say about money, but the songs we sing in worship rarely do.” These words from the album description of Bryan Moyer Suderman’s 2007 album, My Money Talks, provide a snapshot into the goal of the album: to intentionally provide songs for churches that help them talk about money. The songs…
Substance over glitz
While public conversation swirled in July over the details of WE Charity’s speaker fees and all-expenses-paid trips for donors, my church was having a sermon series on Mennonite Central Committee’s 100 years of service in the name Christ. Over several weeks, church members who had volunteered with Mennonite Central Committee (MCC) in Canada and around…
Selling generosity
When I am asked what I do for a living, I often say, “I show people how much fun it is to give their money away.” That elicits a better conversation than if I tell them I manage a registered, charitable, donor-advised foundation. I love what I do. It’s a joy to work with donors…
Steady giving sustains churches through COVID-19
Among the multitude of concerns COVID-19 has caused, the novel coronavirus’s effect on congregational giving has been one of them. What do church finances look like when congregations close their doors and stop passing offering baskets through the aisles on Sunday mornings? It turns out that in many Mennonite congregations across Manitoba, they look just…
Fundraising and systemic injustice
Imagine a healthcare charity. Picture the CEO. I saw one on TV recently—it was a white man. Now picture the person who cleans the floors. Did you picture a racialized woman? What’s the difference in their wages? Now imagine fundraising for such a charity. Fundraisers want to make the world a better place, I’m convinced…
Watch: One couple’s generosity journey
“How do we learn about giving if we don’t talk about it?” Lori Guenther Reesor asks in our latest issue, which includes a special focus on money. “Listening to generous people share how they learned to give is a joy I recommend to everyone,” continues Guenther Reesor, who is a speaker, writer and consultant on…
Once Round the Barn: Cheap Edition
“Most of us harbour a degree of financial neurosis, tinged with religious uptightness,” Will Braun, Canadian Mennonite’s resident ranter, says at the start of his latest video. Follow our pigpen pundit once around the barn on his southern Manitoba farmyard as he explains what really gets his goat about Mennonites and money. Related stories: The…
Giving in the digital age
We are now living in a full-blown digital world. With just one click or voice command we can ask Google for a chicken recipe, order office supplies or give to our favourite charity online. The 2017 Canada Helps Giving Report states that, “while the number of Canadians making charitable donations seems to be on the…
Money and the Menno millennials
As a kid, I grew up with the ritual of walking to the front of my church and dropping a few coins in the donation box every Sunday. But as I was sitting in church several months ago, a hymn playing on the piano and the offering basket passing through my hands, I realized that…
Mixing friendship with fundraising
The Waterloo Region chapter of Women Empowering Women (WEW) meets quarterly to nurture connections and friendships, to be inspired and to raise funds that support women in developing economies. As an auxiliary group of Mennonite Economic Development Associates (MEDA), it supports MEDA’s international work of “helping women move into more valued and equitable roles in…
